Re: Fwd: Transverse myelitis
Jo Ellen Finkelstein (ghellen(AT)ninenet.com)
Fri, 28 Aug 1998 23:09:57 -0500
JHarper33(AT)aol.com wrote:
>
> PLEASE SEND REPLIES TO THE ADDRESS SS14U2(AT)AOL.COM
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Transverse myelitis
> Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 00:11:36 EDT
> From: SS14U2(AT)aol.com
> To: JHarper33(AT)aol.com
>
> My sister's husband has contracted this recently, about 1 mo ago He is 48
> and was in exc health prior to his symptoms which came on just like
> lightning.. one day he was fine, the next he had tingling hands and lack of
> feeling, then no feeling and paralysis. He has been through every test
> imagineable but now his temp has soared to 102 and they are afraid of
> pneumonia. His ins wanted to have him moved out of the rehab hospital he is
> in, to home health care, but luckily they gave him a 7 day reprieve. I was
> wondering, have other people experienced bs fro the ins cos over this
> diagnosis and is this what could be known as a "mask" disease.. I mean do it's
> symptoms mask other diseases? I understand the immune system has a role in
> this and they had to give him steroids to shut his i.s. down and as a result,
> he now has diabetes. Is this normal? I mean do everyone go through this much?
> I was reading some of the postings and some of these people have had it for 17
> years!!! We thought he would be released and home working by November!!!
> Thanks for any imput. We are scared. SS14U2(AT)aol.comHi my name is Joellen and I have had TM since Oct 6,1996. I went from
walking to not being able to move from the waist down in about an hours
time. I am still in a wheelchair but I have gone from walking with
assistance back and forth several times. I still hope that I will be
able to walk again sometime in the future. I am hoping to convice my
insurance co. that water therapy would be good for me. If I get to the
point that I can stand and do transfers easily without a board then I
can get rid of my catheter (thus dispensing with the frequent uti's) and
also rid myself of an embarassing necessity. The steroids can be good
for preventing and sometimes reversing the effects of TM and like any
medicine have their drawbacks (never met a medication yet that didn't
have their side effects). I am not able to return to my former career,
(nursing) but I am looking for something which I can do from home, my
problem is if I take a job where I earn more than 500.00 a month I lose
my disability payments which is what I live on now. Before TM I lost my
husband to cancer and the illness and living for the last few months on
savings sapped my savings to nothing. When the TM hit I ended up
spending 6 month in the hospital which really did me in further. I'm
still paying off Dr bills from that time in my life.
Joellen