Natalie, welcome to a very "elite" group. A group that no-one really wants to be a part of!! But TM it is and we all have different stories, meds, aches, pains, problems to share, so do not hesitate. I was just wondering the extent of the damage? Are you in a wheelchair, walker, cane? I had to cath for a few months but then I was able to get more control. Tho now I've just seen a new neurologist who is going to try to fix my leakage problem. He said today there are some new advances even using Botox. Well if that happens I want him to use it on my face also. :-) Having turned 60 this year I could use a great deal of botox.. My TM hit in 2002 and I use a walker to get around. Have problems with pain and still trying new drugs to help that situation! Again, welcome to the group we come in all ages, sizes, denominations and political ideologies. Tho religion and politics are not discussed. :-) There are no dumb or "embarrassing" questions! After what most of us have been thru "modesty" is no longer one of our hang-ups!
Sincerely, Trudy from Virginia (where we are still reeling from the Virginia Tech atrocity) _____ From: natalie mizenko [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 3:59 PM To: Transverse Myellitis Subject: [TMIC] My Story Candis asked for my story so here goes.... Around the 2nd wk. of Dec. 06 I was walking back to bed from the restroom and collapsed in the floor. I stood up only to find I could walk on one leg only. On Dec. 13th my husband took me to Little Rock, Arkansas, to a hospital there where my back dr. had privileges. He had some tests given and told me "Natalie it is not a surgery case this time -- something else is happening". He was going on vacation the next week, so I had to go to a rehab center - which was awful. The dr. was sooo mean and they kept trying to make me walk and I couldn't. My doc. returned back and put me back into the hospital. I had my spinal cord stimulator removed and that night had an MRI. Soon, he told me I had TM. He said I will give you some steriods and try and reverse it. He gave me some (don't know how much) and asked me the next day do you feel any more, like below T12? Which is the area of my injury. I said no. This was repeated the next day. I was then asked "which rehab center did I want to go to?" . The one I wanted to, was too full, so once again I went to a small one. Not much better than the other one. I decided within the first week of attending there, I wanted to get to a bigger place and be exposed to more than I was already seeing what was around me. I told my family Baylor in Dallas. So I went there for 6 wks. of rehab. About one mth. ago I returned home, having been gone a total of 3 mths. since TM had hit me. I was cathing before this happened, but standing up which I found was the easiest way to for me. I once again taught myself to cath at Baylor while sitting in bed, but after my last hospital stay having had a foley in me for a couple days; my bladder has gone crazy. I'm to see my urologist in L.R. next week, but I have a malignant tumor (MRI in TX) picked it up on my kidney and I bet he will focus on that instead. It's not a big tumor now. I'm more upset about all this urine everywhere after I cath!!!! Oh well....and so it goes....Natalie _____ Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check out new <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=48245/*http:/autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html;_ylc= X3oDMTE1YW1jcXJ2BF9TAzk3MTA3MDc2BHNlYwNtYWlsdGFncwRzbGsDbmV3LWNhcnM-> cars at Yahoo! Autos.
