Janet Staples
I am a 61 year old female who was a teacher for 38 years, played college basketball, softball, field hockey and ran marathons. About 10 years ago I noticed I was tripping, falling, had tremors in my right hand and memory loss. After testing it was contributed to stress and depression. The tremors and memory loss got worse and in 2010 I had two car accidents within a month and really don't kn...ow what happened. They started testing again. They wouldn't let me drive so i started riding my bike and one day a couple found me on the side of a bike bath unconscious. After a tilt test they determined I had the condition where your blood pressure drops suddenly. With medication this has improved. I take medication for the tremors but still have times and my handwriting is poor. Nothing like when I was teaching. I do think stress had a lot to do with the severity of my symptoms.
They did a MRI and found I had atrophy of the brain. They retested my memory and cognitive and it had declined. This is when they said it was MSA. Like everyone else I had never heard of it and after some research I wish I never had. I was having difficulty swallowing so they did several test and it showed a hyenal hernia, acid reflux and silent aspiration. I began noticing my voice was raspy and it has gotten worse. I am now starting speech theraphy. Sometimes I feel I am not sick at all but after reading alot about MSA I feel they may be right. The most recent feeling is the skin on my arms at times feels like it is burning, does anyone have this symptom. If anyone can respond too my concerns I would appreciate it because I am in denial at sometimes. My husband wants to start doing things while we can and I agree if it is true, but not sure

janet