My brother, now 23, has been suffering from a movement disorder since 2001. Doctors say that he is suffering from Rheumatic/Sydenham's chorea. However, I have always read that this kind of chorea is self limiting and usually last for and average duration of nine months; in few cases up to 2 years; but in my brother's case it has been there for 11 years (8 bed-ridden years)!!!

Back in 2001 (he was 12), we observed slight movement in his hands and a bit of clumsiness while eating. We thought he was just being careless. Gradually we started seeing movement in his arms and legs and in 2004 he had such a violent movement attack that we had to hospitalize him. He couldn't even sleep for few nights then. After this occurrence, he could hardly take a step by himself and his speech became unclear too because of movement in his jaws. My mother has been doing everything (bathing, feeding) for him since then.

Since then he has improved somewhat; he can now walk around in the house(not a usual walk like a normal person). However, we have not seen any improvement beyond this point for years now. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU KNOW OF ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN THROUGH THE SAME SYMPTOMS AND IF THEY HAD A MORE CONVINCING DIAGNOSIS.