ELICIA'S PAGE

hi, my name is elicia. i just turned thirty-five in april.in 1987, i was bitten by a misquito; which almost killed me. i had gotten menengitis from the bite; which got worse and developed to menengil encephilitis.due to the trauma, i became completely blind and paralized from the waist down. i spent some time in the hospital, even spent my sophmore year of high school at home; but was fortunate enough to get most of my sight back and my paralysis disapeared. in 1992; i developed some complications. i began to have periods of complete blindness and incredibly severe headaches. we dicovered that i had extremely high inner cranial pressure. i was placed with a shunt, which seemed to help; though i continued to have occasional headaches. in 1997, i had gotten pregnant. i ran a fever over 103 the entire time, had severe cramping and bleeding; along with other problems. i had to have a d & c. after this, i decided i did not want to go through anything like this again, so, i had a tubal ligation. unfortunately, my doctor felt it would be a learning experience, for the students to see my shunt. the doc had pulled the tubing out of the abdomen, through one of the laproscopic holes. he was unaware that my neurosurgeon had left metal connectors in , to help hold it in place, since my first one had slipped down. well, the connectors were pulled through my bowel, bladder and spleen. i was left with an open abdomenal wound that was 22" long. when it healed, i needed hernia repair. mesh was placed. infection caused the abdomen to reopen, and ate up part of the mesh. the infection is antibiotic resistant; so, i have had at least twenty open wounds varying from small to exttremely large; countless hospital stays and forty-two surgeries; plus we are still struggling with my hernia, which is incredibly large.

   anyway, i had to get tenncare, since i am uninsurable. they cut everyone's medicines that they'll cover , down to five. i was on sixteen at the time. i now buy five of the cheaper ones, and tenncare pays for five of the expensive ones; the rest have been cut out. i am on s.s.i.; so once i pay all my bills and get my meds i am left with practically nothing. so, i have been unable to afford a dentist. plus, for the past three years, i have been going to a pain center. one of the pills is too large for me to swallow. so, i have been chewing them up; and just found out it eats up your teeth. i kept trying to figure out why i had so many teeth needing work; when my teeth have done so well in the past. plus, for four years, i drank nothing but bottled water and tea. so, i lost fluoride without thinking about it, and i ws no longer getting calcium from milk.

  so, please; if you know anyone in the knoxville area who could work out a payment plan for really small payments, or if anyone has any ideas; i would really appreciate your help and suggestions.thanks!!!!!!!!