In layman’s terms, what happened next was that my white blood cells overreacted to the poison and in their zealousness to get rid of the chemo, ‘ate’ the myelin sheath* coating around my spinal cord at my T-4 vertebrae. By May I was paralyzed at that level. Sometimes my condition is referred to as Transverse or Diffuse Myelitis. The tumor led to seizures every couple of months through May 1999. Since then, except for two most unusual occasions, I haven’t had any seizures. The doctors say my condition is permanent. What do doctors know about the future? I rehabilitated in hospitals until my return home in October 1998.
Within these pages I will attempt to give you a taste of what has happened to me in the last seven tumultuous, challenging and interesting years.
