There's a good chance. It's just that doctors are so damn careful to diagnose things these days out of fear and these two diseases are so commonly misdiagnosed that they're mentioned in each other's descriptions on some sites. The problem is there's concrete proof of the syrinx in my spine and the nerve damage was very easy to spot in my legs while the arms were just written off as anomalies that might get better, but then I had lesions show up on a brain MRI and there's some spots in my spine as well. I actually had two tumors removed from my chest last month as well and another one just grew again in the same area. Mix that with stomach problems with my insides being completely scarred up and some other problems and you can see how confusing it is for the doctors because I have signs of everything to them and they have no clue which to say it is.
I wish they'd just pick one so I can try for disability the right way instead of being stuck in limbo like I've been the past few years.
That sucks. Hope it works out for you. Can you still walk properly and do you get back pain?
Very bad back pain to where I can only walk for about 10 minutes before the pressure gets so bad that I can't move. I'd say pain averages about 7 out of 10 lately and that's with Oxycontin combined with Percocet from one of my doctors who thought it might help. Now that pain is just average laying around, but when I do something, I get up to 9 or so to the point where I sometimes end up crying and losing vision from it hurting so bad. Walking is something that changes day by day but there's so many nerve problems that it's hard to ever have a good day. I usually end up rolling or buckling my leg nonstop after a few minutes of walking and my feet are always completely numb and feels like the tingling from being hit on your funny bone. Sometimes I want a cane and other times my pride says no because I never know when I'll need it or not until I walk a bit, lol.
They definitely found major nerve damage affecting my legs but one of the spots that was causing damage was "unknown" according to my doctor and never really went any further to find out.. Two torn discs at the bottom of my back and then the large tear in the actual spinal cord up top from the spinal cord disease plus nerve damage ALL OVER my body. Nerves went bad in both arms and go tingly after a short period of just resting them on a chair which a brace didn't help much at all. Tremor developed in my main hand and now I have trouble gripping things without looking like I have Parkinson's which is probably one of the most demoralizing things of all my problems simply because your hands are your tools and it's embarrassing. Basically every nerve, muscle and joint has been chewed up and spit out and he said my structure is more like an 80 year old now.
You could mention an area of the body and I could probably say something that's happened to me there. I've even had weird vision changes at times that was like a tunnel closing in on me and my heart isn't 100% anymore which is usually what happens to the people that do die from the spinal cord disease.
It's just all so fucking confusing and expensive that it's mind boggling. It's just been progressively getting worse for 3 or 4 years now and they seem puzzled. It originally started in the military where I had a great intel job, then they tried to keep me while ignoring the test results, then realized I wouldn't be able to continue so they misdiagnosed me with IBS after having my gall bladder taken out and said that I had problems that I didn't know about before I joined so they weren't responsible, so I lost all military benefits since I was technically still in a lot of the training since it had 2 solid years of learning the intelligence portion of the job. So now I have no money in the account and living with my parents who help with insurance, but it just went up another 40 bucks a month and it's not ending anytime soon so I just want disability to help ease the burden on them. I hate feeling responsible for making my mom work a shitty job just to help me out and it's gotten me nowhere.
Long reply but it could be A LOT longer sadly, lol. They called me Murphy's Law in the military for a reason and these are just the main problems and symptoms. I think the problem is just the damn process of getting diagnosed and getting some closure. Instead, I go back month after month for the same shit and no progress while my body gets weaker. I used to be 6'3" 165lbs. in the Air Force and then dropped to 140lbs. when I started getting the stomach problems, then shot up to 240lbs. now from all of the pills and steroids.
Edit: Oh, and the pain has me not sleeping at all even with all the pills and sedatives in the world so I do two days of very little sleep like 3 hours or so and then 12 hours on the third day. Rinse. Repeat.
