Dave Henrie

Many of you know Morganizilla or Morgan617 or just plain old Morgan. She's had a tough couple of weeks and I'd like to update you all on her health. She's been fighting through Menieres, POTS, Fibro and a myriad of other related health issues. Lately though, she has been getting 'fainties.' Actually a paralysis that would render her limp as a noodle for 10 or so minutes and then require another 1/2 hour to 1 hour of recovery time to regain full speach, vision, and muscular control. Two weeks ago her Doctor put her in the hospital to run as many tests and get as many consults as possible. The only local 'specialist' he couldn't get was a neurologist. Her kidney Doc ruled out adrenals and kidney causes. Her primary ran as many tests as needed to rule out most other causes. She had a run-in with a pyschiatrist who first claimed to not make snap judgements but then turned around that afternoon and conclusively said she was having psychological rather than physical causes. We let that go and pretty much tried to keep on at home. She seemed to be doing better with a dose of Potasium prescribed. Until last weekend that is. then the paralysis condition began overlapping and occuring daily then multiple times a day. We sent her to the ER in her 3rd ambulance trip of this past month. They ruled out nothing but did control the paralysis and sent her home. Then on Columbus day, when I was home from work, she continued to have multiple siezures or attacks. Since some arm shaking was also being introduced, I got ahold of her Doctor and he agreed to re-admit her back into the hospital. I was worried that she would knock her head since these spells came on with very little warning. After a day in one hospital, our Doctor was able to convince the area's top Neuro guy to examine her. He also had a cancellation in another hospital's Epilepsy ward and she was transferred via another ambulance to the 2nd hospital for a 2 day workup. She was having a paralysis session as they transferred her, she had two more while they got her in the ward and hooked up to about 2 dozen wires.. A TV camera and microphone allowed the Doctor to monitor her live from his office and the computers hooked up to all the wires kept track of all the data and sent it to his office as well. She then began an ordeal that lasted several hours, she would have an attack, and rather than let her rest and recover, the nurses were trained to try and test her mental cognitive abilities. So soon after each event they began peppering her with small tests like 'what is your name?' and 'What is this object I'm holding." All the time the computers and cameras were recording everything. All told she had 7 attacks while hooked up to the machines and that was added to the three she had prior to being wired. The Doctor had the nurses stop the testing after about 4 spells. And they slowly decreased in length and intensity. She rested well overnight and the Doctor came in the next morning. He said he had good news. She was not suffering from Epilepsy or other Electrical Neural malfunctions. Her heart was not being compromised and her labs (drawn during the events) all came back normal. So that left him with only one possible cause. He called it Pychogenic. The attacks, he said, were very real, probably caused not by physical ailments but by some underlying stress or unresolved conflict. He stressed several times that these events were very real and very dangerous but the main impact was that Morgan was suffering a mental disorder. Obviously she was at least partially expecting such a response. The nature of her varied ailments and those of many of you here that I have read about often cause Doctors to 'assign' a Pysch label when finding out the real cause is difficult or not reddialy<sp?> apparent. He also said that one reason this is good news is that such symptoms can be dealt with by a competant mental health provider. And that the other possible causes such as epilepsy carried life-long treatments. Additionally, he stated that something like 50% of patients who get such conclusive diagnosis' rarely have any more attacks. We've been home for about 24 hours and so far. No more spells. Morgan is pretty weak and shaky still from being bedridden most of the last 4 days but otherwise seems ok. Of course she still has the inner ear and autonomic conditions and heart troubles. All that she had before is still with her. But the periodic paralysis seems to have been addressed. What we have not acertained yet, is if they paralysis will return or not. And we don't know what the supposed underlying cause is either. But now I have finally gotten to the point where I can tell you why I am writing this message and not Morgan herself. She knows you all love and care for her, she wanted me to tell you that your support has meant a great deal to her. But she WANTS to be as well as possible. So she has told me she WANTS to understand this diagnosis and accept it. She feels, at this time, that a group hug and dozens of messages reviling the Doctors will only feed into her doubts. So, for a time, I suspect she will not frequent this message forum. She is still in some mental shock, blaming herself for inflicting these traumatic events upon her friends and family. We've tried to be as supportive as ever and even have agreed to hide the real diagnosis from one of our sons who is not very supportive of Shrinks and Quacks. (his terms) So for now we say she has suffered from an imbalance of Potasium and hopefully the Doctors will be able to regulate it via pills sometime in the near future. I want to thank you all for helping Morgan and lending your voices to her over the last year or so she's been logging on here. You have all meant a very great deal to her when I haven't always been available enough. I have the greatest empathy for you because I know if you as a group have any of Morgan's other physical problems, then your lives cannot be very easy either. I think that at some point, Morgan will either accept or reject her present condition, and hopefully then she will feel grounded enough to return here for communion with you. I would guess that she's suffering from an unfair assumption of guilt or shame and I will be working with her to absolve her from that. But until then, she will probably close down for a time. I hope that sooner rather than later, she begins to seek out your counsel. I'll try to keep her apprised of the site but I won't be actively substituting my voice for hers. I want her to regain this part of her life as soon as possible. Dave Henrie. Husband of Debbie, aka Morgan617