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Michael Anderson
The Mystery Illness
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At age nine, Michael was a happy-go-lucky boy, involved in the local soccer team and cub scouts. He liked playing with his friends, riding his bike and going camping with the family. But on May 8th 1991, he awoke with a pain in his thumb.
As his mother and the mom of three other sons, I knew that boys were rough and tumble on a daily basis. I thought nothing of it and sent him to school. The next day, his ankles hurt too. That seemed unusual. I suspected Lymes Disease since we live in a high incidence area. He was tested but it came back negative. He developed flu like symptoms. On his birthday, May 11th, he was too ill to celebrate. The flu symptoms passed but his joints in both his hands and feet worsened over the next few weeks. He was tested again for Lymes and put on a month supply of antibiotics but the test returned negative again. After he finished the antibiotic course, with no improvement, we took him to a rheumatologist. The doctor ascertained that he must have had rheumatic fever at one point from an undiagnosed case of Strep Throat. We were not satisfied with that diagnosis.
By July, Michael was confined to a wheelchair. His feet and hands were taking on a crippled arthritic appearance and they were intensely painful to move. His muscles were atrophying from lack of use. Physical Therapy would be torture to his thinning pain wracked body. He was on a constant regimen of ibuprofen to lessen the pain. I tended to all his daily needs. He became totally helpless.
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