Peripheral Neuropathy Continued: Right Leg

One week ago around this time I got released from prison. It feels like a few months ago. It's one experience I will never forget. It still pains me to my very soul what has been done to me during those two days. Its horrors have changed me for life.

What it has changed as well is my short- and medium-term outlook. Yesterday I mentioned that I have confirmed peripheral neuropathy in both arms. This morning my right foot suddenly began to turn numb and has now spread to my entire lower leg and knee. My ability to walk unassisted has been almost completely impaired now. Muscle response is alright, but I can not coordinate my movements, as I can not feel enough to compensate, making it likely that I'll fall if I try to walk.

While I was imprisoned last week I was limping due to my right knee hurting a lot. Last Saturday I noticed huge bruising on the back of the right knee in addition to the bruising on the knee itself, as shown on the picture I took. Apparently the nerves in my right knee suffered traumatic injury as well. Only left leg seems to have escaped unscathed. So far.

The numbness and pain in my hands keeps getting worse as well. Today I started on painkillers (ibuprofen), but it's not enough to make the discomfort and pain go away. Last week's nightmare hasn't ended yet. It's still continuing, constantly reminding me that my situation is most likely hopeless, that there is no way out of it, and that there will be no medical specialist or surgeon there to help me. That's all a lie. The only way is down, towards certain doom.

Or so it seems. There's a possibility that this one surgeon will accept my case, but that's over a week ago now and I haven't heard anything yet. Most likely he has rejected the case already, like everyone has. There's also a possibility that the Minister of Health will interfere in my case, or that questions will be asked thanks to my contacts in Dutch politics. But neither is very likely. There are more important issues to deal with in this country, even if they do not improve the situation for common citizens.

Because I'm not the only person in this country who is suffering because of the failings of the medical or healthcare system. I'm not the only one whose situation has worsened significantly due to the strict adherence to protocols. Pretty much every month there's a new story in the news about failings in the healthcare of this country. One never hears about politics interfering in this, however. I'd be shocked if they did now.

It'd be nice, though.

Yesterday I talked with an American Medicinal Chemist/Biochemist who is interested in my case, and whose wife (a molecular biologist) did her BA thesis on intersexual issues. One thing he commented on was the claim from the UMCG hospital here that after testing 2 tissues for mosaicism, it was concluded that the possibility of mosaicism was less than 1% (99% exclusion). The truth lies with simple High School statistics: 50 and 50 is only 75% exclusion. To reach 99%, you'd need to test a lot of samples, the exact number of which can be calculated using continuous probability distributions [1].

It's not the first time that physicians in this country have lied to me. I doubt it's the last.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability_theory#Continuous_probability_distributions


Maya