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Today was a great day for my wife

OhioTC18

OhioTC18

Gone But Not Forgotten
She drove her SUV for the first time in 8 months. Let me go back those 8 months and try to explain.

In January she started feeling a little tingling and sometimes numbness in her feet. Then it progressed to total numbness in her feet and legs. Especially when she put on shoes and socks. Then her hands started doing the same thing. On Feb 9th she called me in a panic, she could not feel the pedals in her truck at all. To brake she had to look down and see the pedals to find them. She made an emergency appointment with her Doc an hour later and her boss was nice enough to take her there. That was her last day for driving.

Doc is a Physical Medicine specialist so he ordered an EMG. Showed her nerves were not functioning properly. He referred her to her General Physician for a complete physical and blood work. Nothing abnormal there. He referred her to a Neurologist at a respected local hospital. After numerous appointments and multiple blood tests, everything came back normal, even another EMG. So we have conflicting EMG's. Then 4 separate MRI's, all normal. Medication was prescribed to help deal with the tingling. It helped some so they increased it three different times. The last increase made her physically ill. So she went back one step. Diagnosis was suspected as Peripheral Neuropathy, no cause no cure That Neurologist referred us to a Neurologist at Ohio State University Hospital.

I'm going to continue this in another post. Don't know how long a post I can make within forum settings..............So see part 2
 
Please do continue in another post. The forum has a 100,000 character limit for posts. Just post and reply to it as another post in the same thread.
 
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Congrats Jerry and Phyl. Knowing she drove today sounds like some good news is coming. I so happy for both of you. :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
Please do continue Ohio. Sounds like you two have had a rough road lately. give her kisses for luck from us down south will you?
 
OSU Neurologist orders another EMG as we have conflicting ones already. Showed the large nerve fibers were not reacting normally. More blood work ordered, all come back normal.

Keep in mind she has not driven at all and I have been working part time to get her to work and the doc appts and back.

The Neurologist finally refers her to a driving rehab specialist to equip her truck with hand controls and she flips out. There will be driving training and a re-test for her to get her license back if we go through with this. Plus the expense of about $3000.

All this time she has scoured the internet for answers. She found a few things along the line that she requested they test for but all came back normal. Then she found a reference to anti-depressant withdrawl. It's called SSRI discontinuation. It causes tingling, numbness and loss of balance. She had quit taking one a year ago that was for her female issues. She asked her Doc to prescribe it again to see if it would help. Besides it may be useful for her anxiety in dealing with all this. She started taking it it 4 weeks ago and things have gotten better one day at a time.

Today, after several good days, she asked if she could drive the rest of the way home. We pulled into a store parking lot and she drove around it a few times. Then she pulled out on the road. She was driving again !!!!!

This has been a huge strain on us. She had to cut back her hours at work. I've had to work part time (supplemented with earned gubbmit vacation time). I did the errands and the grocery shopping. Sometimes fending for myself for dinner if she felt too bad.

But today she drove her truck. She is so excited.
 
Good for her, glad she has found the problem and is getting better. Still give her the kisses for luck.
 
That is awesome news Jerry. Congrats. I know it's been a trying 8 months.
 
We really hope she will continue to get better and we can continue to get back to a regular lifestyle that we were used to. I'm not going to turn her loose in the truck until I know she can do it without harming herself or someone else.

We've just about wiped out our savings trying to pay for tests that the insurance won't pay for because they are being repeated over and over again. But we're getting by.

Hopefully soon we can tell the specialists to shove it, we're done with them.
 
wow,great news:clap:it always amazes me how a small pill could cause or react in the human body positively or negatively.just glad to see she helped figured it out cuz it sounds like the doctors were stumped,i hope the continued use of the drug does not have any long term side affects:flowers:
 
Thanks Doc, you were the only one I told at the beginning. Yes it's been hell for her. I adapt and do what's needed.

Thanks Bill and Lobo
 
Glad things are looking better Jerry. Medical issues can be emotionally and financially draining on families.

I hope it gets better sooner! :thumb:
 
Some of today's drugs have crazy withdrawal symptoms. I hope she does good with it and maybe she can phase it out slowly with a lower dosage. I had hellish pains that no painkillers would touch from quitting Plavix too fast. Titrated off it over a month long period to finally drop it. Glad she is feeling better and on the way back.:clap:
 
It's times like this that show who the real men are ,when they live out their vows of "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health." You're a good man, TC. Hope all returns to normal real soon for both of you.
 
JEV said:
It's times like this that show who the real men are ,when they live out their vows of "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health." You're a good man, TC. Hope all returns to normal real soon for both of you.
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Hey, so far she has stuck with me for 3 heart attacks and a multiple bypass. "Driving Miss Daisey" won't kill me.
 
I am so glad to hear this. I find it interesting that your wife and quite a few others are now finding their own cures on the net.

BTW - You are a good person.
 
Congrats to your wife Jerry....sounds like many months of stress.

I have been thinking and yes i am no Doctor...certified idiot maybe...but here's my thoughts...

i started thinking on a flip side......the antidepressants you mentioned your wife was on before all this happened could they have been covering up a condition that was developing???and only showed it's self when your wife stopped using them???i only say this as after a little research i see some articles that mention your wife's symptoms and the treatment is antidepressants and was in no way the cause.

this is what i read and got me thinking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_neuropathy

so with me thinking all this...i ask you will your Doctor continue to look for answers or is he happy with the continued use of medication that is being prescribed at present???
 
OhioTC18 said:
We really hope she will continue to get better and we can continue to get back to a regular lifestyle that we were used to. I'm not going to turn her loose in the truck until I know she can do it without harming herself or someone else.

We've just about wiped out our savings trying to pay for tests that the insurance won't pay for because they are being repeated over and over again. But we're getting by.

Hopefully soon we can tell the specialists to shove it, we're done with them.
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Thats a lot to have been going through TC , I'm glad its starting to look better for you both. Thoughts and prayers for continued sucsess. :flowers:
 
Galvi, so far the Docs have said this wouldn't help, but something sure has.

What I laid out above was just a condensed version. The weekly appointments, the never ending tests. She dreaded the EMGs as they are painful sometimes. MRIs are no fun either as she is claustrophobic. We finally found an open MRI on the last one. I'm just glad she isn't sitting around here crying trying to find answers. It has wiped us both out mentally for a while now. But things are looking up.

Thanks everyone.
 
Jerry,

Glad to hear her health is turning back to the better! As already mentioned, it's amazing what those little meds can do, for better or worse.
 
Had to put out an update. Phyl has been driving short distances every few days, if her feet have had a "good day". Sounds goofy but if you can't feel anything in your feet, it's hard to drive a car. Today leaving work she declares she is driving ALL the way home. And she did just fine. She's apprehensive to try it in the mornings as we run into lots of slow and go traffic on the highway.

So her progress so far....

Loss of balance back to normal
Hands back to normal
Upper body back to normal
Butt back to normal (yes it went numb too)
Legs pretty much back to normal
She is confident that the feet will be at a point in a few weeks she can get back to a normal routine and quit relying on someone else to do things for her. Maybe soon she can get back to a normal work schedule and so can I.
 
Great news is always wonderful to hear!!!

Glad she's doing better! :)
 
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