Lyme Disease?
Hmmmmmm. Well, I haven't been anywhere to find ticks .... that I can remember, seems like that comes from ticks. Our back yard is an acre, with about 80 trees on it --- can't remember much Lyme Disease in the immediate area. Since I got back from the National Jewish Hospital in Denver (July 2007) I don't go out much.

BUT ... I will ask my Neurologist.

My memory is failing ... I forgot my Neurologists appt and my Orthopods appointment and ...
other appts. I write them down in my Daytimer, then forget to look. DUH!!! New approach is for my wife to write things down on a sheet of paper, or three, then tape them to the door facings where I can't forget them. Sounds silly, but I am hoping it works. She is really patient with me. I am a lucky guy.

Oh dear that is so SCARY. That has been happening to me for ages, and I hate it. But, it does go away as long as there's little stress and I use a lot of B12. (methylcobalamin)

I generally try to stay in bed when it's happening a lot.

At two different court hearings that were particularly stressful I could barely get to the car afterwards. Someone was driving me.

I no longer take stairs if there is an elevator.

I fell early last winter and hurt myself badly enough that it was hard to walk after that, and that meant weight gain.

Health problems are so thorny, they are never one single thing, there are so many inter related aspects.

A lot of people say that using a walker is the answer, but I think that the answer is reducing stress, or one's vulnerability to it, and lots of B12 (methylcobalamin) and slowly rebuilding ones strength in ones legs... walking slowly and as long as the falling thing isn't happening, consistently.

This spring I could barely walk around my garden, and my feet and legs seemed so heavy that it frightened me, but now I'm doing better and am hopeful once again.

I think the main thing is not to get hurt falling, so staying in bed if you can until it happens less, or stops happening, seems like a good choice to me.

then, staying near a wall, so if you fall you can use it for support, so to tables, chairs, counters...

Basically, that's what I do. I sure hope you don't fall and get hurt.

During my studies into neurotoxicology, I came across other items,which, although not anything to do with my particular problem, were of interest.

One of these was a graph showing spasdicity in muscles. It showed the rise in input of the muscle being somewhat normal, then a sudden drop to zero. This seems to be similar to the sudden falls that you mention.

I had a patient with severe arthritis who did this, and I have done it once, fell flat on my back without bending a knee. Did you blackout momentarily when it happened, and have you been to a neurologist? Seems like a MRI or something similar might dx the problem billie

Hi,

I have permanent nerve damage at my L5 root. There is nothing that can fix my nerve damage in the USA at this point.

Kate

Hi, Have you had a MRI done of your spine, lesions can occcur there not just on your brain. If you have a family member with ms it is more likely that you may have it as well. Don't mean to scare you, but your symptoms are suggestive of MS.
I was diagnosed with it after a period of falling over for no apparent reason, and had tremors in my hands also. Was only 34 at the time and did not drink or use drugs. It took several months of testing to rule out other disorders, the spinal tap was negative, the MRI of my brain was the definite dx.
I read on MS forums and other sites related to it, some people do not have brain lesions but still have MS. It has many varied symptoms for different people, there is no one set of sx that all have in common.
Good luck in finding you cause of that sudden deceleration problem, like when you hit the floor!

I have tremors in my hands when I have too little vitamin B12. The tremors used to be so bad they affected my handwriting. Now they are gone most of the time, but I have significant B12 replacement on a regular basis.

Equally, the falling thing is worst when I have a lot of stress and I can't "catch up" enough with vitamin B12. When I have a period of it happening I try to stay in bed so that I don't get hurt.

If you are having these problems and have not tried using the equivalent of a B12 shot a day in Methylcobalamin lozenges, you might want to try that.

If you do, it's a good idea to write a few notes on what you are feeling every day, because the improvement is not overnight, and in between the worst and the great improvement there are a lot of days when one wonders if it's making any difference at all. (The changes are very slow, at least in my experience. Some of them are fast, but it took years for my handwriting to normalize.)

Thank you for the answers, I will reply in more detail later today I hope.

Please don't think I am complaining or whining, but this last week is one you either have to laugh at or cry about, not sure which. I am chuckling right now.

About a week ago my wife tells me I went to the hospital in an ambulance, about 2:30am. My rib cage hurt so bad I couldn't lay down in bed, so I sat in an office type chair. I remember zero. Rib Contusions I think the dr. said. He gave me Opiates.

While my wife went to get my prescriptions I apparently passed out, or a foot/knee/hip gave out. She found me laying face down on the kitchen floor. Luckily I did not break the tile with my face. She said she told me to get up and I said I would. 20 minutes later she said she told me to get up and I finally was able to. A few hours after that I went back to the ER in the ambulance again. I could not breathe well due to severe chest pain around my heart. I don't remember any of this either.

I went to my Pulmonologist the following Monday and he sent me to get approx. 25 lab tests. I forget why. He told my wife she was in charge of getting an appt for me with my Neurologist. I kept forgetting to call.

Oh yeah, the hospital found I had a urinary tract infection (happens with catheters), so they put me on anti-biotics. The urologist reviewed some tests I did for him and said my
PSA went from around 5 to 18. He said protatitis was probably the culprit and put me on
2000 mg a day of Septra DS, for a month. He ordered some other lab tests too.

I know I have other medical problems during this time, but darned if I can remember what they are. See why I have to chuckle at this mess? I still fall down, but try to either use my power chair around the house or stay on the carpet.

Did I mention I was back on oxycodone for about a week? Rib pain. Worst I have ever had. Opiates cause me other problems. BUT while on opiates, I don't think I fell down one time. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

On the bright side of things, I have a full stomach, a wife who loves me and my kids flew in for my 64th birthday (Thursday), so life is good. I am truly blessed. Gotta run see the pulmonologist....Dave And thanks for your help.

dllfo, you certainly do NOT complain! You are, in fact, very humorous and quite skilled in having learned to laugh at your own predicaments. You are blessed in having a loving wife and children. Wow - while on opiates you did not fall down? Hmmmmmmm, indeed. Isn't it amazing what a UTI can do? Sometimes they come on very rapidly, as well. I can certainly identify with your memory problems. Living alone . . . well, except for an aging cat . . . this is perhaps the most troublesome thing to me. Luckily, I do not have episodes of blackout, as you seem to have done during your ER visits, but when Neurotalk participants respond to some comment I have made, I very often have trouble understanding WHY! billie

OMG! Was the chest pain related to heart problems?

I had horrid chest pain, bottom of rib cage sort of, when I had tetanus. It had to do with the thoracic diaphragm. I think there's a nerve right there. It was, for sure, a debilitating pain.

If you are not using methylcobalamin, I think you might find that doing so would help you. But I think you'd have to use quite a lot now that your problems are so severe.

Not being able to remember is a prime symptom of low b12.

Using a lot of B12 helped me with the thoracic diaphragm pain when I had tetanus, but it didn't totally eliminate it happening.

(((((((dllfo)))))))))