Neurology Patient Stories

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GszNst4xBc Carla Huelsmann was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 2 years old. Throughout her childhood and early adult years, she experienced mainly petit mal seizures. She continued through life, adjusting to her disease as needed. Once Huelsmann welcomed her daughter, the hormone levels in her body changed, making controlling her seizures much more difficult.

In Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), areas of your brain (the frontal lobe and temporal lobe) shrink, causing progressive speech, language, personality and behavior problems, as well as a decline in your thinking and reasoning skills (cognitive skills). It is often misdiagnosed as a psychiatric problem or as Alzheimer's disease, but FTD tends to occur at a younger age than does Alzheimer's disease, typically between the ages of 40 and 70.

In case you missed Part 1, click here: "Coping with Lewy Body - Part 1". Don writes: Coping with Self-knowledge and Self-doubt I  entered into last summer with the  conviction that I had a fairly good knowledge of my strengths and weaknesses,  that I would know what I can expect of myself in almost any circumstances. Then came the hallucinations and related events. I was told that these experiences had stretched over several weeks rather than the four or five days that I remembered. Most of these “episodes” I neither remember deciding to do or doing. Even when one makes allowance for the effects of various medications which the doctors were using as they attempted to find the most effective combination, this all dramatically called into question my self-knowledge and raised self-doubt.

Don writes: In July of 2010, I was diagnosed as ill with Dementia Lewy Body (DLB). I read whatever I could find on the subject and asked the specialists who were treating me many questions for my own information and to be able to explain to friends how I could be ill while externally appearing as healthy as ever.  One of my most valuable findings was the Lewy Body Journal, an on-line publication by letters from individuals somehow touched by DLB.  With deep gratitude for publishing the journal, I have returned repeatedly to it to acquaint myself and insofar as possible to prepare for what  in all likelihood lies before  me --  and  grateful not to be alone in facing  DLB.

What began as a small, painless bump turned into a grueling 9.5-hour surgery for 3-year-old Caleb Ragaller (now 6). Caleb was born with a nasal dermoid cyst. Because superficial dermoid cysts are typically slow-growing and can be removed without complication, Caleb’s treatment plan appeared to be pretty straightforward. “We would go in for normal checkups and our doctor would just tell us to keep an eye on it and let us know if there were any changes,” explains Tina Ragaller, Caleb’s mom. “We planned to have it removed once he got older for cosmetic reasons.” But when Tina and her husband, Doug, took Caleb to a plastic surgeon, they found out the condition was more complicated than it seemed. “After reviewing the CT scan, the plastic surgeon saw there was more involved than just a dermoid cyst,” says Tina. “It looked more invasive. He said that even with his 33 years of experience he didn’t feel comfortable removing Caleb’s. He felt there was more involved, so he referred us to Mayo.” The Ragallers, who live in Ames, Iowa, drove to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where Caleb was seen by Marc Patterson, M.D., child and adolescent neurology.

By: Andrea Miller Birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, graduation gifts…we’re set in a society that longs after gifts.  I have learned, however, that the most important gift one can receive is a clean bill of health.  I have not had the pleasure of knowing what that is truly like.  I have been sick on and off for the past twenty-two years. I have learned to be content with the day at hand, not knowing what tomorrow may bring.  But through my struggles, trips to the doctor, tumors, surgeries, medication, and the like, I may soon get better, knowing and sharing with others what the gift of good health truly is. Medullablastoma is a very rare and often fatal type of brain cancer.  At age one I was diagnosed with this cancer, having a tumor in my brain the size of an orange.  Living in California at the time, I was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where the first of two surgeries took place.  The tumor was removed, three weeks later it re-grew; nearly 1/3 of my brain was removed during the second operation. Doctors informed my parents that I had a 10% chance of survival, even then it was likely I would never walk or pass a third grade learning level. Despite my grim outlook, I beat the odds.

Treatment for neurological condition restores her vision Grace Jeffers was happy – really happy – to see her physician, Brian Weinshenker, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist. Jeffers has neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a rare neurological disorder that attacks cells in the optic nerve and spinal cord. The disease took her vision. At Mayo Clinic, it was restored. Jeffers’ illness started in 2009 with a backache. Within a week, she couldn’t walk and had lost control of her left side. Jeffers, a Chicago resident, says local physicians believed she had multiple sclerosis (MS). They performed tests and sent blood samples to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, which confirmed she had NMO.

When he was just five years old, Jesse Jensen of Missoula, Mont. began having tics, or involuntary movements, and was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome . The ...

On October 16, 2010, Chris Norton, a freshman at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, was playing in a varsity football game when a special teams ...

Eight-year-old Jacob Harpel from Glencoe, Minn., was diagnosed with a plum-sized brain tumor the day before Thanksgiving last year. He had aggressive brain surgery at ...

nEven though the New York Yankees ended the Minnesota Twins' playoff hopes on Saturday night, the first season in Target Field was lined with attendance ...

When their daughter was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) in June 2008, the world turned upside down for cosmetics entrepreneur Victoria Jackson and infomercial pioneer ...