Question:
the good news is that I am doing some better on the Enbrel--and havehalved my Prednisone with the great chance of being off of it by the nextfew months.....the bad news is that my partner is back in the hospital withanother bout of stroke-like symptoms--CT was ok--but she has aphasia,garbled speech, left sided weakness and trouble swallowing--this means mydaughter and I have horse duty--which is a little more than I need rightnow--but--that is what it is.....The problem is that they insist they cannotfind anything and so the problem is psychological....but yanno----it surelooks neurological to me....they keep saying it is stress related--but therehasn't BEEN any stressful event to cause any of these episodes....and sheloses so much that she has worked hard to gain each time it happens---morecognitive deficit--more PT/OT/Speech Therapy to just get some back--and theyshrug their shoulders--the Psych shrug back and say they don't knoweither----in the meantime she feels like some giant failure who cannot talkstraight, walk straight or even swallow and saying she is crazy just addsinsult to injury....sigh....

To the wonderful benefactor who sent the aroma therapy candles---they havesure come in handy and really helped in this latest crisis....

What's your opinions???

Answer: Sure sounds like you have your hands full! Isn't Enbrel great? Iknow it's not for everyone, but it works for some of us. Heck, whenever wefind something to work it's great. Your partners symptoms sure do soundneurological in nature. for 7 years before I was dx with MS, I was told itwas psychological but I never had such strong symptoms as your friend.Indeed they do sound stroke like. My mom has been having mini-strokes forabout 6 months and the first MRI's didn't show anything because sheinsisted on an open MRI which is less comprehensive when it comes to thebrain. This last MRI I convinced her to have a closed on by asking thedoctor to medicate her first and then I went in the room with her, standingat her feet and touching her the entire time. They used a "short tube" whichhad lights and air blowing in it and I told Mom to keep her eyes shut theentire time. The entire brain and brain stem test took only ten minutes butwas able to give the neuro the info he was looking for. It's just athought. Don't know if this would apply to your friend or not. My secondthought is in the infectious field. You mentioned horses -- has she beenchecked for any infection that could come from a barn environment? Forexample, a young friend of my sons was sick for a long time with a lung typecondition that came from breathing the air in a barn where there were micedroppings. We live in Florida and that is extremely rare here but dang ifthat's not what it was. Is there some infectious agent that she could havecontracted from contact in the barn or with the horses that can causeneurological symptoms? Lyme disease can in really bad cases is one I canthink of (I know that's not a barn/horse thing but the only example I couldthink of) Its just an idea of another direction they could be looking in.Have they done blood cultures? Spinal Tap? Closed MRI?