It all started June 2010. I found out I was pregnant with Madelyn and went through the horrible task of getting off of all of the Class D medication I was taking. It was grueling but I made it through. I started noticing that my left foot was hurting. The pain got worse so I went to a foot doctor and found out I had tendonitis. 3 months in a boot and 2 months of Physical therapy and I was back to my normal self. Or so I thought.
Shortly after I finished PT my foot started going numb and my leg started to hurt. I was almost 6 months pregnant by then so I blew it off. Then slowly the pain moved up my leg. I delivered Madelyn at 36 weeks. Then my right foot started going numb and hurting. The pain slowly moved up my leg. Fast forward 7 months… I had pain and numbness in both feet, both legs and my right hand. I went to see an Orthopedic who quickly diagnosed me with having tendonitis and referred me to a Neurologist for the numbness.
The Nuro immediately sent me to have a series of tests done. Today I got the results back…
I have two growths on my spinal cord at my neck. These growths have pushed the discs in my spine to the left and are a fraction of an inch from paralyzing me from the neck down. If I would have continued to ignore the pain and numbness that I felt and just blew it off as a “side effect of a difficult pregnancy” then eventually I would have become permanently paralyzed.
Where do we go from here…
My Neurologist has set me up with a great Neurosurgeon. We are meeting with both Doctors together to decide when and how they will be surgically going in to correct this issue. In the meantime, I can not lift anything heavier than 10 pounds (my daughter, Madelyn weighs 13 pounds) and I must wear a brace on my neck to keep me from going paralyzed until they can get in to fix the damage.

This comes at the worst time as we were preparing for my husband to undergo chemotherapy.
His chemo has been put on hold for the moment.

I can’t say when I will be back on this blog but I will be back. Please pray for me and my family.

-The Mom Claire