Hi!
My name is Vanessa, I am 27 years old, and I had Idiopathic Acute Transverse Myelitis when I was nineteen. It came on fairly suddenly, within a few days. I was in the hospital for about 2 weeks enduring the hell of tingling, numbness, pin prick feelings, pain, loss of strength, I could barely walk. Eye blurriness, loss of coordination, couldn't pee, along with many other hellish symptoms. Through many spinal taps, tests, steroids and doctors they got the inflammation in my neck to go down. I went home, and within 3 months or so I was feeling much better and could walk normally again, although the numbness and nerve damage in my left leg was still there. (Couldn't tell difference from hot and cold in that leg) Things got progressively better (Although I might add that before TM my eyesight was PERFECT, after TM I needed glasses BADLY) Anyway... things were getting better except for the exception of when I had my period, symptoms of TM would come back. Weak legs, achy arms, disabling migraines, and tingles. It was strange that it only happened during my period but I learned to semi-live with it.

When I was about 21 during a very stressful time in my life... The same symptoms and feelings that I felt when TM had FIRST set in, was happening again. The pain was almost worse the second time around. Everything felt the same as before, numbness, weakness, blurriness, couldn't pee, and could not walk again. (Etc etc etc on symptoms)
I was in the hospital for a week and a half doing tests an they could not find a single thing wrong with me through all the mri's testings spinal taps (AGAIN) I was thinking to myself... they have to be wrong about this, this is PHYSICALLY happening to me! Yet a second time! I saw neurologist after neurologist until I met one who didn't have the same cookie cutter response of.. "We cannot detect anything wrong with you"
His diagnosis was the only plausible answer I could accept. It was psychosematic (In other words, it was stress overload, and this was my body's way of handling it) Reverting back to the *damaged* part of my body, my body was attacking itself.

Over the next few weeks I had some destress time, and eventually the symptoms faded away. And I was told the first time TM struck me that it very rarely every strikes again. Shows how little doctors truly know!

On with the story! I am prone to my immune system attacking me.
I have quite a lot of food allergies which cause awful hives, migraines and achiness, and pressure urticaria (pressure hives)
To best describe that... Say I whacked my knee on a piece of furniture. Within a few hours it gets blotchy and swells up twice it's size, gets very very hot, and I have excruciating pain in that knee. My immune system seems to overreact to the hit to the knee... sending way too many histamines to my knee, swelling it up and becoming a HUMONGOUS painful hive.
This is truly not a fun experience. Usually lasting anywhere from 8 hours to up to 7 days. The only thing that only slightly helps is ice. Benedryl slightly takes the itchies away but not the swelling or pain. This is debilitating and annoying.
Sometimes I can get a minor injury and it will be fine, but sometimes my immune system blows it way out of proportion!
I'm wearing sweatpants with elastic? Low and behold a few hours later my midsection is covered in hives.
I go hiking because it's a beautiful day, my feet are swollen to the point where they don't even look like feet!
It truly ****** me off!

My food allergies are easier to avoid, and just get general hives allover as well as a fever if I eat something I'm not supposed to. It's harder to avoid everyday stuff that *may* injure you. I'm a dog groomer, and I use my hands a lot EVERYDAY. There have been instances where I use scissors too much and at the end of the day when I come home, I can't even begin to close my hand into a fist due to the pressure hives *Brewing* and have to sit on the couch with my hands in buckets of ice water. (Also annoying) Nevertheless this is an immune system gone bonkers! I've got stuff I want to do in my life! I don't want to NOT live my life because there's a chance my immune system will git me again. Strange things happen everyday.

And yes of course, there is no true treatment of food allergies, pressure hives, or reocurring tm symptoms. Just my luck eh?
All the *Idiopathic* health issues have to happen to me >
I'm no doctor but I can put two and two together and see that I have an autoimmune problem. My body is constantly attacking itself. I don't understand why doctors can't see the link between everything. To me it's easy to see that everything is connected, and not individual problems. Why can't doctors with all their technology and schooling, figure this out?

On with the story! (Sorry I"m long-winded)
Anyway! TM symptoms since age 21 to now (27) have lessened more and more, to the point where my left leg is almost normal and I can slightly feel hot and cold again. During my period TM symptoms are barely there. Until lately........

During the past month or so I've noticed strange electric shock feelings and twitches in random places, like the side of my
arm, a certain spot on my shoulder, the inner side of my knee. I brushed it off, as strange things do sometimes happen.
Then within the past week or two I started feeling electric tingles going down my legs all the way to my feet. Sometimes in my fingers. Last weekend I was walking around at a state park by the river and realized the more I walked, the tinglier and number my legs and feet were feeling. I actually started to get a bit dizzy and had to leave. Just the other day on my way to work in the morning, I tilted my head down to look for something in my truck, and a wave of electricity shot through both my legs (mainly my left) This has been happening for about five days now. Hasn't gotten better, and has slightly gotten worse.

Now when I had TM the inflammation was in my neck. Coincidence?
Do I just have tight back muscles that need to be worked out? Or are TM symptoms coming back? =(
At the time when I was 19, I was on my dad's insurance which covered my VERY EXPENSIVE hospital visits, meds, xrays, mri's etc etc etc. Now on my own and with no insurance, I can't even afford to go see a doc to get meds for a sinus infection.

It sucks to be poor and have unexplainable illnesses.
Any commenters? Anyone with autoimmune issues? Reoccurrances of TM?
ANY input is appreciated! Thanks!

Hello Vanessa, my name is Lisa, I'm 33 and from Scotland, UK. Sorry to read about what you've been going through. I was diagnoses with TM last September 2011 after spending a week in hospital undergoing gruelling testing. My attack started with tingling in my right foot and then I went numb up to my bra strap level. Anyway, they found a spot of inflammation on my spine at my bra strap level and diagnosed me with TM. I was then given 3 days of IV steroids. I never had any pain or bladder/ bowel issues, I only suffered with sensory issues. I did struggle to walk though due to the numbness and some weakness. I reckon it took about 3 months to feel functional and then another 3 months for my legs to begin to feel totally normal. I was told that my test results also indicated that I had a 60-70% chance of developing MS and if I had another attack I would have the MS diagnosis confirmed.

So....it's now June 2012 and 4 weeks ago all my symptoms came back. I'm pretty much numb AGAIN up to my rib cage and have bits of tingling, pins and needles etc. So I consulted my doc and he said this is a flare up of my original attack and it will settle in time. It's also worth mentioning at this point that throughout this whole time, ie for the past year, I have been and still am being treated for a chronic anxiety disorder. It's interesting what you say about stress overload because I really think my anxiety condition has put so much stress on my body. I'm not surprised I have an autoimmune condition!!!! No doctor will admit to me that stress and anxiety has had an impact on all this but I totally believe everything is linked.

I have some food intolerances too, not allergies, just poor reactions to food.....gluten and wheat etc. I'm hoping when I'm feeling better to radically change my diet to help my body recover and keep well. There is also a natural product called colostrum which is designed to balance out the immune system, so I might give that a go. It's apparently a miracle product.

I totally feel for you, I absolutely hate this too and not knowing when my stupid body is going to attack itself again. I'm currently sitting around waiting for my legs to get better while everyone else is running and moving around getting on with their lives. So frustrating. They say it's rare to have more than one TM attack. Yeah right!!!

Keep in touch
Lisa x

Okay, I'm Hannah and I am 23. When I was 20, August 31st to be exact, as soon as I had woken up done a few normal tasks and after an hour or so my arms began sending sharp pains from my finger tips to my shoulders. My mom was there and she asked if I would like some ibuprofen to take because she had arm pain sometimes and figured it was nothing. By the time I my mother got the ibuprofen to me with a drink of water, I could no longer move my fingers. Not long after my back went painfully numb, I could no longer feel my chest. I went to the hospital and the 20 minutes of waiting I couldn't stand up and had to have help into a wheel chair.. Long story short 2 hours later, I was paralyzed from the shoulders down and I had this sensation of numbness, tingling, light but stinging and sometimes sharp pain. (Sidenote: the ER doctor thought I was faking it) but after a week they diagnosed me and I was immediately placed on IV steroids and placed in physical therapy. An additional 6 weeks later and I was out of there just barely able to walk, I was completely reliant on home health care and basically anyone who could deal with it that day. (Almost 3 years later and I'm almost independent but not quite yet, still striving)

But here's where I tie in everything to make sense in this thread. The day before I was going to take my GED test, I had just been fired, I used my last dollar to put gas in my car, and I have always had terrible anxiety. I was pretty scared going onto a campus where there were lots of people and it was a school where there was a hostage situation. I was walking from building to building trying to find where I needed to be and I couldn't. As the time for the test came and went I kind of lost it. I had the biggest panic attack of my life. I couldn't drive home for another hour or so. I got home and continued to stress and cry. My doctors could find no cause for my transverse myelitis.
I completely believe that stress played a factor in my spinal cord swelling. Even now when I get stressed I get achy and I have had to go back for 5 day IV steroid treatments 4x. I get weakness randomly. It's kind of like it's still sending shock waves through me. I know they say that it usually happens only once, but I think they mean the swelling itself because this is happening pretty regularly for me but I'm having to only do physical therapy now because steroids are beginning to cause more problems than they solve. But I'm thankful it wasn't worse.