I just finished re-reading the flurry of recent postings. Most of the
suggestions were great and
absolutely correct. I don't know who said TM can be fatal but they are
out to lunch unless
the swelling occurred at C1-4 (like Jim Lubin's) and then a respirator
would be a must.
Continuous administration of steroids is a bunch of crap. Ask the MD
what they doing for you??
I was told that they were administrated at the onset to get the swelling
down. The sooner they are
given, hopefully there is less swelling thus less damage to the cord.
Once the Acute phase has passed I don't know what one would be taking
them for. The newspapers are full of articles on athletes and
their problems from long term use of steroids. By the by, they gave me
ACTH (I think that is
adrenocorticotropic hormone). by IV once a day for five days. My neuro
thought, after the fact,
that the ACTH had done its job. I continued to improve for about 18
months but still had most of residuals. Bowel and bladder limitations
(when I have to go, I must go.) I'm still taking Baclofin for my
spasticity. My biggest problem continues to be what has been called a
central pain syndrome.
My infamous band at T4. I've found that Percocet works best for me.
Others here have taken
Gabapentin. I also take Zoloft. I've been trying a number of drugs to
help me go to sleep quicker.
I'm scheduled to take part in a drug study using Dilaudid in a caplet
form of slow release. I'll let
you know when I begin.
Viruses can and may well be the source of TM. I just finished reviewing
a couple of chapters in
"Handbook of Multiple Sclerosis" edited by Stuart Cook. (1996). It's
extremely technical a bunch
of words I did not know. They seem to have ruled out rubella vaccine as
the source, but they are
still not sure. As I said, there is some relationship between smallpox
vaccine and MS.
I was going to try reflexology but with no feet now it out of the
question. I have a friend who is a
DO. They believe that MS is caused by an ameba that is in the spinal
fluid and it attacks the myelin which results in the symptoms seen.
They administer "gold" by IV which kills the ameba. She has had
patients who went to from a wheel chair to bowling in six months. I
started the process but I kept
blowing veins and after three days of trying and a ton of sticks (ouch)
I gave up so I don't know if it
would help TM
Enough rambling. I hope I was able to add a little to this dialogue.
I'll try to answer questions when I
can.
Roger