Tingling and Numbness with Rapid Paralysis

[DesperateFamily]

My mother is 66 years old.  She is a smoker with very high cholesterol.  In November 2005 she began experiencing tingling in her left big toe and two fingers of her right hand.  The tingling got rapidly worse.  By Thanksgiving (3 weeks after first tingling) the tingling and muscle weakness had progressed up both legs and she was forced to use a walker.  By Christmas, she was wheelchair bound and only able to make it from her chair to the toilet.  By mid January she had absolutely no use of her legs or trunk area and had lost the use of her left arm.  She still has complete feeling in all extremities but no muscle control and severe tingling(tingling even occurs in her trunk stomach area).  She also has no pain just says that she feels extremely weak.  She also says that she can actually feel the weakness coming up her body(a little more each day).  We

[fcar]

Has your mom had any MRI's done???  What about thyroid testing.  Some people dont know to ask for the T4 and the T levels (not sure exactly ) of the trhyoid gland.  Some doctors only take a basic thryoid test and do not check the T levels of the thyroid. When the test is taken for just the regular thryoid test it can come back negative, but the T levels can come back showing a thryoid problem.  I only know this because my sister had lots of problems they told her that her thryoid level was fine.  She later went to an Endorcrinolgist who gave her further testing for thryoid specific blood work and it came back postive.  She is now on medication and doing well. See if your mom had this done.  Throid problems can cause havoc on a body.

[DesperateFamily]

My mother has had many MRI's done especially to her spine.  She has also had a brain scan, cat scan and bone scan.  All results were normal.  I will ask my father to mention the thyroid on Friday.

[DesperateFamily]

Myasthenia Gravis was ruled out and honestly the symptoms associated with that disease do not sound like my mothers.  In fact, the disease that most describes her symptoms in guillain barre but Mayo says they tested her for that twice and both times it was neg.  We are to the point now where we would like them to treat her for it just in case the tests were wrong.  Have you ever heard of anyone having GBS but not testing positive for it?  We are also going to ask the doctors to consider exploratory surgery to look at her spine just in case the many mri's and cat scans missed something.  At the rate she is declining we are afraid she only has weeks left unless something is done quickly.

[flyin2006]

Oh one more thing... ask yourself ( or her ) ..did she have any surgical procedures in the few weeks proceeding all the neuro symptoms? Did she cut herself working outside, maybe in the garden or on the house? Did she have any mild illnesses, like a the flu, gastrointestinal illness? Anything you can find to relay to her doctors is helpful.

[DesperateFamily]

We are trying to get an appointment at Shands(university of Florida) which is close to where she lives but have not been accepted yet.  Someone also mentioned Acute Transverse Myelitis as a possible cause.  Do you know anything about this disorder?

[flyin2006]

I don't know that I would wait for an acceptance. I think I would just probably show up on their doorstep!! As for Acute Transverse Myelitis, I have no idea. Whatever it is, it sure has progressed rather quickly. Have the B-12 shots helped yet? And don't forget to dissect her history ( even bug bites ) the few weeks before this all began. That is very important. ( See above ) Hang in there.