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Tough sledding for my Son

DJlaysitup

By DJlaysitup
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DJlaysitup Newbie

DJlaysitup

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For most who have read my posts over the years - you know I have a son who is a rugby player and is at LSU (since they have a good team and he was dreaming of the Olympics). He's kind of given up on the Olympic rugby dream but has recently got involved in a UFC oriented workout gym. He told me about it (since he was spending my money)...and I said I didn't want him to be doing any real fighting...but he said he was just doing the workouts and learning the techniques. I kind of dismissed it since I got into club boxing when I was in college.

So that Is the back-story.

Last Thursday he called me here in Atlanta and sounded pretty shook up. He said his right foot felt like it was going to sleep and he had trouble walking the steps up to his apartment. Later he called and said both his feet were numb. I told him to be very careful and to call an ambulance if it got worse (no need to try to drive to the ER with numb feet)...later that night he had a friend take him to the ER because the numbness had gone past his knees. His hands were also getting numb.

He's been in the hospital now for nearly a week...his Mom is with him and I'm driving down tomorrow. They did a battery of tests but are somewhat confounded. They have him on a steroid drip and are giving him drugs to combat the constant twitching of his muscles. The Neurologist seems to think it's a spinal cord thing (low - L1/L2)...but nothing big showed up on the MRI.

My huge concern is that he hasn't told me about any recent injuries (he would normally brag about them) and he said he hadn't worked out for two days before the onset.

At present - he can't really walk - and they won't let him use a walker because of hand numbness.

My question - have any of you-all ever heard of something like this for a 23 year old in good shape? They have done a battery of tests and it isn't a stroke apparently.

Thanks for all replies....DJ

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tbhawksfan Newbie

tbhawksfan

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I feel for your situation with your son and his health. I'll propose a hypothesis, but only in the spirit of comforting someone in a difficult situation. I could only guess nuerological issues. The good news, if it is nuerological, is that it's usually a presure thing and can be resolved with rehab. Good luck and best wishes.

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macdaddy Grand Master

macdaddy

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I'm so sorry to hear that. I can't imagine the stress you are under as not knowing is the hard part. I don't have any insight. I've never heard of something coming on that quickly that was't injury related but hopefully maybe it's some kind of pinched nerve or something. Please post updates when you can and my thoughts and prayers are with your son and family. I do think reaching out to everyone you can is a good idea. Doctors can't always figure it out especially if they haven't seen it before but somewhere in the country someone probably has.

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DJlaysitup Newbie

DJlaysitup

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.....I've never heard of something coming on that quickly that was't injury related but hopefully maybe it's some kind of pinched nerve or something. Please post updates when you can and my thoughts and prayers are with your son and family....

Thanks mac (and all)...that was my thought - it seemed to come on really quickly. I'm an old guy and I deal with the aches and pains of aging all the time (Sciatica, minor arthritis, occasional back problems) - but that's easy because it is slow developing and understandable.

I will post updates.

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DJlaysitup Newbie

DJlaysitup

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P.S. - and I don't want to be morbid because I'm sure my son will come out of this but....

MY (late) Uncle was a member of the "International Order of the Odd Fellows" (odd sounding name for a club Posted Image )...

Anyway...he told me that when one is initiated into the order, they give you a small (toyish) skeleton and they tell you that - "this is what you will become in time"...no avoiding it...so you better do something decent with the time you are allotted.

Anyway, maybe I'm a little emotional right now - but that is a good credo to live by.

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dms269 Newbie

dms269

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My wife is a Neuro ICU nurse so when I saw this I had her look at it to see if she could possibly take a guess at what it could be. She said that it sounded like "cauda equina". She said the only other thing she thought might be Guillain-Barre.

Just maybe a possibility if the doctors haven't already ruled it out.

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AHF Grand Master

AHF

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I have nothing to offer on the medical side but absolutely send my thoughts and best wishes for a complete recovery for your son. I think I speak for everyone on the Squawk who has read this when I say he will be in our thoughts and prayers.

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lethalweapon3 Grand Master

lethalweapon3

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I'm terribly sorry to hear about that, DJ!

Did they already rule out MRSA? I was just looking around for news about 7'7" Kenny George so MRSA was on my mind. Can be a problem in gyms (locker rooms, mostly) and college dorms. The way it progresses resonated to me as well.

Hope they get to the bottom of it!

~lw3

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DJlaysitup Newbie

DJlaysitup

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My wife is a Neuro ICU nurse so when I saw this I had her look at it to see if she could possibly take a guess at what it could be. She said that it sounded like "cauda equina". She said the only other thing she thought might be Guillain-Barre.

Just maybe a possibility if the doctors haven't already ruled it out.

Well sorry for the absence and mega-thanks to all for caring so much (I was pretty spooked). The boy was in pretty sad shape there for awhile but they put him on serious intra-V steroids and muscle relaxants to stop the shakes/muscle flinches. Touch and go there for awhile. He's now walking around (gingerly) and can get back to studies. I talked to his primary professor while down in Baton Rouge and it looks like he can easily graduate on time (a senior).

The Neuro Doc said that Guillain-Barre is very rare but somehow a bit of a virus got into his lower spinal cord and the real damage was done when his own white blood cells attacked it and didn't know the difference between the bad stuff and the good stuff and ph_cked everything all up. Doc said he is probably currently in a re-wiring mode now to some degree and it will likely be 6 months or so until he feels all the way normal again.

Thank heavens he went to the ER when he did...in the few other cases they have had a couple of them that got so far into nimbness (for Nique)..that it numbed the diaphragm and the person had to go on a respirator.

So a week or so in the hospital and a week or so in in-patient rehab and he is shaky but OK. Doc says it's a rare thing without a history of re-occurrence.

Wheeew....http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001704/

GO HAWKS !!

Edited by DJlaysitup
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