RECOVERING FROM EMEGENCY PROCEDURE TO CONTROL TWO SUBDURAL HEMATOMAS

This will cost Mayor John Cowen and City Attorney Will Treviño

Some history: I have a brain shunt to drain cerebral fluid from the ventricle. It was placed 7 years ago last April.

This is the second time it has failed.  My regular readers will remember I had to go to San Antonio last December for an adjustment to the internal valve.  It is not a big deal.  They use a form of ultrasound.

In December the valve sua sponte changed from 70, to 40.  This means the ventricle started to empty, which can cause a stroke.  My care was delayed because adult probation in Cameron County refused to change the date of an appointment. I am still working on getting that suit done.

This time for months problems got worse and worse until the point I could not function.  If you are not protected, judges have zero empathy for sick parties.  While in court with judge Terrell, he saw me dehydrating and told the lawyers to find water for me.  It is chronic.  It is so bad, on Wednesday and then Thursday it took 4 nurses to draw blood using an ultrasound to locate a vein.  Even then it was very difficult. 

The symptoms reached a critical level, and I went to Valley Regional ER.  The ER doctor gets an A+.  He may have saved my life by insisting I get to my brain surgeon in San Antonio. There were a variety of factors to include a CT scan showing two subdural hematoma.  There was also evidence of ischemic activity.  

This is where the problem develops. It is called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.  Key "Normal Pressure."  I was diagnosed in 1984.  At the time the DFW area had only 3 MRI's.  I had what today would be called a TIA.  The two neurosurgeons assigned to me could not agree on what they saw in the CT Scan.  I was sent for an MRI which did not show much more.  I eventually saw the head of neurosurgery at the VA Dallas, and he said there were so few MRI pictures of the brain it was best to just monitor it.

It does not manifest itself as pressure in any normal sense.  This is why doctors dismiss the finding.  The condition is so rare, few doctors have any experience with it.  The ER doctor in Brownsville saw I had the three W's.  It is a way of diagnosing NPH.  But then the CT scan showed the hematomas.  The mere presence of hematoma is enough for emergency care.

Even when I got to San Antonio, the ER doctor did not want to verify the CT finding of hematoma.  The on-call brain surgeon ordered the CT and found the hematomas.  

Another problem is, radiologists are not trained to read the lateral head scan which shows the value.  I can teach anyone in under a minute.  The radiologist does not even know they are to compare the official setting to the setting seen in the x-ray.  Again, this is so rare, I am willing to bet most ER doctors never see NPH or a failure in the valve. After the lateral head shot was done in Brownsville, they allowed me to see it.  The tech got it right the very first time.  It was picture perfect.  But I was the only one able to read it.  It showed a setting of 60, when it should have been at 90.  This meant again the valve was draining too much cerebral fluid, shrinking the ventricle.

THIS FINDING EXPLAINED THE SUBDURAL HEMATOMA

The ventricle this time shrunk so much that it pulled aware from the skull.  This in turn caused the two subdural hematomas.  With there being evidence of some ischemia, I could have gone into a full-fledged stroke.  

THE TREATMENT WAS NOT COMPLEX

The treatment meant putting pressure on both subdural hematoma.  The surgeon changed the value setting from 60 to 150.  This means in about two weeks the ventricle will fill enough to allow it to put pressure on the hematomas.  The increased pressure will do two things.  It will prevent the hematoma's from getting bigger, and then through compression drain them. If they were larger, they would drain them through the skull.

This 150 setting is so intense I am to expect intense headaches.  But this is the best way to drain the hematomas through intense pressure.  In three weeks if the CT scan shows improvement, then they will reduce the pressure setting from 150, to maybe 130. 

MY REALITY

Not because of any individual reason related to Brownsville, there is no healthcare related to my situation which is available in Brownsville.  There are so few of us, I can imagine ER doctors going their entire career and never treating anyone with NPH, or post-surgical issues. 

Once you have a shunt, you have to have access to your surgeon.  My surgeon relies on local care to inform them of a problem.  This is not working.  I know I need to be in San Antonio, or Long Island.  As to the latter I am holding on two rental properties on Long Island so I can be close to a brain surgeon at the VA. A two-bedroom one bath duplex is $2750 a month.  I can afford the rent.  Once I am done with this lawsuit, I am gone.  Believe or not a mortgage on a house my size is about $6500 a month. One home because of its location on the North Shore of LI, has a mortgage of $12,000.  It is the same size as my home. 

SO, THE SCUMBAG JUDGE IN THE CITY CASE

He is very mad that I have doctor appointments.  In anticipation of yesterday's hearing, I cancelled two appointments.  They were important but not more important than appearing in court.  I am more than willing to reschedule appointments.  In fact, the one which only addresses how I am doing on a medicine which helps with my hypothalamic dysfunction, the nurse called me and asked the same questions the doctor would ask.  I am doing great on the medication.  So, I was rescheduled to November.

A side note, the NPH caused the damage to the hypothalamus.  40 plus years of doctors not knowing what to do resulted in significant damage to my hypothalamus. 

The VA based on my symptoms recommended I go to the ER.  The VA has no ER treatment.  Even if your doctor refers you for a CT scan, if it is an emergency you are sent to the hospital.  

So, I went to Valley Regional.  The ER doctor is the best (tied) ER doctor I have seen in Brownsville in nearly 21 years.  He took the cautious side and may have saved my life.  By all accounts when there are two subdural hematomas are visible in a CT Scan, you need emergency care from your brain surgeon.

I filed the medical records to include the CT Scan and referral for emergency care to San Antonio.  I asked for a continuance.  You do not play games with subdural hematomas.

The judge through his actions actually denied the request for a continuance, and without notice and opportunity to respond just started in anger to rule on motions.

The order is so bizarre he states I complained he had not ruled on the city's plea to the jurisdiction. he then granted the city's plea to the jurisdiction.  I have a mandamus and a federal TRO pending on judge Mark Woerner refusing to rule on my Plea to the Jurisdiction.

He then went on to deny the existence of the order he signed barring zoom hearings.  It called my claims to be fictitious. 

JOHN COWEN AND WILL TREVINO ARE PRICKS

I am as confident as the day is long, the Texas Supreme Court will void Judge Woerner's order which in effect denied a continuance based on a medical emergency.  The emergency was justified based on the emergency treatment I received.  I have the record.

Also based on everything I have learned the state will sanction Omar Ochoa for claiming code enforcement is discretionary.   Heather Scott counsel for the city has sealed Omar Ochoa's fate.

We are talking about the city enforcing the code, the same code against Texas Lone Star which the state of Texas sanctioned to the tune of $11,250.00.  This is all the city had to agree to avoid what has to be at this point well over $50,000 in attorney's fees. 

Compliance with the code is not discretionary. but John Cowen is a vindictive prick and will damage the reputation of Brownsville to avoid having to enforce the code.   If it were discretionary the state could not have sanctioned Texas Lone Star to the tune of $11,250.00.