How It Began
What do you do when your MRI confirms the bulging disks in your neck are causing the pain and weakness down your arm? Seek medical attention of course, but how do you proceed when the costs and timeline are debilitating, maybe more so than the current pain? Christ has circled the globe twice since this pain started, attempting to continue his physically strenuous job as an engineer on some of the biggest ships in the world, traveling long hours on all forms of transportation. Hesitant to dive into the despair of the US medical system, he sought help, advice, and resources throughout the world; receiving an MRI in Spain and contacting numerous surgeons in the US, Australia, Europe, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere. The despair of waiting to be seen was compounded by the $750 fee just for the consultation that wasn’t available for over a month, and the almost $100k total bill he could face, not including the ever-present hidden fees. What else could be done? There was no way this martialist, formerly-pro climber was going to let this injury take his function, livelihood, and passions. Knowing his body well enough to know this injury wasn’t going to let him just walk it off, the search began…
Before even arriving back on US soil after the MRI confirmed the need for surgery, Christ had found the best of the best and a medical tourism program who would facilitate the entire process. Not one hour after he landed back in Atlanta, my phone rang and we were off to the races. Only one snafu, my passport was just about to hit the 6 months until expiration date. Within a day, we had flights to Mumbai, I had a flight to Atlanta for a day-of Passport appointment, and our liaison had started booking surgical appointments.
The hurry up and wait provided me the time to return from a work trip, get my passport and then Visa, and make arrangements to move all work obligations scheduled in March; but it also prolonged his suffering.
Imagine holding your entire body weight off of two fingers, 60ft in the air, and now flinching from taking a pan off of the stove; electric shock from breathing the wrong way; a ringing in your ears that won’t turn off; hallucinations from a lack of sleep. Nerve pain cannot be compared to anything else he, or I, have ever experienced. It can make you crazy, and yet, he laughs and nurtures and continues to vibrate at an elevated level.
