Re: New subscriber

JHarper33(AT)aol.com
Mon, 31 Mar 1997 18:24:20 -0500 (EST)

Nicole,
Thanks for your note -- sorry to be so long to respond! I was also
checked out for lupus. When I was first in the hospital and they were running
multitudes of tests to try to find out what was going on, I was told my ANA
antibodies were up, which is an indicator of lupus. But they weren't up
enough to say that's what I had. So I was told to have them checked again in
a few months. It turned out to be several months later, but I eventually was
sent to a rheumatologist who examined me and did more lab work
(interestingly, his daughter also had TM). I was told then I didn't have
lupus. I had read about it in the meantime and do have some symptoms of it,
so, I don't know... in a book I read about it, the author said sometimes
lupus was misdiagnosed as a number of other diseases, and one of the ones
listed was MS. I assume since TM has similarities to MS, that could be true
of TM. All that to say that I guess they all have some similar symptoms.
(Lest I cause any confursion for anyone reading this: No, I'm not suggesting
anybody on the list has been misdiagnosed -- I'm just commenting on
similarity of symptoms.)

Anyway -- glad your tests came out okay!!

You commented on not having children yet -- did your neurologist comment
on the possibility of having children? I asked my neurologist about that
because my husband and I had been discussing it prior to TM. He said there
wouldn't be a problem as far as conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term,
but there might be a problem with balance as weight is gained, since my
balance is sometimes "off" and my walking is awkward.

Barbara
In a message dated 97-03-27 10:50:54 EST, you write:

> Barbara,
>
> On my last visit with my neurologist (about two weeks ago), he was a
little
> concerned about my muscle aching and my hands and wrists being a little
> swollen and still rather weak. He did both a CPK and Rheumatoid Factor
> analysis of my blood. Everything, thank you God, came back normal. After
> the results were normal he told me he was checking for Lupus. I am glad
> someone was watching over me because I sure don't need any other disorder.
> I am desperately trying to cope with the fact that I am only 26 and have
> not had children yet, etc. I do thank God daily for having the wonderful
> support from my loving husband, my family, his family, friends and this
> group too. Sorry, that I don't get to add as much to this group as I
would
> like, but my only e-mail use is at work (I work in the Marketing dept of a
> computer software company) which gives me little time to put my two cents
> in on the tmic list. But, every free moment I have, I think about all of
> us with TM and hope that everyone is doing OK! Have a good weekend
(Easter
> too)!
>
> Nicole
>
> At 11:49 PM 3/26/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >In a message dated 97-03-26 15:07:15 EST, Nicole wrote:
> >
> >> Linda,
> >>
> >> The blood pressure cuff is the description I have used for the
beginning
> >as
> >> well. It has perfectly described the feeling around my upper right
arm!!
>
> >> It is so interesting to here all of the different ways of describing
the
> >> symptoms we all seem to be having at times. I have always had a
> difficult
> >> time explaining symptoms to my doctor but some of the phrases and
terms
> >> used here have helped me tremendously!!
> >>
> >> It is great to have others who understand what is going on.
> >>
> >> Nicole
> >
> >Nicole and Linda,
> >
> >That blood-pressure-cuff feeling describes exactly what my left arm feels
> >like sometimes. With that feeling, and some swelling still in my fingers,

> and
> >my left hand being a noticeably different color (pinker) than my right, I
> >have wondered if circulation was affected.
> >
> >Barbara
> >