In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Pinched Nerve Question posted by Jesse on November 28, 2007 at 19:33:23:

Jesse,

About 3 years ago my entire body went numb starting with my pinkies and ring fingers then at the bottoms of my feet followed by the numbness going up my legs, my whole seat, my abdomen, then my chest, and finally out my arms and then my hands where completely numb. This happened over a period of a week and a half and after several visits to Kaiser including the emergency room they kept telling me I had a bad back.
Finally after getting an appointment with a neurologist I was told my back was fine but there was a spot in my spinal cord in my neck that they saw. They couldn't tell me if it was a tumor or some other problem. One of the doctors mentioned they should do an exploratory surgery to find out what it was. My main neurologist recommended against it because that could cause permanent spinal cord damage and I could possibly become an invalid. At one point they had considered that it may be multiple sclerosis but upon viewing the pictures of my brain they told me there was nothing in there, I could have told them that!
They decided to do the wait and see approach and it turned out to be a demeilenation of the spinal cord (the meilin shieth surrounding the nerves had been attacked and eaten off.

Long story short, after 9 MRI's, a spinal tap, steroids, and weeks of terror wondering if I was going to live or die it turned out to be what they call transverve mielenitis, but they couldn't tell me what caused it. All my blood work came up clean as did the spinal fluid. To this day I don't know if it was a chemical or biological attack and probably will never know.

It took a long time to heal but I am perfectly normal now. When my feeling was coming back it felt like there where worms crawling all over my body. I could watch my skin crawl/twitch as the nerves began waking up. The whole ordeal gave me a brand new perspective on life and made me realize how fragile life really is.

The first dive trip I went on after that whole ordeal was a Sea Divers trip on the Peace out to the islands exactly two years ago this coming weekend. That was most appreciated dive trip I ever had.
I'm going to be on the Peace again this weekend on the same trip to celebrate once again.

Take care of yourself man and avoid surgery at all costs and explore all other routes before you consider it. Nerve related problems can take a long time to heal, but with some therapy and mild exercise you will be back to normal sooner than you think.
Don't go and do something silly while it's getting better and aggravate the problem further.