Progression of a disease

Spring, 2004 – fell down mowing the yard.  No pain, loss of consciousness, dizziness or paralysis.  I just couldn’t get up for about 5 minutes.  It was like my body wasn’t obeying me.  About four weeks later I fell over in my garage and hit my elbow on the concrete floor.  As that hurt, figured I better see my doctor.

1st Drs. Visit – referred me to a neurologist as his testing didn’t show anything.

JWM Neurologists – examined my eyes and said they saw nystagmus.  I wore weird looking goggles that blocked out all light but they could still see my eyes.  Their cure for that was barrel rolls (look for this on this page – what they did when I would visit).  They (used two people) would turn me once; on a Friday; had soft wrap around my neck (just to remind me to keep my head still and up); stayed in a lounge chair until Sunday when I could remove wrap and do everything I normally did.  Did this about once/month but after a few visits, stopped for almost 6 months as I was sneezing a lot (allergies?).  When that stopped, continued treatments.  On last treatment, no wrap was used as other patients showed no change.  I could do all activities normally after treatment.  Said my nystagmus was gone.  I could resume any normal activity.  I proceeded to mow the lawn with the same results as before.

Referred to a heart specialist – he did treadmill and other tests.  All seemed fine.  The tilt table test was not good for me.  I don’t remember the test being more than about 15 minutes and I do remember speaking to the technician during the test discussing the weather and such.  I asked something and then my limbs felt weird.  Like I was getting an electrical shock all over.  I think I passed out.  A few seconds later I was returned to a horizontal position and immediately woke up.

Referred to a spine specialist (was something wrong with those nerves) – nothing conclusive found.

Referred back to JWM – saw various doctors and technicians (even the J, W. or M; I forget now) – one technician wanted to check my nerve endings with a probe that delivered a shock each time he touched one (or was it just me).  As I felt it strongly, I suggested they could mark me down as being ok in this area.  He wanted to do more over my protests.  I think he enjoyed my squirming.  A few days later I received a certified letter from JWM (at least that’s what the notice said).  Since we both were at work, no one was there to sign for it.  On my next visit I was told I was “discharged”.  That’s when I found out more about the letter but was not allowed to read it or find out why I was being discharged.

Referred to IU Med Center – Dr. Robert Pascuzzi – he gave me a few tests and after a few months gave me a name – MSA.  This was end of June, 2007.