Thank you to everyone who responded to my initial email. It is wonderful to know that I am not in this alone. I guess misery likes company ;)
Let me tell you a little about how we came to find out that my husband has TM. At the beginning of August my husband was getting constipated which is something that NEVER happens he is like clockwork each morning. After playing with this for about 1 week taking laxatives, etc. he began to get a numbing feeling in his lower left abdomen. This scared him so he made an appointment with our regular family doctor. Our doctor sent him for a cat scan of the digestive system and it was negative. Then he sent him for a colonoscopy on August 25th. On the morning of the colonoscopy he couldn't get out of bed because his left leg was totally numb. I had a walker in the garage from a previous broken ankle so I went and got him the walker and I took him to get the colonoscopy. This frightened me so while I was waiting for him to come out of recovery I called our family doctor and told him about the total numb left leg and he said to bring him into the office the following day. The family doctor said he wanted him to go for an MRI of the lower lumbar so the following Monday (August 30th). While we were waiting for that Monday to roll around the numbing got worse and he lost all use of the leg he described as dead and he was also antsy..he couldn't sit still or lay down..he seemed very agitated. During the early hours of August 30th he fell in the bedroom trying to use the urinal while holding onto the walker. I couldn't get him off the floor nor could he help me because of the dead leg so I called 911. He was taken to our local hospital's emergency ward and they cat scanned his head looking for a stroke but the cat scan was negative showing no signs of stroke. He was discharged at 8AM on August 30th and I took him directly to the MRI he was scheduled for that day. The MRI showed some stenosis in the lower lumbar region but not enough to cause this kind of numbness so our family doctor got us an emergency appointment with a neurosurgeon on Tuesday August 31st. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia right from the doctor's office and additional MRIs of the thoracic spine were taken and then another one with contrast and it was in these MRIs where they could see abnormalities (lesions). He was then turned over to a team on neurologists and more tests (cat scans, blood tests, MRIs, and spinal taps) were taken. He was also tested for every known viral and/or immune disease known to mankind to include Lupus, Lyme, Herpes, HIV, Hepatitis, just to name a few. On September 3rd he was diagnosed with Idiopathic TM and that evening he was given 1000 mg of prednisone. He had 5 of these treatments and then released to an Acute Rehabilitation Hospital which is where he is right now and has been since September 9th. He is currently being weaned orally off of the steroids. He is showing progress but it is slow. He does now have the ability to lift his left leg but it is still totally numb and he must look down to see where his foot his before taking a step with the walker and assistance from the PT staff. He has no pain and the antsiness seems to have disappeared. I am now in the process of getting our toilets in our home changed to the higher off the ground toilets with grab bars installed on either side of the toilet and grab bars installed inside the shower. I am also getting the glass shower doors to our walk in shower taken down and I will replace them with a heavy duty shower curtain. Luckily we live in a one story home on a concrete slab and there are no steps that he will have to deal with. That's my story...and I am sticking to it..LOL I am sure it is similar to many others in this group. I don't like how I found all of you but I must say that I am glad you are right here at my keyboard and over the next few months I am sure I will have lots of questions. Thank you so much for being here even though it isn't in the best of circumstances of meeting people. Love to all of my new TM family..God bless all of you, Emily Meyers Columbus, New Jersey
