Medical Mysteries - Can You Figure It Out?

Have you ever seen that show? They show you all these crazy symptoms and you get to guess what the heck is wrong with that person. Then at the end, they tell you.

That's what I am going do today with ya. If you guess it right, all ya get is a big ol' "Good Job" and a pat on the back. Oh, and you get to know that you are smarter than all the doctors in Shreveport, LA and Texarkana, TX.

On Memorial day in 2005, we went to my parents house to see them. My mom was in bed sick. This is really weird because my mom is NEVER sick. I think with her current job at the time, she had never even taken a sick day. She is not on any medication and doesn't even like taking Tylenol. She was literally the healthiest person I knew.

I went in, gave her a kiss, and left so she could rest. This went on for days and we started getting worried. She had severe fatigue, weakness, back pain, nausea, vomiting, joint pain, confusion and fever. With each day, more symptoms appeared. She got to the point that she couldn't eat, walk good, think, or sleep. Her being a Physical Therapist, this drove her crazy.

At first, they thought she had hepatitis but it wasn't. Then, they did a CT scan to see if she had a kidney infection because of the back pain. During that, they found some cysts on her lymph glands. Father's Day weekend, they said she could have lymphoma. We were devastated. Just one month earlier, she was climbing trees with Little Man on Mother's Day.

Turns out, it wasn't cancer. When she was 18, she was in a car wreck and her spleen basically exploded. The 'cysts' on her lymph glands were pieces of her spleen and were not causing any problems. We were so happy she didn't have cancer, but wanted to know what was wrong with her. She went through months of tests. They sent her to Shreveport for test and they thought it might be lupus. She had tested positive on some test that basically said her body was attacking itself.

Nope, not lupus. Whatever it was, it was affecting so many parts of her body. She also had dry mouth, mouth sores, sore throat, her vision got a lot worse, restless leg syndrome, headaches, chest and abdominal pain, red blotches on her face, and itching. Her symptoms would get worse after she ate so she didn't like eating. Hubby went out of town to work so I moved in with them to help out. Dad works nights so I needed to be there.

Then they thought she had Multiple Sclerosis. Nope, not that.

They did a spinal tap to see if that would tell them anything and it didn't. She had good days and bad days. Sometimes she seemed almost normal and others she was so sick. On her good days, she basically seemed drunk. Used the wrong words, unbalanced, and forgetful. Ya, those were her good days. On her bad days, she had to use a walker if she got up and hurt so bad and was so sick. The doctors finally decided it was all in her head and that she needed to see a shrink.

She didn't see a shrink. We all knew better.

In February of 2006, with still no answers, my parents decided to get away for a week. They went up to Arkansas for a fly fishing thing and I stayed at their house to dog sit. She called me on one of the days and told me to make her an appointment with a certain kind of doctor. I got out the phone book and made one for that Tuesday.

Within 2 weeks, she was pretty much back to normal. If she got too tired or ate the wrong food, she would show some symptoms but not bad. Within a couple of months, she was totally normal, healthy and back at work. This is not something that will ever come back but she still has to watch what she eats (kinda). We are so glad that this is behind us all.

So, can you guess what was wrong with her? I will let you all know Monday. Until then, good luck guessing.