Need some advice

Norman Van Huff (vanhuff(AT)quiknet.com)
Sun, 08 Feb 1998 16:56:54 -0800

In November, I was diagnosed "with the symptoms of Transverse Myelitis".
These were numbness in the feet and an extremely touchy band around my
chest. An MRI showed that I had a "spot" in the spinal column about the
7th vertebrae. My neurologist started me on cortesone.
At that time I went on the Internet to try to understand this problem.
The stories and comments on this illness seemed to deal with quite
severe cases and obviously concerned me. My concern waned somewhat as I
went through the Cortesone(sp) treatment and the symptoms especially
around the chest seemed to stop and the numbness actually receded some.
But since I've stopped the medication, the numbness in the lower part of
my body has continued to creep up and actually gotten gradually worse at
my feet. Now the numbness is at the belt line. I gather I'm fortunate
because I still have good strength in my legs and feet. My neurologist
seems to have a wait and see approach. Maybe that is what has to be
done, but it doesn't seem to be aggressive enough to me.

Any advice?

Thank You
Norman Van Huff