Scared for my son. Please help w/comments *Update 4/16*

[Medusa]

from your avatar I would never guess that you had a 40 year old son.

Yes, I tell people that my son and I are the same age now.

[Rachel]

I don't have any knowledge to shed on this, but the weight lifting may be something the doctors will key onto. You know how macho guys can get and he may just have tried to do too much. Whatever it turns out to be he had the smarts to go to the ER. Time and the body may be able to heal itself.

[Lizzie]

I had something similar when I was doing a lot of weights and hard landscaping alone (pick-axing and moving boulders, etc.) but it was in one leg. I could barely feel my hand when I touched it, it felt weak, etc. Scare the heck out of me. Turned out that I'd hurt my back, so hopefully this is the problem your son has also. Best wishes to both of you.

[Medusa]

He just called me and said that they started an IV on him and are doing blood work now. He said that he's weak all over now and couldn't even sit up from the exam table on his own; he had to be helped up. He still says he has no pain, just weakness. I asked him tons of questions: are you having vision or speech problems? No. Are you having pain in your shoulders or upper arms? No. He said that his abdomen feels like he's done 80,000 sit-ups but he didn't do any sit-ups during his workout because he was already feeling weak. His hands are beginning to swell, too, now.

[gini]

Goodness sakes, you must be scared out of your wits for him. Let's just pray that it is a bad case of the flu - and he can recover completely.

My prayers will be offered for you and your son.

[Medusa]

Well, he's out there in LA and I'm here in Ohio. I'm trying to stay calm but it ain't easy.

[jennielynn1970]

Oh how scary for the both of you! I hope that the it's nothing serious, just the flu or something like that.

My dad had something odd like that a year and a half ago. He had numbness/weakness in his arms and legs, then his joints swelled up, and he had to have fluid removed. There was a rash as well, and a fever. The doctors had no idea what it was. They ran so many tests, but nothing was conclusive. He wasn't able to work in his garden, go fishing or anything. The only thing anyone could think of was that it was auto-immune. He hasn't had a recurrence to date that I know of, but it lasted for months.

Lots of healing thoughts and prayers going out for your son.

[gini]

Well, he's out there in LA and I'm here in Ohio. I'm trying to stay calm but it ain't easy.

As you can tell, I am in Los Angeles (but I was born and raised in Ohio)

Please p/m me if there is anything that I can do from here. Do you know the name of the hospital that he is in?

[Argranade]

He probably pulled a nerve or something that's making his arm weak.

What ever you do don't read things on the internet, they'll freak you out.

Yes they sound true but a doctor is the way too go.

I'm sure he'll be ok.

[phesina]

Dear Mary, saying prayers for you and your son for his good health and rapid recovery from whatever is going on here. I'm glad he is getting medical care. I'm wondering too if perhaps he pushed himself a bit too far with the weight-lifting; seems to me I've heard of other such cases.

Love, Purrs, and Hugs,
Peony, Sydney, Poppy, Elmer, Pat, and Priscilla Angel

[caseysmom]

Still praying for your son.

[Catty1]

HUGS.

Have a look at cataplexy here. It's often associated with narcolepsy, but not always:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataplexy

Wikipedia is a pretty conservative board, so this shouldn't sound any alarms.

But the swelling! Holy cow, I pray they get to the bottom of this soon!

[Medusa]

My son just called me as he was leaving the hospital. He has myositis. The emergency room dr. put him on Prednisone and he wants him to see another dr. tomorrow. He asked the dr. if it's serious and the dr. said "no" but he still wants him to see the other dr. anyhow. It's probably caused by a virus although the dr. wasn't even sure about that. It's an inflammation of the muscles and in severe cases, it can lead to a wasting away of the muscle. But the dr. feels that his case is not severe and that he should be back to normal w/in 48 hours. My son was just exhausted and hungry. He hadn't eaten in over 10 hours and that was also contributing to his weakness. So he'll call me tomorrow to let me know how he's feeling and again after he talks to the second dr.

Thank you so much, friends, for being there w/encouragement and especially for your prayers. I know how powerful prayer is, especially PT prayers. It's worked time and time again w/my Fur Posse, that's for sure. Well, this is my kid, not my furkid, and he means everything to me. He is IT, in a nutshell, and I was doing my best to stay calm and not think the worst but, if I had to, I was prepared to fly to LA tomorrow. Thankfully, he's going to be alright and will get better and better w/each passing day. I'm off to bed; I have a screaming headache now from holding my body so tense. Thanx again and I'll update tomorrow.

I forgot to add that the dr. said that he checked his breathing repeatedly to be sure that it wasn't spreading to the chest and his heart also checked out fine. Sometimes the inflammation can spread so rapidly that it causes difficulty in breathing and swallowing but that hasn't been the case w/my son.

[NoahsMommy]

Awwww, I'm glad it wasn't serious. I'm glad its "all over" and the stress is now over for you both. You poor thing. ((((((Hugs))))))