[freeinhou]

Sorry, but this is gonna be long.

I've been having what the docs say are muscle spasms triggering severe nerve pain in my leg - to the point I can't walk. I actually went to a neuro and he said yeap - MS manifestation.

I was dx'ed in 1988. I've never taken any drugs for MS (okay - a 2 week stint on copaxone in 2003). Most of you know this.

Anyway - this neuro is the first one I've been to in 20 years that didn't discard my previous dx's (yeah - I've been dx'ed in Toledo oh, Miami FL, and Houston TX). So no tests other than wacking my knees and doing the tuning bar and he read 20 years of radiologist reports that I gave him, to include 3 sets of MRI films. He gave me a prescription for Nortriptylene. Lower dosage than that prescribed for depression but apparently it works for MS nerve pain or muscle spasms or whatever. This was last Thursday.

Well, I hopped on a plane last Friday and flew to Las Vegas from Houston, toured Hoover Dam, and drove to Cedar City UT. Extreme leg pain the whole way. I'm surprised they didn't haul me out of Hoover Dam on a stretcher. Getting into the hotel was a nightmare.

I took 10 mg of this trip stuff Friday night. I'm slowly increasing dose and now up to 30 mg. Either this is a miracle drug or my pain issue went away for a while. I don't know. Last Thursday I couldn't walk 20 feet without doubling over in pain. Today - one of my walks was a little less than 2 miles in Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. I haven't had pain since last Thursday. Keeping fingers crossed...

I can't hide it from work anymore but I did make up some mumbo-jumbo about possible causes so they still don't know I have MS. My job hasn't changed and I'm still one of the shuttle mission managers (next flight is mine).

I don't know if I'm in remission or if this stupid drug is actually working. I would suggest to anyone having debilitating nerve pain not to wait as long as I did to try to fix it, but on the flip side of the coin - I started seeing neuro's 2 years ago for this pain and all, until the last one, blew me off. I'm sure this is no surprise to alot of people here...

Sorry so long.

Monument Valley, Glenn Canyon tomorrow. North rim of grand canyon Saturday. Been thru Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands. Capital Reef, Fishlake, Dixie, Cedar Breaks, etc this week. Guess we wanted to see Utah this year...

So - do y'all know why I haven't been posting here lately?

Tom

[CarolM]

Hey Tom!

Long time no read. Glad to hear you've finally got a handle on that pain.

Have a great vacation and don't forget to post some pics!

C

[ewizabeth]

Keep taking the meds Tom, I think it might be working. Good luck in keeping it under wraps at work. I'm doing the same thing right now and nobody knows. I'm not in charge of shuttle missions but I hope to make it to upper management with this company someday.

[Debbie D]

Glad the med's working for you, Tom..don't forget to stretch those legs. It helps a bit...
Why do you feel the need to keep your dx under wraps? Just wondering...

[kicker]

Tom,
Isn't here one mission left for you? It's almost over!!! Good luck, you know your abilities best.

[wkikta]

The next Mission, the last one?

[SallyC]

Someone, up there, is watching out for you, Tom.

[freeinhou]

I guess I've been negligent in keeping y'all informed on what's going on at NASA. Shuttle STS-133 is tentatively going up in October. STS-134 in February, and STS-135 in June 2011. All this depends on congress but we've already received funding for extending shuttle into Fiscal 2011. STS-135 will be Atlantis if it gets final approval. It'll ride the external tank damaged during Katrina. There's an additional 2 external tanks in construction and a third complete tank but it's an older model - still useable.

STS-133 is mine (as one of the mission managers). STS-134 is supposed to be one of my co-workers but he's getting promoted and moving on to big and better things so I'll have to cover that flight too. STS-135 is mine too. Shuttle missions are fun to work and I gotta put in lots of hours but I get comp time for some of the additional hours.

Missions are my secondary responsibility. I'm a design/construction manager at Johnson. I just wrapped up a $4M project replacing all the natural gas piping at the site and am starting up a $7.5M utility tunnel flood mitigation for the entire site. I oversee maintenance and operations of the Mission Control Power Plant (yeah - we got a 10 MW power plant just for mission control). Mission control still has space station so it's not going anywhere.

Tom

[NurseNancy]

i'm glad things are back under control tom.
i tend to think it's the med too. only one way to know, drop back a bit and see what happens. however, i'm not suggesting that.

good luck with your flight(s).
it's all very exciting.

[Twinkletoes]

Hey Tom! Here you are in my backyard and I didn't even know it!

We were in Zion on Saturday June 12th having a little family reunion with my husband's sisters.

Sorry about your pain, but glad it is under control for the time being.

How soon before you go back to Texas?