Re: Causes of TM
JHarper33(AT)aol.com
Wed, 13 Jan 1999 16:19:35 EST
When I was first diagnosed, I was very concerned about the cause of
TM....wanted to know where in the world this thing came from that hit me out
of the blue, plus, thought that if a cause were known, prevention could be
worked on. I was told from the first day, before an official TM diagnosis,
that it was thought whatever was wrong with me was viral, but, was told, "Our
technologies on viruses aren't very good." The other neurologists didn't seem
concerned with cause at all, but, of course, by the time they see a patient,
they are concerned with treatment -- it is too late to think about cause. Plus
investigating cause would probably fall to researchers.
I had been thinking if there was a particular virus that caused TM, then maybe
a vaccine could be developed. But I was just thinking this morning that that
probably wouldn't happen anyway, as TM affects a small percentage of the
population, and all vaccines seem to carry risks of their own.
It may not be that there is a particular virus that causes TM -- since it is
often a post-viral thing, it may be that whatever virus caused the initial
infection (or whatever virus happened to be floating around those who did not
have any kind of infection previous to TM) just happened somehow to get to the
spinal cord.
I guess it's back to the drawing board.....
Just thinking out loud,
Barbara H.