My memories of specific dates are pretty much non-existent since this all happened 13 years ago but I think you can get the gist of things.
It was the beginning or possibly the middle of December 2000. I had just come home to my parents’ house for the weekend. I had a doctor’s appointment to move from pediatrics to internal medicine within the Henry Ford Health System. I was 18 and almost had finished my first semester of college at Western Michigan University.
I remember arriving home and running up my parents’ porch (that I had done a MILLION times thus far in my life!) and the last step was difficult for me to get up. I had to try a few times and I realized that was the first time I had done that EVER! I thought it was a little bit weird but didn’t pay much attention to it.
My appointment was for 4 or 5 and my Dad was taking me because my Mom was still at work. The appointment was just a “meet and greet” with a new doctor who would be my new internist. I can’t even remember her name now. I’ve thought to retrieve my medical records to get all of the facts straight (the dates and stuff) but have not gotten around to it. So, I meet with this doctor and gave her some of my health history and told her about myself.
I mentioned some tingling and numbness I was feeling in my feet and it recently moved to my hips and thighs and up to a little bit above my belly button. I had been feeling it for a while and I found it just a little bothersome at that point. I lived in Valley 2 of the freshman dorms which was 1 mile off main campus.
Because my first schedule was done for me (computer generated for ALL incoming freshman) I needed to make the trek to main campus 3 times a day. Maybe my legs were just a little bit tired. In addition to my trek to main campus, my boyfriend at the time (my son’s father) still lived at home and worked framing houses. He would call me on his way to work EVERY SINGLE MORNING! He would go to work at about 6:30 a.m. and my first class was not until noon.
After talking to him for a half an hour while he drove to work, I was wide awake so I started working out at the Rec on main campus for like two or three hours a day. It was at the Rec at Western that I discovered the elliptical machine and I would be on it for like an hour EVERYDAY! My first semester away at school I got the “Freshman 15.” I LOST 15 pounds! I didn’t think that given how fit I was back then, my legs would not be numb and tingle because of all that walking. I was in shape. 6 miles a day going to and from class should not have been a problem.
The doctor seemed a bit concerned by me telling her of the numbness and tingling that I was experiencing. She did a bunch of tests on me. She pulled out this tuning fork and kept hitting it and putting it on both of my feet and legs and asking if I felt the vibrations. (I didn’t) Then she took one of those big Q-tips they have at doctor’s offices and broke it in half. She kept poking me and asking if it felt sharp. (It didn’t).
She did the same test a number of times and after she was finished; she looked at me and my Dad (she had called him into the exam room) and told me that I need to go to the ER tonight. She thought I was having neurological problems.