Amandas Medical Jorney and being diagnosed with MS
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Amanda Tallman’s Story :: 2013-Present
My name is Amanda Tallman, I am looking to raise $1,900 to pay part of my medical bills and possibly the monthly cost of my trial and error medications, as I will not be able to work during my recovery. I currently owe $2,500 for last years medical bills, my surgery is $1,900 out of pocket and does NOT include the hospital stay, and my monthly MS medication is over $300 after insurance. I know there is a long jorney ahead of me but with the love and care of my family and friends I will get through this journey knowing I am not alone. Below is my story.
February 2013 – I had to have my first surgery on my right lower leg for exercise induced compartment syndrome. It took the doctors 6 months to even diagnose me with this. What causes compartment syndrome is unknown but what happens when you workout your muscles expand in your facial space. In my case when they expand they don’t have enough room, which causes pain, and eventually my foot would fall asleep, the surgery wasn’t successful which led to me having another surgery on my right leg in June of 2013. This surgery fixed my leg and allowed me to return to working out and trying to get myself back to a healthy state.
This lasted until the summer of 2014, which led me to a third surgery on my leg. This third surgery also involved releasing my peroneal nerve from the scar tissue as well as releasing my compartments. The recovery was slightly longer then my first two but went extremely well. I was able to return to my normal activities.
My leg was doing really good until September 2018 when it was run over by the Gator cart at work. I found out that I broke my nevicular bone in my right foot was put in a walking boot for three months. I was finally cleared of my boot in November however the pain in my leg and foot was not better.
Also, in November of 2018 I developed a massive headache on the left side of my head just above my eye. I went to my primary care doctor who prescribed me some medication that should have relieved my symptoms however the medication did not touch my headache. I ended up having to have a CT Scan, an MRI with contrast and without contrast. None of the scans showed anything major so they referred me to a Neurologist to hopefully get some relief. The first Neurologist I saw tried more medication. This however didn’t work. I was then referred to a Neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic who specializes in headaches. This was May of 2019. I saw this specialist for three months she wanted to do another MRI with contrast to see if anything had changed from my previous scan. Once the results were read she referred me to an Multiple Sclerosis (MS) specialist. This brought back to Fort Wayne Neurology to figure out what my scans actually showed. At this point I still had a daily headache and just wanted answers. This Neurologist wanted to do a spinal tap to test me for Multiple Sclerosis.
As I went to then my fourth neurologist I was still having sever leg pain. I finally decided to go back to my surgeon who had done my previous surgery. I met with him in June of 2019 to see what could be done with the pain in my leg and foot. They recommended trying a nerve block to see if my nerve would respond. If it responded that meant I could have surgery if it didn’t respond it meant that I could be permanently disabled in my leg. Luckily the nerve block worked. I elected to have surgery again. This surgery was supposed to be just like the last surgery go in release the nerve and the compartments.
In September 2019 I had my fourth surgery on my leg. When the surgeon got into my leg my nerve was beyond saving it had become so incased in scar tissue that he had to remove it. So I now do not have feeling in the outer most part of my foot and lower half outer of my leg. This surgery has been successful I no longer have pain in my lower leg.
Also in September I finally was approved for my spinal tap. So I had surgery on my leg on Tuesday and a spinal tap done on Thursday. I really thought that the spinal tap would be super easy in and out. However I developed a severe spinal headache on top of my daily headache. This laid me out for a week on the couch unable to do anything,
At the end of September, I had an appointment with my neurologist were he confirmed that I do have Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis is a autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks the protective sheath that covers the nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. There is no cure for MS. The neurologist sent me home that day with some reading material on drugs for MS. I also was scheduled to have Botox done on my head to see if it could help relief my headaches. As these have not been getting any better.
In October 2019 I started having blurry vision in my right eye. I went to my optometrist to see if my contacts were the cause or what was going on. He concluded that it wasn’t my contacts that it was my optic nerve. He told me to get a hold of my neurologist and let them know what is going on. I tried for four days to reach them however no answer. I ended up going to my primary care doctor who ended up diagnosing me with optic neuritis. Optic neuritis is the inflammation of the optic nerve.
There isn’t a cure that makes the inflammation go away however they use IV steroids to help calm the nerve. This required me to be hospitalized for three days to have an IV run every six hours. I ended up switching neurologists since mine never did return my call. This new neurologist wanted new scans done for both my headache and my MS. So in November I ended up have another MRI with contrast as well as a blood clot scan. All of these scans came back normal. I finally started my first MS drug six weeks ago however my body did not tolerate the drug and I am now currently in the process of switching to another drug. While doing the switching process I currently have developed shingles on my right-side. The best way to describe shingles is blisters that burn and itch.
Meanwhile the pain in my foot has only gotten worse since now I am actually starting to use my leg properly since it no longer hurts. I ended up seeing my surgeon, last week and with the broken bone in my foot it impinges into the joint of my ankle while squatting, jumping, or any high impact activities. I will be having surgery on March 6th. This puts me out of work for three weeks to recover.
My name is Amanda Tallman, I am looking to raise $1,900 to pay part of my medical bills and possibly the monthly cost of my trial and error medications, as I will not be able to work during my recovery. I currently owe $2,500 for last years medical bills, my surgery is $1,900 out of pocket and does NOT include the hospital stay, and my monthly MS medication is over $300 after insurance. I know there is a long jorney ahead of me but with the love and care of my family and friends I will get through this journey knowing I am not alone. Below is my story.
February 2013 – I had to have my first surgery on my right lower leg for exercise induced compartment syndrome. It took the doctors 6 months to even diagnose me with this. What causes compartment syndrome is unknown but what happens when you workout your muscles expand in your facial space. In my case when they expand they don’t have enough room, which causes pain, and eventually my foot would fall asleep, the surgery wasn’t successful which led to me having another surgery on my right leg in June of 2013. This surgery fixed my leg and allowed me to return to working out and trying to get myself back to a healthy state.
This lasted until the summer of 2014, which led me to a third surgery on my leg. This third surgery also involved releasing my peroneal nerve from the scar tissue as well as releasing my compartments. The recovery was slightly longer then my first two but went extremely well. I was able to return to my normal activities.
My leg was doing really good until September 2018 when it was run over by the Gator cart at work. I found out that I broke my nevicular bone in my right foot was put in a walking boot for three months. I was finally cleared of my boot in November however the pain in my leg and foot was not better.
Also, in November of 2018 I developed a massive headache on the left side of my head just above my eye. I went to my primary care doctor who prescribed me some medication that should have relieved my symptoms however the medication did not touch my headache. I ended up having to have a CT Scan, an MRI with contrast and without contrast. None of the scans showed anything major so they referred me to a Neurologist to hopefully get some relief. The first Neurologist I saw tried more medication. This however didn’t work. I was then referred to a Neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic who specializes in headaches. This was May of 2019. I saw this specialist for three months she wanted to do another MRI with contrast to see if anything had changed from my previous scan. Once the results were read she referred me to an Multiple Sclerosis (MS) specialist. This brought back to Fort Wayne Neurology to figure out what my scans actually showed. At this point I still had a daily headache and just wanted answers. This Neurologist wanted to do a spinal tap to test me for Multiple Sclerosis.
As I went to then my fourth neurologist I was still having sever leg pain. I finally decided to go back to my surgeon who had done my previous surgery. I met with him in June of 2019 to see what could be done with the pain in my leg and foot. They recommended trying a nerve block to see if my nerve would respond. If it responded that meant I could have surgery if it didn’t respond it meant that I could be permanently disabled in my leg. Luckily the nerve block worked. I elected to have surgery again. This surgery was supposed to be just like the last surgery go in release the nerve and the compartments.
In September 2019 I had my fourth surgery on my leg. When the surgeon got into my leg my nerve was beyond saving it had become so incased in scar tissue that he had to remove it. So I now do not have feeling in the outer most part of my foot and lower half outer of my leg. This surgery has been successful I no longer have pain in my lower leg.
Also in September I finally was approved for my spinal tap. So I had surgery on my leg on Tuesday and a spinal tap done on Thursday. I really thought that the spinal tap would be super easy in and out. However I developed a severe spinal headache on top of my daily headache. This laid me out for a week on the couch unable to do anything,
At the end of September, I had an appointment with my neurologist were he confirmed that I do have Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis is a autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks the protective sheath that covers the nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. There is no cure for MS. The neurologist sent me home that day with some reading material on drugs for MS. I also was scheduled to have Botox done on my head to see if it could help relief my headaches. As these have not been getting any better.
In October 2019 I started having blurry vision in my right eye. I went to my optometrist to see if my contacts were the cause or what was going on. He concluded that it wasn’t my contacts that it was my optic nerve. He told me to get a hold of my neurologist and let them know what is going on. I tried for four days to reach them however no answer. I ended up going to my primary care doctor who ended up diagnosing me with optic neuritis. Optic neuritis is the inflammation of the optic nerve.
There isn’t a cure that makes the inflammation go away however they use IV steroids to help calm the nerve. This required me to be hospitalized for three days to have an IV run every six hours. I ended up switching neurologists since mine never did return my call. This new neurologist wanted new scans done for both my headache and my MS. So in November I ended up have another MRI with contrast as well as a blood clot scan. All of these scans came back normal. I finally started my first MS drug six weeks ago however my body did not tolerate the drug and I am now currently in the process of switching to another drug. While doing the switching process I currently have developed shingles on my right-side. The best way to describe shingles is blisters that burn and itch.
Meanwhile the pain in my foot has only gotten worse since now I am actually starting to use my leg properly since it no longer hurts. I ended up seeing my surgeon, last week and with the broken bone in my foot it impinges into the joint of my ankle while squatting, jumping, or any high impact activities. I will be having surgery on March 6th. This puts me out of work for three weeks to recover.
Organizer and beneficiary
Abby Branning
Organizer
Fort Wayne, IN
Amanda Tallman
Beneficiary