Posted on 10/07/2018 7:54:32 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Chicago runner Lynn Rogers knows the brain and nervous system in detail. After all, she earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. Every day in her research, she uses non-invasive brain stimulation to understand the connections between mind and muscle.
But even with a brain-science background, she struggled to find information about her prognosis when, last year, she received a rare diagnosis: chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP. The disease causes her body to attack her own nerve cells, destroying their protective coatings and short-circuiting their signals.
After three weeks of paralysis and three months as an inpatient at the same facility where she conducts her experiments—the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab—Rogers went home last October. Now, just a year later, she’s returning to run this year’s Chicago Marathon.
As a 16-time marathoner, CrossFit regular, and Ironman finisher, Rogers, 42, is plenty competitive. But this time, her goals are different: to raise funds for CIDP research and treatment, and to make sure others diagnosed with the condition have a new reference point for what’s possible.
“For somebody somewhere who is struggling through this thing—their world has completely changed and they don’t know what’s going on and maybe they think it’s over,” she told Runner’s World by phone. “It means a lot to me to put out a story that has the positive swing of good recovery and continued recovery, that might give somebody hope in that really ugly place.”
Rogers’s unexpected first-hand education in neurology began last year, 10 days before she was due to compete in Ironman Canada, in Whistler. She noticed her hands felt oddly numb while she was washing them. Next, pins and needles tingled in her feet. Then her tongue lost sensation—food began to taste strange.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
Brain injury here, 13 years ago.
Docs said recovery ended after 2 years. They were VERY VERY wrong.
Though the most horrible symptom is I wake up with my body trembling and shaking, my vision shaking and palpitations that are quite terrifying :)
Doctors told me it’s a sleep/wake cycle disorder caused by damage to the brain.
Every now and then insomnia up to 60 hours.
Chronic pain.
And a few other things.
But a LOT better than when it happened and a lot better than after 2 years, the doctors’ cut off point for brain healing.
terrifying.....hope you continue to get a little better each day.
Yeah man I talk like a tough Italian on the board for those that know me, but it scares the dickens out of me EVERY SINGLE morning :)
Doctors can tell me the area of the brain that is damaged, but they can’t fix it lol
That’s a FAR way off, I fear.
I’m a YUGE TBI vets supporter.
Because many of their injuries are far worse and too many are taking their lives because of it.
Thanks for your concern.
PS I should be SO MUCH WORSE than I am.
Cause God is good.
Best wishes to the lady. I hope she has a good time on her run.
I’m glad you’re getting better. Hopefully, you’re other symptoms will eventually go away, God willing.
God is great. He has been better to me than I undoubtedly deserve.
Same here!!
NOTHING is written in stone. Docs have told me it’s impossible that it will go away.
But only one Being knows that for sure.
They’re not dead brain cells. They’re damaged ones.
Or perhaps God will grant some young doctor out there the genius to figure out how to mend certain aspect of brain injury.
God bless you and yours
Have to talked to anyone about neurofeedback? That looked like it might have some promise for addressing TBI when I last looked into it.
The way the headline was written, I was hoping she was replacing Rahm Emmanuel.
I thankfully don’t have TBI, but doctors suspect I got epilepsy from a few mild concussions when I was a kid. I wish you and the author well, from someone who knows all too well about brain problems.
Epilepsy. Hmm.
One doctor said it could be myoclonic seizures that are happening when the wake part of the sleep/wake cycle kicked in.
These are tough things we deal with, both of us and one day at a time is the only approach that seems to work for me.
I have tremors, but the docs told me not Parkinson’s. I’m grateful. It’s a nuisance, not a death sentence.
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