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lynnifer · 01-14-2004, 11:05 AM

T-12 para due to Transverse Myelitis at age 12 - July 29 '85

Been having back pains all summer that would come and go. Local small town doctor said it was growing pains which seemed reasonable enough. Had a terrible one on a Monday morning which felt like lightening striking my spinal cord. Felt a pins and needle feeling coarsing throughout my legs. Tried to stand to kink it out, fell to the floor like a raggedy ann doll. When I hit, I felt a line of numbness come from my feet upwards on my body. It stopped at my waist.

I was swimming in a pond all that summer surrounded by crops - all with pesticide runoff. A landfill was 7kms upstream. I was also taking Prednisone in oral form for a bad reaction to corn detassling two weeks earlier. Prednisone lowers the immune system, or so the doctors said after. I have not been told, but believe I caught whatever virus caused this from that pond. There is no official cause for TM, nor a cure. It left me a complete paraplegic in a manual chair. I was rehabed at Parkwood Hospital in London, Ontario back in 1985.

I'm now 31. There has not been one year in that time where I have been free of complications. In-grown toenails within the first year. Burns the second year. Pressure sore on rump by age 15. Pressure sores on my heels at 17 - still have it on the left. I don't believe there will be cure to restore me personally to normal walking in my lifetime, but I think there will be an improvement for me as far as sensation.

I hope I can kick again at some point in my life.

I keep a mental top ten list of those in my life who need it.

01-14-2004, 11:05 AM
lynnifer Moderator Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Windsor ON Canada Posts: 9,101	T-12 para due to Transverse Myelitis at age 12 - July 29 '85 Been having back pains all summer that would come and go. Local small town doctor said it was growing pains which seemed reasonable enough. Had a terrible one on a Monday morning which felt like lightening striking my spinal cord. Felt a pins and needle feeling coarsing throughout my legs. Tried to stand to kink it out, fell to the floor like a raggedy ann doll. When I hit, I felt a line of numbness come from my feet upwards on my body. It stopped at my waist. I was swimming in a pond all that summer surrounded by crops - all with pesticide runoff. A landfill was 7kms upstream. I was also taking Prednisone in oral form for a bad reaction to corn detassling two weeks earlier. Prednisone lowers the immune system, or so the doctors said after. I have not been told, but believe I caught whatever virus caused this from that pond. There is no official cause for TM, nor a cure. It left me a complete paraplegic in a manual chair. I was rehabed at Parkwood Hospital in London, Ontario back in 1985. I'm now 31. There has not been one year in that time where I have been free of complications. In-grown toenails within the first year. Burns the second year. Pressure sore on rump by age 15. Pressure sores on my heels at 17 - still have it on the left. I don't believe there will be cure to restore me personally to normal walking in my lifetime, but I think there will be an improvement for me as far as sensation. I hope I can kick again at some point in my life. I keep a mental top ten list of those in my life who need it.