I'm a new mwmber of this newsgroup, and felt it was time to tell you
all about my brand of TM!!
In the fall of 1987, I had numbness in my hands & feet. After
several tests, the neurologist called this an episode of peripheral
neuropathy. He had no explanation for why it occurred. The numbness
disappeared by March, 1988.
In March if 1989, I contracted optic neuritis. A virus had
apparently attacked the optic nerve in my right eye, rendering my sight at about
20-30%. I had a bad flu 2 months prior. Again, there was no
determination as to why this occurred.
In early February of 1991, I woke up with numbness in my feet. I
think I had a flu in October/November. I had a gum infection in
December.. After extensive testing, the neurologist announced that I had Multiple
Sclerosis, based primarily on the results of a spinal tap. I was
definitely very tired throughout February, going into March. I was
put on prednisone for about 2 weeks, which seemed to help me
somewhat. Within 2 days of going off prednisone in early March, the
numbness came back along with muscle weakness in my right leg. My
condition worsened such that by the end of March I was in a
wheelchair. I was going into the hospital for cytoxin, an
anti-cancer drug, which is used in the worse cases of MS. The day
before I went in, I visited another neurologist who said he felt I
had TM, and not MS. He also wanted to try plasma pharesis, a
procedure whereby one's plasma is "cleansed". By the time I reached
the hospital the next day, I was paralyzed up to my chest, and had
lost all functionality below that level. Neither the plasma
pharesis nor the cytoxin did me any good, except that maybe it
stopped the TM from going any higher.
The MRI I had showed a definite inflammation of the spinal cord at
the T5-6 level. I have regained nothing, but consider myself
fortunate to "only" be paralyzed at the T5-6 level.