What do you think happened to me??

Question

It's been 3 years now and i still cant control my bladder (there is no warning) it has gotten a LITTLE bit better and i still feel tingling in my legs. I gotta make this as breif as possible to make it all fit.
It started with a headache like ive never felt before. I went to Dr. about it & was presc. tension headache med. 2 days later the headache didnt let up and i was in so much pain and so miserable. I went back to the doc. thought it was a migrane maybe. got a diff. med. I suffered for 3 more days..i was disorineated (sp?) i noticed that night that i couldnt go pee even though i felt like i had to..didnt go pee all that night. the next day i couldnt go pee either and i started to get worried. I still had the headache too. I went to the med stop this time and she drained my bladder for me and told me it was a bladder infection. pres. meds. went home...still couldnt pee...the next day i went back to the med stop again. I was in pain from my bladder. it hurt so bad. see detai

they did an ultrasound of my bladder to see if it was a cyst. as i was walking down to that room i felt off balance..i was having to lean on the wall to walk...i also seen a silver disco looking ball in my right eye. They found NOTHING wrong and sent me home. My dr. made me an appt. with a urologyst. Never made it to that appt. i went home and layed down in the bed and didnt walk again till about 4 months later. when i tried to get up and i realized that i couldnt walk and my legs were numb my fiance took me to the emergency room! I stayed there all night. they did tests all night and didnt find ANYTHING!!!!! so they sent me home with a catheteher for my bladder. I stayed in the bed for 2 days...didnt know what to do....what was going on. I was laying in the bed and i tried to sit up and i felt something pop in my lower back and i was screaming in pain!!!!

my fiance called 911..he was scared..i was scared....the kids were scared....my kidneys failed that night. i went sent to a bigger town with a better hospital. After about 2 days in the hospital...they stabilized me...my kidneys were working properly but i still had no bladder function and i was paralyzed from my chest down...it was starting to go to my right arm but they put my on steroids and that stopped the progression of whatever was going on. My spine (as my dr. said) looked like a snake had swallowed a rabbit. My spinal cord was inflammed. The steroids worked to being myself somewhat back to normal but i wasnt even close to walking. I stayed in that hospital for 3 weeks and then was sent to a inpatient rehab hospital for physical therapy. i stayed there for 3 weeks and left somewhat able to walk with a walker. after i got home i said the hell with the walker and started walking but i had to drag my left leg. It had more damage than the right leg.

I know this is long and kinds nuts but this is something that has been bothering me for 3 years. we still dont know what happened. My neurologist though maybe it was MS. he did a spinal tap and the tests came back 1 pos and 2 neg. He said he cant say for sure it is MS until i have another "episode". so ive been wondering for the last 3 years if i have MS. I even started taking Betaseron shots. I did that for about 6 months then stopped. I dont think that it is MS. My white blood count if fine. I just dont know. I was going through a divorce when all of this happened and maybe it was caused by stress. I am a naturally nervous person and i dont handle stress very well.

is there a such thing as a stress attack??
if you think you can help me or have any more questions...my profile will allow you to email me.

Sorry...i tried to make it as short as possible

The MRI of my brain showed white spots all over. That's about all i know of the MRI

Answer 1

Headaches, dizziness, loss of balance, and difficulty with bladder function are often related to central nervous system problems. One example is chiari malformation which is a condition by which the tonsils of the cerebellum herniate out the base of the skull causing the headaches and dizziness. This may sometimes be caused by "cord tethering" (which is common in people who have spina bifida) in which a scar tissue type substance starts to put tension on the spinal cord, causing nerve impingement and possible loss of bladder control.

If an MRI was performed on your head, the chiari should have been noted. It sounds as though there was some type of spinal cord lesion and could have been related to your pain, paralysis, and loss of bladder control. Whether or not this was chiari malformation, I don't know, but it sounds like you had an interesting case. I hope you are on the mend.