------=_NextPart_000_0012_01BDC631.CD9C1F60
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
I am writing this most unusual, sad story after reading the story about =
Ron. I have written in for advice on my husband's bed sore, but I have =
never actually shared his story. By the way, thank-you everyone who =
wrote in with suggestions. They were very interesting. Right now they =
are using a special vacuum machine on him, which seems to be helping.
Now that I got side-tracked, back to my story. In January my 38-year old =
husband experienced a grand mal seizure. The next day he was diagnosed =
as having a brain tumor. Two weeks later the tumor was removed. We found =
out five weeks later that it was cancer. He started chemo at the end of =
March for the cancer. Due to unclear instructions and enough chemo pills =
for two years put into a bottle to dispense by a certain pharmacy that =
will go un-named (he only needed two pills), he inadvertently overdosed. =
He took 12 pills. He wound up at U.C.L.A. where he underwent many blood =
transfusions. They also were giving him injections to boost different =
cells in the body, including white blood cells. They gave him =
antibiotics and anti-fungals to ward off any infections as he was =
vulnerable. He actually made it through everything and didn't even need =
a bone marrow transplant. The day before May 2nd, 1998 he noticed that =
he had difficulty urinating. even though he had the urge. He woke up in =
a panic around 2:30 a.m. and tried to get up to go to the bathroom. He =
hadn't been up in several days. He collasped to the floor. The next day =
his whole body, especially the upper body felt as if it were on fire. =
No-one could even touch him. Fairly quickly, after some tests they =
figured that he had TM, at T-4. He has no feeling from the chest down.
He made it through the chemo ordeal, then was sent down to acute rehab =
and put on steroids. They took him off the steroids and about two weeks =
later he had a recurrence of the TM. He started to lose his sight and =
feeling in his arms. It was very scary! He was put on steroids again and =
now he is on a steroid taper. He has tried many things, but leg spasms =
bother him alot, mostly during the day and at times at night. He =
transferred to a hospital closer to home as his condition stablized and =
he has made great progress in his rehab. He can transfer into and out of =
a wheelchair almost by himself! He has had his ups and downs,but =
considering what he has been through, his attitude has been very brave =
and admirable. We don't know what the future holds, but he sure is a =
fighting spirit. One thing that may be encouraging is that he has been =
getting anti-clot injections for at least a couple of months now in his =
abdomen or his leg because he can't feel them. The other day he felt the =
injection in his left abdomen and said "ouch!" He also has had fevers =
for the last few weeks. The physiatrist thinks it may be a reaction to =
taking tegretol for several months, but they are doing some other tests =
to see if they can find the cause of the fevers. Needless to say, this =
is a complicated, long story. I wish all of you good luck.
Nancy=20
------=_NextPart_000_0012_01BDC631.CD9C1F60
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">