-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Wolfthal <kwolfthal(AT)snet.net>
To: tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com <tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 4:22 PM
Subject: re: risk factors
>hi Barb,
>
>The idea of sorting out risk factors interests me...
>
>You mentioned:
>
>1. Worked 50+ hrs. per week with overtime.
>2. High stress job 3-11 as an OR tech in a Level-1 Trauma center.
>(I have a high stress job...only photographer for a university,
>w/constant deadlines for past 18 years, not to mention chronic back back
>problems from carrying camera equipment BEFORE onset of TM)
>
>3. At high risk for exposure to blood and body fluids, and all the
>viruses and
>bacteria that might be present. (They did do an infectious disease
>profile
>that showed I didn't have any of those diseases, but I still had the
>exposure
>to the organisms, and my immune system might have reacted to it.)
>(I had mononucleosis around 1987, shortly before onset of TM, actually
>have wondered many times if there was a relationship to the mono virus)
>
>4.Overweight, diabetes type2, high blood pressure, not enough exercise,
>Type-A
>personality.
>(All of the above)
>
>5. Shingles in 1988.
>(have had chronic skin problems, mainly dermatitis, for many years)
>
>6. Exposure to X-rays during orthopedic and vascular surgeries.
>(work related hazard in my case would be exposure to photographic
>chemicals, w/inevitable ingestion, (no I don't drink developer, but it
>gets on the skin, and breathing in the fumes)
>
>I also had a bad reaction to some kind of insect bite..(I think it was,
>though I never saw the insect)..at a friends pool. Within a few hours,
>my left foot, and lower leg, blew up to twice it's size...interestingly,
>that is the same place the symptoms of my TM started...numbness and
>extreme pain in the left foot and leg...but the incident was many years
>before the onset of TM).
>
>Again, my neurologist said he didn't know what caused my TM, but it was
>"...probably a virus that attacked the spinal nerves...and left" I
>believe that others here have hear similar things...
>
>Kevin
>
>
>