Canada
Marieke Dufresne
Montreal, Quebec

I would like to introduce myself to the TMA community.  In 2004, at the age of 28, I was actively participating in figure skating.  I was competing in Canada as well as in the United States in the adult division and working hard towards the upcoming Canadian Adult National Championships to be held in British Columbia.  When I wasn’t skating, I was working as a preschool teacher and figure skating coach.  All this came to an end on March 18th.

I had been at work the day before and had gone shopping afterwards for some last minute items I would need for my trip to BC the following weekend.  The previous ten days, I had been feeling very tired and stressed.  I figured that this was due to all of the extra practice time, the Provincial Competition I had just been to and the fact that I was still working and needed to make sure that my class was covered during my absence.  That day, the 17th, after shopping, I came home and felt drained and had some burning pain across my shoulder blades.  I dismissed it, thinking it was either from a fall I took in skating, or having had to pick up a student of mine a couple days before, or a combination of both.  As the night wore on, the pain increased.  The next morning, the 18th, I woke up in such bad pain that I wasn’t sure I should go to work. I thought to myself that if it was still bad at the end of the day, I’d go to the hospital.  I made it to work and that’s where my body made the decision as to what I would do.  My boss brought me to a clinic where, by the time a doctor saw me and examined me, I became paralyzed in my left leg. I was then brought to the ER of the local trauma hospital.

Over the course of the day, I had blood drawn, X-rays taken and an MRI of my brain and spine.  I became paralyzed from the chest down and lost the ability to urinate.  That night a neurologist came and told me that I most likely had TM.  Over the next few weeks, I was tested for a variety of other diseases/disorders, and all came back negative. I was treated with IV steroids, oral steroids and IVG.  I slowly regained the ability to move my right leg, and to be able to roll over and sit up.  I spent ten weeks in the hospital and was then moved to a rehabilitation hospital where I spent another eight weeks as an in-patient. I then spent another year and a half as an outpatient.  I went back to work as a preschool teacher almost six months to the day after I got TM.  I was in a wheelchair and glad to be back doing what I loved.

In the fall of 2005, I went back to school to become a nurse.  I made many friends while in the hospital with nurses, doctors, PT/OT; and they inspired me to go for it.  I have worked very hard in PT/OT to re-learn to walk using a cane and wearing a long leg brace on the left leg.  Despite being on various medications for neuropathic pain, spasticity and low blood pressure, I am now in my second year of nursing school and love it.  It has been something I had wanted to do for many years, but never had the courage to do.  After spending so many months in the hospital, I have decided that it’s now or never.  I am also an active member of the TMA message boards, and have recently become a moderator at the request of Jim Lubin.  I enjoy helping newly diagnosed members and invite all of you to come and join us, if you have questions, concerns, or just feel like reading what others are asking.

I will be working with Dan Kilborn to get a support group started in Canada.  We hope to get many of you involved in helping us develop this important network to provide information and support.   

Marieke Dufresne
82 Somerville Ave
Westmount, Quebec
H3Z 1J5
(514) 489-0471
mariekedufresne@sympatico.ca