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Medical 'anomalies', while sad and terrible in some cases, can also be fascinating. I was seven in the summer of '94 and woke up one day with a completely immo

Medical 'anomalies', while sad and terrible in some cases, can also be fascinating. I was seven in the summer of '94 and woke up one day with a completely immobile left leg. My sister came into the bedroom to relay a message from mom that if I didn't stop playing games and get ready for school, then I'd be in trouble. However, I simply couldn't move my left leg. The rest of the week I spent at home. Whenever I needed to walk somewhere, I'd just hop on my right leg, and drag my left leg along with me. That week I saw a number of doctors and specialists. Had the battery of tests and diagnostics that are de rigeur for anything where the medical community has no clue what is going on. Within roughly seven days from the onset of this temporary paralysis, my leg began functioning again and did so quite quickly.

jader201 7y ago
Don’t leave us hanging! Did you/your parents/the doctors ever figure out what was going on? Or did you just chalk it up to a fluke, hoping it would never return?
- whatusername 7y ago
  My 5 y/o was unable to walk for a day or two last year. Diagnosed with this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5429052/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5429052/
- anongraddebt 7y ago
  No one ever figured it out. Obviously, I hope it never returns or if it does that only lasts a week;)
devm0de 7y ago
I had a very similar thing happen to me in the late 80’s when I was 5. I remember getting out of bed and falling to the ground as I couldn’t feel my legs. I lost function of both legs and couldn’t walk, my parents brought me into doctors and specialist and they had no answers. Less than a week later I regained feeling and function of both my legs like nothing ever happened. I don’t recall having a fever. I actually forgot that happened to me until your story just now. Crazy.
- blacksqr 7y ago
  I read long ago that a large percentage of people experience temporary paralysis with no traceable cause. Of course I don't remember where I read it. The writer Mary Shelley's arm suddenly became paralyzed when she was a teenager. After several months the paralysis went away.
- apinto 7y ago
  Check my comment below about myositis, it's most likely what you had!
  - Alex3917 7y ago
    I get why you would get this during an infection, but why a week or two after an infection?
- westmeal 7y ago
  Same thing happened to me around that age as well except it was only for a few days...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
apinto 7y ago
It's highly likely that you had myositis. It usually happens as a response to an underlying infection. The body's immune response is such that it destroys muscle tissue, typically the calves, sometimes the heart. My 6 years old son had it earlier this year and we were lucky enough that they detected a flu infection (he had no symptoms at all!) as a consequence of standard hospital tests, after being without answers for 12 hours. With that clue the doctors then were able to infer myositis from further blood tests. I never imagined you could have flu without symptoms! He was back walking and running a week later, as soon as the muscles regenerated.
- bayesian_horse 7y ago
  No, from the description myositis is highly unlikely. He claims his leg was paralyzed completely, not just the calve. Also rapid onset, no phase of "weakness", equally rapid recovery of function is inconsistent with significant muscle destruction. OP didn't report pain, or changes in perception and sensitivity, but I suspect the latter might have taken place. I'd pick something neurological. Diagnostics involve a lot of poking with needles and electric stimulation, much like you would debug a circuit. Does the muscle work when stimulated directly? Does it do something it shouldn't while not stimulated (spasmic activity). Do the nerves leading to the affected muscle conduct direct stimulation? Are relevant reflexes working? Today you'd probably also use an MRI do rule out lesions in the brain and spinal chord. And still, after all of that you might not find anything really "wrong", which often is a good sign. One case I witnessed had virtually no motor function behind the hips, and no control over bladder release and completely recovered within one or two weeks without significant intervention. Unfortunately the owner didn't want to pay for an MRI, but the dog, which had a long history of coagulation problems anyway, probably experienced some kind of bleeding somewhere in the spine. Such "vascular" causes typically happen and unhappen that quickly. One acronym is VITAMIN-D: Vascular, Inflammation, Traumatic, Anomaly, Metabolic, Infection, Neoplastic and Degenerative.
duxup 7y ago
My son went through something similar with what looked like an infection that was slow and then progressed rapidly. His legs and one hand had swollen and to keep his spirits up I brought in my NES classic that he promptly played even with just one hand. He also couldn't walk due to the swelling. Doctors could not figure it out, as quickly it was decided it wasn't an infection, but tests gave no indication of anything wrong in any way. They took a lot of blood and did a lot of testing sometimes because they assumed that there had to be something, but everything testing looked normal. The doctors were really concerned when it moved ever closer (extremely rapidly, you could easily chart changes in 5min intervals) to his head and torso and the fact that it mysteriously "jumped" limb to limb. There were weird clues that weren't useful clues like how it would start on each leg in the same place, same with arms, and looked the same to start like a bug bite... but didn't look like a bug bite later. During the days he was in the hospital we turned in all our clothes, his bed sheets / blankets and had our house searched for any kind of bedbug, or any kind of bug. We moved rooms and they searched those blankets sheets / the room for anything, nothing found. They were ready to load him on a helicopter to head to the university... where they told us "we still don't know what to do, but if there are complications we can handle those better at the university". Not encouraging, but I did like their honestly. Then.....it just stopped and faded away as quickly as it started. The assumption is that it was an unusual allergic reaction that wasn't well understood.
tzs 7y ago
> Medical 'anomalies', while sad and terrible in some cases, can also be fascinating I developed some kind of lump near the top of one of my butt cheeks. It was quite a bit denser than the surrounding tissue and it pointed up in a way that it could have been used as a hook to hang a hat on, if for some reason I was naked and needed to carry an extra hat around. My doctor didn't know what it was, and sent me to have a biopsy. The biopsy showed that it was not cancerous. It was way too big for my doctor to consider removing, and he sent me to a surgeon to see if she could remove it in her office. She said it was too big for that, and it would need to be done in a hospital. She also had no idea what it was. Next stop was a dermatologist to see if he had any ideas what it was and wht to do about it (short of surgery in the hospital). He too had no idea what it was. He checked with some colleagues at the University of Washington, describing it to them. They had no idea either, and wanted me to come over to let them look at it, and also show it to the medical students as an example of the strange ass (no pun intended) things that the human body sometimes does that they will encounter as doctors and have no idea what the heck is going on. Since it wasn't cancerous, and, aside from dashing any hopes I might have had of quitting programming to become a nude butt model, didn't cause any problems I declined and just ignored it. A few years later, it started shrinking, and a few months later was gone. One of the doctors told me that this kind of thing--a patient with some weird thing that the doctor does not recognize--is a lot more common than most people realize.
- deogeo 7y ago
  > it could have been used as a hook to hang a hat on, if for some reason I was naked and needed to carry an extra hat around. It would be more practical to put the hat on your head, or on top of your first hat, if you were already wearing one.
- karmelapple 7y ago
  Any mention or checking for it to be a pilonidal cyst?
  - adrianN 7y ago
    I guess a biopsy would have shown that.
mattigames 7y ago
The "command" the brain fires goes through a tiny cable we call "nerves" so it doesn't strike me as particularly strange if some sort of obstruction renders you unable to move the leg, our debugging capabilities are lacking in many areas so actually resolving those issues is a different matter.
- bayesian_horse 7y ago
  We can do a lot of "debugging". For example you can check if the muscles work on their own, which nerves are conducting and how fast...
raverbashing 7y ago
It is known that flu-like viruses can cause temporary weakness/paralysis in kids. Some pediatricians know (though I didn't know it had a name: myositis) though I have the impression it can also be a temporary "polio-like" effect
falcor84 7y ago
Interesting, thanks for sharing. The plot of Yorgos Lanthimos's strange Greek tragedy "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" starts with a similar premise, and I had no idea it could happen in real life.

jader201 7y ago

Don’t leave us hanging! Did you/your parents/the doctors ever figure out what was going on? Or did you just chalk it up to a fluke, hoping it would never return?

whatusername 7y ago
My 5 y/o was unable to walk for a day or two last year. Diagnosed with this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5429052/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5429052/
anongraddebt 7y ago
No one ever figured it out. Obviously, I hope it never returns or if it does that only lasts a week;)

devm0de 7y ago

I had a very similar thing happen to me in the late 80’s when I was 5. I remember getting out of bed and falling to the ground as I couldn’t feel my legs. I lost function of both legs and couldn’t walk, my parents brought me into doctors and specialist and they had no answers. Less than a week later I regained feeling and function of both my legs like nothing ever happened. I don’t recall having a fever. I actually forgot that happened to me until your story just now. Crazy.

blacksqr 7y ago
I read long ago that a large percentage of people experience temporary paralysis with no traceable cause. Of course I don't remember where I read it. The writer Mary Shelley's arm suddenly became paralyzed when she was a teenager. After several months the paralysis went away.
apinto 7y ago
Check my comment below about myositis, it's most likely what you had!
- Alex3917 7y ago
  I get why you would get this during an infection, but why a week or two after an infection?
westmeal 7y ago
Same thing happened to me around that age as well except it was only for a few days...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

apinto 7y ago

It's highly likely that you had myositis. It usually happens as a response to an underlying infection. The body's immune response is such that it destroys muscle tissue, typically the calves, sometimes the heart. My 6 years old son had it earlier this year and we were lucky enough that they detected a flu infection (he had no symptoms at all!) as a consequence of standard hospital tests, after being without answers for 12 hours. With that clue the doctors then were able to infer myositis from further blood tests. I never imagined you could have flu without symptoms! He was back walking and running a week later, as soon as the muscles regenerated.

bayesian_horse 7y ago
No, from the description myositis is highly unlikely. He claims his leg was paralyzed completely, not just the calve. Also rapid onset, no phase of "weakness", equally rapid recovery of function is inconsistent with significant muscle destruction. OP didn't report pain, or changes in perception and sensitivity, but I suspect the latter might have taken place. I'd pick something neurological. Diagnostics involve a lot of poking with needles and electric stimulation, much like you would debug a circuit. Does the muscle work when stimulated directly? Does it do something it shouldn't while not stimulated (spasmic activity). Do the nerves leading to the affected muscle conduct direct stimulation? Are relevant reflexes working? Today you'd probably also use an MRI do rule out lesions in the brain and spinal chord. And still, after all of that you might not find anything really "wrong", which often is a good sign. One case I witnessed had virtually no motor function behind the hips, and no control over bladder release and completely recovered within one or two weeks without significant intervention. Unfortunately the owner didn't want to pay for an MRI, but the dog, which had a long history of coagulation problems anyway, probably experienced some kind of bleeding somewhere in the spine. Such "vascular" causes typically happen and unhappen that quickly. One acronym is VITAMIN-D: Vascular, Inflammation, Traumatic, Anomaly, Metabolic, Infection, Neoplastic and Degenerative.

duxup 7y ago

My son went through something similar with what looked like an infection that was slow and then progressed rapidly. His legs and one hand had swollen and to keep his spirits up I brought in my NES classic that he promptly played even with just one hand. He also couldn't walk due to the swelling. Doctors could not figure it out, as quickly it was decided it wasn't an infection, but tests gave no indication of anything wrong in any way. They took a lot of blood and did a lot of testing sometimes because they assumed that there had to be something, but everything testing looked normal. The doctors were really concerned when it moved ever closer (extremely rapidly, you could easily chart changes in 5min intervals) to his head and torso and the fact that it mysteriously "jumped" limb to limb. There were weird clues that weren't useful clues like how it would start on each leg in the same place, same with arms, and looked the same to start like a bug bite... but didn't look like a bug bite later. During the days he was in the hospital we turned in all our clothes, his bed sheets / blankets and had our house searched for any kind of bedbug, or any kind of bug. We moved rooms and they searched those blankets sheets / the room for anything, nothing found. They were ready to load him on a helicopter to head to the university... where they told us "we still don't know what to do, but if there are complications we can handle those better at the university". Not encouraging, but I did like their honestly. Then.....it just stopped and faded away as quickly as it started. The assumption is that it was an unusual allergic reaction that wasn't well understood.

tzs 7y ago

> Medical 'anomalies', while sad and terrible in some cases, can also be fascinating I developed some kind of lump near the top of one of my butt cheeks. It was quite a bit denser than the surrounding tissue and it pointed up in a way that it could have been used as a hook to hang a hat on, if for some reason I was naked and needed to carry an extra hat around. My doctor didn't know what it was, and sent me to have a biopsy. The biopsy showed that it was not cancerous. It was way too big for my doctor to consider removing, and he sent me to a surgeon to see if she could remove it in her office. She said it was too big for that, and it would need to be done in a hospital. She also had no idea what it was. Next stop was a dermatologist to see if he had any ideas what it was and wht to do about it (short of surgery in the hospital). He too had no idea what it was. He checked with some colleagues at the University of Washington, describing it to them. They had no idea either, and wanted me to come over to let them look at it, and also show it to the medical students as an example of the strange ass (no pun intended) things that the human body sometimes does that they will encounter as doctors and have no idea what the heck is going on. Since it wasn't cancerous, and, aside from dashing any hopes I might have had of quitting programming to become a nude butt model, didn't cause any problems I declined and just ignored it. A few years later, it started shrinking, and a few months later was gone. One of the doctors told me that this kind of thing--a patient with some weird thing that the doctor does not recognize--is a lot more common than most people realize.

deogeo 7y ago
> it could have been used as a hook to hang a hat on, if for some reason I was naked and needed to carry an extra hat around. It would be more practical to put the hat on your head, or on top of your first hat, if you were already wearing one.
karmelapple 7y ago
Any mention or checking for it to be a pilonidal cyst?
- adrianN 7y ago
  I guess a biopsy would have shown that.

mattigames 7y ago

The "command" the brain fires goes through a tiny cable we call "nerves" so it doesn't strike me as particularly strange if some sort of obstruction renders you unable to move the leg, our debugging capabilities are lacking in many areas so actually resolving those issues is a different matter.

bayesian_horse 7y ago
We can do a lot of "debugging". For example you can check if the muscles work on their own, which nerves are conducting and how fast...

raverbashing 7y ago

It is known that flu-like viruses can cause temporary weakness/paralysis in kids. Some pediatricians know (though I didn't know it had a name: myositis) though I have the impression it can also be a temporary "polio-like" effect

falcor84 7y ago

Interesting, thanks for sharing. The plot of Yorgos Lanthimos's strange Greek tragedy "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" starts with a similar premise, and I had no idea it could happen in real life.