I got electrocuted today:

[Redstone]

Those nerve conduction tests where they stick needles in you and see how well your nerves conduct electrical signals, that is.

Mystery: Almost all of the sensory and motor nerves in my lower legs and feet are shot to shit, some completely unresponsive. That would be unsurprising if I had diabetes, but I don't.

Remaining suspects: 1) MS; 2) Lyme disease; 3) A lower-back nerve injury from my days of DTTWRFS (Which stands for Doing Things That Were Really Fucking Stupid).

I'll know more in a few weeks. But I've been feeling good enough that I had a cane-less day today. AND got more work done!

Redstone

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Redstone!

All right!

Before the mystery gets cleared up, you have to undergo this stuff to get the data needed!

I'm so glad you had a cane-less day, and that you were able to get more work done!

Way to go!

:woohoo:

[graywarrior]

2. OMG, I think I have injuries due to DTTWRFS!

Mostly mental injuries evident by LOOKING AT ME! Bwahahahahahahahaha.


Hang in there, Redstone.

[KitchenWitch]

5. me too.

[graywarrior]

6. We're a new club!!!!

:bounce:

[KitchenWitch]

7. I think it pretty much comes witht he territory of belonging to the "other " club!

:7

[graywarrior]

8. You got that right.

[Redstone]

10. Mental injuries from DTTWRFS? I got four concussions that show how THAT happens.

Hope to see you guys this summer...

Redstone

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Take care *hugs* None of those options are good. My oldest son has Lyme and I worry

all them time about it giving him problems down the road. :(

[Redstone]

13. You know, it took a woman here in Connecticut TEN YEARS to convince the people

at Yale Hospital that there even WAS such a thing as Lyme disease. It's a fucking EPIDEMIC around here, that there are STILL doctors who don't believe it exists, no matter how many lives it has ruined!

The problem is that it's so sneaky; it can manifest as recurrent flu-like symptoms, arthritis, and a host of other symptom clusters that seem to indicate some other disease. But I can tell you from experience that, if not properly (which is to say aggressively) treated, it can leave holes in your brain (I've seen mine from the MRI scan).

Your son's ONLY option, trust me on this, is to make whatever effort it takes to find a doctor who understands Lyme (very few do), watch tha son of a bitch of a disease like a hawk (the blood tests are not 100% accurate yet), and be as aggressive as necessary with the antibiotic treatments, and damn the consequences. Lyme can fuck up your life SO bad that building up a bit of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a damn small price to pay.

My best wishes for good fortune for yor son.

Redstone

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. All they did for him this far was 3 weeks of antibiotics last year. I check in with him often about

aches and pains and so forth, but since he is a growing boy sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on.

I wish they could stay on top of this with blood tests. Measure the disease somehow. But apparently they told me all that would happen is he would test positive all of his life. No way to measure the extent of the disease. x(

[Redstone]

21. Mrs R worked in the biotech business for some years, and one of the hardest

projects they had was trying to develop an accurate Lyme screening test.

And it really seems that nobody has been able to do that yet. They can see the damage markers on the brain MRIs, but can't identify it before the damage is done.

Just keep nagging his doctors. There is progress being made, but it's slow. Lyme is a goddamn clever disease.

Redstone

[Redstone]

14. Inadvertant double post.

Redstone

[mopinko]

4. ooooooo. i hate that test. i had it last year

cuz i had 2 discs in my neck explode. mostly all fixed, but still have some lingering junk. i could nail that down by getting the test again, but i think i'll just get used to a buzz in my finger.

hope you get an answer. days of miracle and wonder. hope there is a fix out there for you.

[Redstone]

18. Ah, it wasn't a big deal. The doctor told me that he wished he had more patients

like me who could go through the process without flinching or complaining...I explained to him that when you've lived with as much pain as I have for so long, what's another 28 needles stuck into your muscles? Not much worse that a stubbed toe.

Redstne

[trof]

9. How old are you? Similar ailment.

My left calf muscle has atrophied.
Eventually it concerned me and I consulted a neurologist.
Did the same test you did.
No nerve impulse to that muscle.

Doc said this was very old trauma.
Ever broken that leg as a kid?
No, never.
Back injury, car wreck?
No.

"Did you ever have polio?"
"Not that I know of. I remember public pools being closed when I was a kid because of a polio outbreak."
(I was born in 1941 and grew up before the Salk vaccine.)
"You might have had a mild case. Symptoms may have been just flu-like or like a bad cold."

So we figure that's it.
Are you around the same age as me?

[Redstone]

11. I'm 55. Don't know how THAT happened, but it did. The polio shots were in full

full swing when I was a kid (in those BIG goddam needles with the metal housings), so that can't be a factor.

But I injured myself in so many ways and in so many parts of my body when I was young (I've broken almost everything from my hip down on my right side, and almost everything from my fingers up on my left side) that the various impact injuries have left my spine looking kind of like a sleeve of crushed Ritz crackers, so who knows what's going on with the various nerve plexuses in there.

Most likely it's the MS or the Lyme, both of which I knew about, but the MS has been fairly steady recurring / remitting. I'm thinking more of the Lyme (which originated just across the river from where I live), because it's such a sneaky son of a bitch of a disease...it can mimic almost anything, from flu to arthritis, and I've already been diagnosed with it six years ago. If the antibiotics I took then weren't strong enough (and the holes in my brain indicate that they were not), then we're going to have to jump ugly on the spirochetes even to be able to maintain the status quo.

But what the hell, it ain't cancer or heart disease, so it ain't the end of the world. At least I still have good days (which a lot of people don't), so I'm not about to complain.

Redstone

[Bertha Venation]

12. Hey, Redstone

Yay, caneless!

:hug:

[Redstone]

16. Yeah, I was just hoping that people weren't looing at me and thinking "Look at that

tall guy shambling across the CVS parking lot, Christ, he must be drunk in the middle of the day."

Not that I care a whole lot what people think, it's only if they SAY anything that there's going to be an arrest involved eventually...

PS: Good change back on the screen name. I've always liked "Bertha Venation" much better than "Bertha Katzenengel." (Though I speak German, so I know the sentiment behind "Katzenengel."

Redstone

[ThomCat]

15. I HATE getting that test.

:(

I'm thinking about you and wishing you well. :hug:

I have the peripheral pain but none of the nerve blockage, so I always test normal and they have no clue why I am in pain. There is no apparent cause. They still have to electrocute me every six months to check. :(

[Redstone]

17. That's the bitch of it, isn't it? The problems are REAL, the pain is REAL, and nobody can

figure out where it's coming from.

People like you and me (and you MUCH more than me) are not just being lazy and looking for an excuse to not be able to work. I'd like nothing more than to be able to put ten or eleven hours a day in the office like I used to be able to do (because I very much enjoy the work that I do)...but the human body is a complicated mechanism, and although modern medical science is a miracle compared to 50 years ago, there's so much the doctors STILL just don't know.

But I guess that's OK; you and I would have ended up in some rathouse of an excuse for a long-term care for a hospital (or dead) fifty years ago, with our problems.

So let's count our blessings, meager though they may seem to be during the bad days.

Redstone

[ThomCat]

19. That's very true.

I often consider that not too long ago I'd be in an institution by now, or else quietly eased off into a long sleep.

Modern medicine doesn't live up to its hype yet, but it's definitely better than where it used to be.

[Warpy]

22. You survived the hard part

Nobody ever warns patients how painful that EMG is.

MS is diagnosed by a combination of tests, including a spinal tap, not as bad as it sounds. I've had one. Lyme is diagnosed by a blood test. The lower back injury will probably be ruled in or out by an MRI.

Getting older aint for sissies.

[Redstone]

24. No big deal for me. The doctor told me he wished that all of hs patients were

able to go through the process so calmly.

I told him "Hey, with all the pain I've lived with for all these years, this isn't even as bad as a stubbed toe."

Which is true.

Also, years ago (for whatever reason) I taught myself to NEVER flinch from pain such as needles, etc. That always amazes the hell out of doctors.

Redstone

[merh]

23. OMG - I've had years of DTTWRFS

and I don't know how to stop, it's just me -- I'm doomed. :(


I'm glad you have had good days, been sending out good vibes and sending up prayers.

:hug: <<<<< gentle hug

:loveya:

[Redstone]

25. Hey, I'd still be doing it myself if I didn't have Mrs R to stop me. Dammit, she won't

even let me jump out of a perfectly good airplane anymore...I have to stay inside it until it lands.

What a party-pooper, eh?

How's that wonderful house working out for you? What a nice place...though it's a shame you had to suffer so much to get there.

Redstone

[sammythecat]

26. Good luck and godspeed with your diagnosis

so you know what you're fighting. It has to be frustrating trying to deal with these ninja ailments.

I really like DTTWRFS. The acronym, not the action. It should be in the medical lexicon. A tad cumbersome, but it covers so much.

[BikeWriter]

27. Hey, Pard. It's good to see you back!

[snooper2]

28. Um, actually you got shocked...

had you been electrocuted you would be dead thus not posting messages on the Internets :)

[Redstone]

29. What, you don't think we zombies can type?

Redstone