My turn!

I must say that I would have rather done about anything than have a doctor's appointment today, but it was time for my six month neurological check up...at least it was in Tullahoma. It took forty-five minutes from leaving home to driving back into the driveway. My kind of appointment!

Since several have asked how I was doing and others have no idea what my ailment is, I will take most of today's blog space to let you know about "me." Six years ago on April 20th (Easter night) I was struck with Transverse Myelitis. This is an uncommon (but not considered rare) neurological disease. It affects one to five people out of every million.

Transverse myelitis is a condition resulting from inflammation of your spinal cord. The word "myelitis" refers to inflammation of the insulating material that covers nerve cell fibers (myelin), and "transverse" means the inflammation occurs across the width of your spinal cord. If myelin is damaged, communications relayed between your spine and the rest of your body may be disrupted.

Signs and symptoms of transverse myelitis usually develop rapidly over a period of hours. Less commonly, signs and symptoms progress over several days or even weeks.

Typical signs and symptoms include:

Pain: Pain associated with transverse myelitis often begins suddenly in your neck or back, depending on the part of your spinal cord that is affected. Sharp, shooting sensations may also radiate down your legs or arms or around your abdomen.

Abnormal sensations: Some people with transverse myelitis report sensations of numbness, tingling, coldness or burning below the affected area of the spinal cord. You might notice that you're especially sensitive to the light touch of clothing or to extreme heat or cold. You may feel as though the skin of your chest, abdomen or legs is being wrapped by something tight. Weakness in your arms or legs. Some people with mild weakness in your arms or legs notice that they're stumbling, dragging one foot or that their legs feel heavy as they move. Others may develop severe paralysis.

Yes, yes, and more yeses to a lot of the above description (all that are in bold I experienced). It was a very scary night and for several months after. By God's grace I was one who had most of the symptoms reverse themselves...it started with my right arm going numb...eventually travelled up my arm and across my body and down to the toes on my left foot. And it reversed itself by going away in my left foot first...and to date the numbness and tingling in my right arm/hand has never gone away. I guess the scariest part was that feeling of my lower rib cage area being tightly wrapped--almost felt paralyzed there.

I had not felt well the week prior to this (perhaps a virus?) Perhaps that is the cause perhaps not! The afternoon/evening prior to this all happening I had a really bad headache and bad back pain. Then I was awakened with my arm going numb, muscle spasms, difficulty walking, and on and on--and the symptoms continued to pile on for about 24-48 hours.

The neurologist that I was referred to at the time couldn't be sure if it was MS or Transverse Myelitis (TM). The final diagnosis came from an MRI--MS shows in the brain and TM doesn't. But suffice it to say when you get all the symptoms of MS in about 48 hours it is scary!

I was pretty sick for the first 6 months to a year--but some symptoms did start reversing themselves pretty quickly. I only dragged my foot for a week or so. The band around my middle stayed around for a while. A strange occurrence was that my body was like a human tuning fork for many, many months--really several years--just getting a little less over time. If someone would come up and lightly touch my arm--it would send vibrations all through my body just like a tuning fork, if I would put my elbow down on a table just the least bit hard--the same thing--very, very strange feeling! Another really scary feeling was when I would bend my neck down to look at something on the floor--I would feel like I had had an electrical shock--needless to say I tried to keep looking straight ahead as much as possible. The night that TM "hit" me I had these really unusual muscle spasms...you could actually see the muscles in my thighs rippling. For a long time, really till just recently, if I would walk rapidly anywhere--like around the block or from the parking lot to a store--when I stopped my whole body would feel like it was vibrating.

Many, many who have TM are totally paralyzed so that is why I say that by God's grace I am the way I am today--almost totally back to "normal." The TM will never totally go away, since it is a spinal cord injury--perhaps caused by a virus or it could be an auto-immune problem--doctors/researchers aren't really sure. Today my right arm and hand stay numb/tingling all the time. I still have trouble with extreme temps. My body acts like a barometer when the weather is changing (not joint pain from arthritis (have that too!)--but total aches in all parts of my body--don't know exactly how to describe it but sometimes it is bad enough that I just have to give in and flop down on my bed and wish for the weather to change quickly! I often know when the weather is bad in Arkansas and heading our way! I feel best when visiting in AZ--where the barometric pressure stays pretty much the same. Season changes are not good for me.

It is a strange, strange disease--but it always reminds me that God made us and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made--and when I am having trouble--that is when I understand the fearfully!

I am so thankful that my TM reversed itself enough that I have been able to take care of Woody at this time. He has taken such good care of me for so many years--especially these last years with TM. A memory of my early TM days (which I had forgotten) came flooding back when Woody had his first rigors...I had had them several times in the early months of my TM...mine would start with the feeling of ice water running through my veins--not too pleasant. So I was able to REALLY empathize with Woody every time he had rigors!

So...that is "My Story!"

Now for an update on Woody. He continues to get stronger and stronger. I think that he came home from work less tired (sleepy!) today than yesterday. He said that he had a lot to do today at work so that made the day go by faster for him. I'm sure that it is good for him to be getting back into a normal routine. Still VERY itchy.