Regina mother seeks help to treat rare spinal disease [Video]

Mary Grace Rico has spent the past seven years seeking medical help for what began as chronic pain.

She struggled to find a physician who would give her a diagnosis as opposed to a prescription for pain medication.

“My thinking was, oh, I’ll get, you know, that treatment because, without the proper diagnosis, you know, you would they’ll just give me pain reliever after pain medication….I need a treatment. Not only pain medication like you just give me pain medication. After pain medication, it’s drugs. It’s not helping me at all.” Rico said.

The now 46-year-old often found herself having to advocate for more thorough assessments.

After struggling to receive a diagnosis in Canada, Rico and her husband sought a second opinion out of the country, first with an American doctor and then in the Philippines.

When she finally received the diagnosis of a rare spinal condition: tethered spinal chord …