Back to 1999. So I went for a year without any problems after the numb lower back incident. I was working as a physical rehab aide while going to school for diagnostic ultrasound. The rehab field is fun and it’s meaningful because you can see people progress and get better. On the flip side, it can be very physically demanding and the shortage of healthcare workers, particularly nurses, is not helping the situation. So I was running around by day, physically wearing myself down, then going to classes at night, 4 times a week. The ultrasound program was one that was quick and intense, to get technologists out and working after a year of training and then a short clinical experience.
I have noticed a pattern for myself in that I tend to relapse sometime between April and July. Might be the onset of the warm weather. So as the heat was rising in June of that year, my left leg began to feel weak and tingly, from foot to knee. The leg also felt cold, like I had bad circulation. I plugged on, but I went to my dad’s primary doctor, who sent me for an EMG, a test that supposedly checks for nerve conduction. The exam was a bit uncomfortable, because it involved levels of electrical shocks and multiple needles stuck into my leg. When the results came back, they were negative. The primary doctor never scheduled me for anything else, and I again chalked it up to some weird side-effect from having had Lyme disease. The leg weakness/numbness went away in a month’s time.
At that point I wasn’t my biggest health advocate because I didn’t know any better.
