Transverse Myelitis
My name is Liezl Magan. I'm 32 years old and I live in Las Vegas, NV. I am a mother of 2 boys, Ronnell 11 and Deveren 14 years old. I also have a wonderful boyfriend of 13 yrs named Reggie. At the age of 21, my whole world tumbled upside down and my life changed completely when I became paralyzed from my waist down.
Four months after giving birth to my second son, I noticed a weird sensation in (a weird spot) the left side of my butt cheek and weakness in my left leg to my foot. I began to have weakness in my left ankle and it became so weak that I could not lift my left leg and foot up or turn it left to right which caused me to fall to the floor sometimes. My left hand started to feel numb and started to have unbearable back pain.
As two months went by, I continued to have back pain, and had a difficult time walking stumbling on my left foot. My legs felt like they were still very weak and what was worse was my right leg started going numb too. I was hospitalized twice in those two months, given steroids for 5 days each hospitalization. Doctors could not explain what was causing my weakness, numbness, and pain. Only that my spinal cord is inflamed & nerves have been damaged. One day, I felt really sick. I felt so fatigued, vomited throughout the day, and felt so weak I couldn't get out of bed. Once I did try to get out of bed, I noticed while I was at the edge of the bed that I couldn't bear any weight on my feet. I was trying to push myself up and off the bed, but my legs would not allow me to get up. I began to get so scared and worried because I could not take care of our newborn baby and 3 year old son. My boyfriend and his friends needed to help carry me to the car because I could not move my legs. Once I got to the hospital, I had to do an MRI and blood work. They found that it was my immune system attacked my spinal cord and my nerves.
I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis (trans-vurs mahy-uh-lahy-tis). Transverse Myelitis is an auto-immune disease and a spinal cord disorder. Transverse meaning across the width of the spinal cord and myelitis meaning inflammation of the spinal cord and damaged nerves. It's like when you’re sick, your body tries to fight or 'attack' the sickness. But in my case, my immune system mistakenly attacked my spinal cord and the covering of my nerves instead. Cases in which a cause can't be identified is called 'idiopathic', which is the kind I have.
The doctor had me do a plasma exchange to take all the bad anti-bodies in my blood. I was released from the hospital and did at home physical therapy and occupational therapy. Four months later, I was able to walk again with a cane, to unassisted walking.
In January 2010, I unfortunately had a relapse that caused me to stop walking again. My doctors could not explain what caused it again. Since then, I have not been able to walk or get any movement back below my waist. I live with chronic back and nerve pain every minute of everyday, but I continue to stay strong because I have my family that needs me. As difficult as it may be already, I always remind myself that things could always be worse than it is. I am thankful for everyday I wake up to.
My dream and goal is to get movement back and walk again. It is something I am determined to work hard for. I suffer from chronic pain everyday, but I am willing to push through it to reach my goal. My eldest son, Deveren, is Autistic. It has been very challenging for us having a special needs child at the same time with my disability. We always do our best to make everyday work. Reggie has been the best taking care of me and the boys by all by himself. What happened to me has effected all of our lives. I still grieve over the things I used to do like going to work, driving, exercising, and most of all playing with my kids and doing “Mom” duties. I miss doing things that I used to do on my own and being independent without having to ask someone to reach something or do something for me.
I want to inspire people, or anyone that's in the same situation as I am. As long as you never give up, you can reach your goals. I want my kids to look up to me and see that you can truly do anything you put your mind to. I have faith in myself and in God that I can and will be able to get another chance to get movement in my legs and walk again. I know I have a long road ahead of me, but I know as long as I keep trying I will reach my goal of getting on my feet again.