Before we catch up to how Tina is today we need to go back almost one year.
In March of last year, Tina was working at the Metro and she starting dropping cans. This was the first sign of her noticing that something was not right. She went to her doctor's and saw a resident. They did reflex tests and determined that nothing was wrong. There were inflammatory markers in her blood work.
Tina continued to work.
In the summer, Tina's shoulders stiffened. She went back to the doctor's and saw another resident. This time, they suspected a torn rotator cuff. They ordered an x-ray and a CT scan. They didn't see anything in the results but thought it might be carpal tunnel. She wore a brace on her wrist for awhile. Tina noticed a slight tremor in her finger and thought that she might have Parkinson's.
Tina was put on the self check-out area at work because she could no longer ring people through at the regular line. She continued to keep busy with helping out wherever she could and even had my grandchildren for a visit and kept them amused. She had a different activity planned for every day that week.
By the fall things were changing again. On September 18, Tina was helping with a food give away. She was coming out of the church and fell forward. She couldn't stop the fall because of her arms not moving. She went to the hospital and the result was a broken finger, scrapes and bruises. When her appointment came to have the cast removed in October (which she had already removed), she got to actually see her own doctor. Her doctor immediately realized that something was not right. Tina asked the doctor, "can you tell me that it is not ALS?" The doctor said that she could not say that but would send her to a neurologist.
In October, Tina tripped up the stairs to her house but was caught before falling right down. In November, she was working at the Salvation Army and bent down and was too unsteady to be able to get up and fell and hit her head. She fell in her own house in the hot tub room and hit her head.
She continued to work and organize help for the Salvation Army.
Tina went to see Dr. Mercier, a neurologist and he referred her to Dr. Melanson, another neurologist. On December 2nd, she was poked and prodded. Her blood work consisted of 10 vials of blood. They did a nerve conduction study and a EMG. An EMG is short for Electromyogram. A needle electrode is inserted through your skin into various muscles. The test evaluates the electrical activity of muscles. She had previously had a MRI done.
On January 25, Dr. Melanson told Tina the diagnoses...ALS.
Tina is now on disability but is still working at the Salvation Army. She is always looking to keep busy with whatever she is able to do.
She is STEELE standing!
This post is a quick catch up of a year of Tina discovering her body not working right and finding the doctors to give her the answer that we didn't want to hear.
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