RE: Clarify a misunderstanding.
Nora Blalock (NBlalock(AT)elpc.org)
Tue, 10 Mar 1998 10:47:05 -0600
This may be too late for the survey - I was on vacation last week.
I had a severe case of the chicken pox when I was a child (in the 50s).
My mother said it was so severe they thought I had scarlet fever. As an
adult I learned that the pox virus had settled in my spine. My first
outbreak of shingles occurred in 1978 - on my right buttock. It would
reappear whenever I was nervous or stressed out. In the early stages it
occurred maybe once a year. In the 80s it didn't occur every year.
Late 80s - increased stress - increased shingles. In 1983 I got optic
neuritis in right eye (apparently from shingles). In November and
December, 1996 and 1st 2 weeks in Jan. 1997 had continuous shingles.
Zovirax, the medicine that stops outbreaks of shingles, was too
expensive so I had to depend on my body to fight the virus. I was
highly emotionally distressed at the time and that, I know for a fact,
kept my immune system weak. The shingles obviously won the battle
because on January 31, 1997 I was struck with TM. Doctors diagnosed me
with "transverse myelitis secondary to herpes zoster". While I was in
the hospital the doctors said the "chicken pox" virus was present in my
system - in the spinal tap or detected from some other test they took.
Doctors put me on intravenous acyclovir and then 800mg of Zovirax 3
times a day. I have to take the pills for life. They say that if I
have another outbreak of shingles, it could cause the TM to flare up
again. Maybe next time from the neck down. So, I have to live the
quiet life. I take my pills 3x day, meditate 1/2 hour each day (a.m.
and p.m.) and midday. Meditation over 1/2 hour releases chemicals in
the body that counteract negative stress. So far, it is working good.
I have had much stress - especially when first released from the
hospital - learning to live in a wheelchair, etc. - going out in public
alone in wheelchair - being stuck on curbs and other places - very
stressful. Walking on crutches - stressful. Etc., etc. But the pills
and the meditatiton have stopped the shingles. I know the virus will
never die and will always be in my body but I imagine them locked up in
a prison with no way to escape!!!
Nora in Chicago
> -----Original Message-----
> From: JHarper33 [SMTP:JHarper33(AT)aol.com]
> Sent: Monday, March 09, 1998 10:55 PM
> To: jones(AT)tdl.com RCookHook(AT)aol.com
> Cc: Photo505(AT)aol.com tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com
> Subject: Re: Clarify a misunderstanding.
>
> In a message dated 98-03-09 17:52:29 EST, jones(AT)tdl.com writes:
>
> > And as to questions: Has anyone one here {TM} ever not been
> inoculated
> > or contracted {exposed} to Chicken Pox or the German Measles?
> >
> > Thank you; Davej
> >
>
> Do you mean before TM or since or either? I had chicken pox in early
> adolescence, maybe 25 years pre-TM. I had a measles-mumps-rubella
> inoculation
> after my first child was born because the blood work during pregnancy
> showed I
> was not immune to measles, even though I'm told I had them as a child.
> That
> was about 10 yrs. pre-TM. I had no problems with the shot.
>
> My step-father was exposed to chicken pox as a 40 year old, and the
> chicken
> pox virus settled in his eye, and his retina detatched and he lost
> most of the
> sight in that eye. That was the first I had ever heard of viruses
> going odd
> places.
>
> Barbara