Transverse Myelitis
Gerard Dixon (geedee(AT)c031.aone.net.au)
Mon, 19 Aug 1996 20:03:16 +1000
Hello Jim,
I was given your email address by a friend in Chicago. We found each
other on the net and have been corressponding for about 6 months now.
I do not have any disabilities as such, other than the usual problems a
50 year old has to put with :-).
However, I do have a very dear friend who became very ill just prior to
Christmas last year and was eventually diagnosed with Transverse
Myelitis. She is still in a rehab hospital here in Melbourne, Australia.
She is undergoing physiotherapy and working extremely hard to get as
well as she can. She is technically a paraplegic although she does have
the use of both her arms. She can only slightly move her feet and has
been tought to get into and out of bed unassisted. She is desparate to
walk again and if determination counts for anything, she'll run but it
is a long, long way off.
She is not on the net so I search the web every now and again to see
what's new. Most of the cases I've seen involve people who have made
quick recoveries and are walking fairly quickly. I must say "recovery"
may be too strong a word as there seem to be lasting effects of some
sort. Most of them seem bewildered by what happened to them and are
searching, not for solutions so much, but expalanations for this strange
and horrible disease.
Loved your home page. All the connections would take forever to browse
and "I'll be back"