Colloid Cysts, Physical and Personal Impacts on Patient and Spouse :: Medical Medicine Papers

Colloid Cysts, Physical and Personal Impacts on Patient and Spouse Introduction: The patient is a 45 year old male who was in a car accident that involved alcohol on July 29, 2004. I have known the patient for three years and will be referring to aspects of the patient that I know to be true, but am unable to cite all details due to learning them via the dynamics of the relationship. The patient and the patients’ spouse have requested complete anonymity for the purpose of this paper. The car accident resulted in a series of injuries for the patient which were a fractured pelvis, a lacerated bladder, internal organ bruising, a moderate concussion, and sciatic nerve palsy (nerve damage). The moderate concussion was determined by a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan which also showed the colloid cyst. The patient believes he was made aware of the cyst; however his memories are not absolute and the spouse was not made aware at the same time. The cyst was mentioned (again) at the end of September and the brain surgery happened on February 13, 2005, six and a half months later. This series of interviews has occurred during the two months after the surgery. (Patient, Patient Spouse, personal communication, April, 27, 2005) Symptoms: The patient was suffering from intense dizzy spells for a year prior to the car accident. The patient is a licensed chiropractor and as he put it, â€Å"Doctors make the worst patients†, so he rationalized the dizziness and never expressed a need or desire to medically investigate it. The patient had not been experiencing the most common symptom, a headache. (Patient, Patient Spouse, personal communication, April 28, 2005) In the literature about colloid cysts there is a high prevalence of symptomatic headaches in the patients, often it is the headaches the patients are trying to resolve when the colloid cyst is discovered. (www.healthcentral.com/encyclopedia) The car accident fractured the patient’s pelvis so the treating physicians rebuilt his pelvis and began physical therapy before they scheduled the colloid cyst surgery. It was at this time the patients spouse learned about the cyst; it had been two months since its discovery. After becoming aware of the cyst, the patient presented with mild headaches. (Patient Spouse, personal communication, April 28, 2005) Surgery: The surgery occurred six and a half months after the CAT scan.