Karen was a Zipper Head

Karen was diagnosed with a “only a 3 mm” herniation. The official definition is 5mm to have Chiari. This diagnoses is what sent her down the path of CSF Leaks due to pseudo Chiari from low cerebral spinal fluid.

Karen ultimately took her own life to stop the pain. She will be gone three years on August 7th. Karen's Journal is now required reading at Duke School of Medicine to educate future Neurologists and other doctors about the reality of Chronic Pain and CSF Leaks.

“Karen's first-hand account of her illness gave an honest, heart-wrenching depiction of what it is like to live with debilitating pain day-to-day.” – Cover Story from the local news paper. http://www.kpaddock.org with more details here: http://www.kpaddock.com/book

While Karen never had Chiari surgery she did have surgery on her neck to remove dried blood pressing on nerves. So she was a Zipper Head. The doctor considered the surgery a complete success due to the removal of the dried blood. Karen considered the surgery a complete failure because it did not diminished her neck and head pain in any way.

In the photos below one from before her car accident and being poisoned by the antibiotic Levaquin, the other a few weeks from before her suicide and the last picture ever taken of her.

Look closely in this video, you see that she is wearing a TENS unit on the back of her neck.:

From Karen's Journal:

Saturday, June 29, 2013 at 2:20pm EDT * I 'pretend' that I am not hurting, when I am with others. It's hard. *

~~DISCUSSION~~