FAQ - neuromyelitis optica
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Have you or a loved one ever suffered from Neuromyelitis Optica?


If so please share your experience & enlighten me about this rare disorder. thank you.

also, are there are good organizations where I could seek more information and help. thanks.
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In June of 1996 my 53 year old wife noticed rapid changes in her vision.
She went right away to an ophthalmologists and within three days she was completely blind. She was admitted to a hospital and IV sterroids were used. Her eyesight started to get better right away and in three months she was able to go back to work. She was a RN and her job was stressful and in a weeks time she started to lose vision again. Within a six month period she gained and lost her eyesight three times and the last time it did not return. She has been completely blind since then.

About two years after her first attact with the blindness, she started feeling n  (+ info)

What do you know about neuromyelitis optica? What percent of people end up blind, and/or in wheel chair.?


Also, what percent experience incontinence? How many people have been diagnosed with it? What is the best treatment or the standard treatment? Also called Devic's disease or syndrom. Is it still considered a form of Multiple Sclerosis?
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Whether neuromyelitis optica (NMO), the co-occurrence of myelitis and optic neuritis, is a variant of multiple sclerosis (MS) or a unique disease is controversial. Distinct neuropathological features and a fulminant clinical course argue in favor of NMO as a distinct disease. However, the combination of neurological impairments of myelitis and optic neuritis occurs in patients with several inflammatory disorders, including multiple sclerosis and collagen vascular diseases. NMO is also associated with certain infectious diseases. The fact that the NMO phenotype occurs in a variety of disease states suggests that NMO does not represent a specific clinical entity.
Devic's disease is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in which there are episodes of inflammation and damage to the myelin (fatty, protective covering of nerves) that almost exclusively affect the optic (eye) nerves and spinal cord. It usually causes temporary blindness, occasionally permanent, in one or both eyes. It can also lead to varying degrees of weakness or paralysis in the legs or arms, loss of sensation, and/or bladder and bowel dysfunction from spinal cord damage.
Differences from Multiple Sclerosis
Devic's disease affects only the optic nerves and spinal cord, whereas MS affects the brain as well.
Attacks of Devic's disease tend to be more frequent and severe than in MS, though this is not always the case.
An MRI of the brain is typically normal in Devics disease, although this is not always the case; in MS the MRI of the brain typically shows many areas of inflammation.
An MRI of the spinal cord shows large extensive areas of inflammation of the spinal cord whereas in MS typically the areas are much smaller.
Spinal fluid studies tend not to show the typical elevation of antibodies detected in patients with MS, although occasional patients may show this abnormal pattern of antibodies.
Complications of Devic's Disease

Permanent blindness may occur in one or both eyes. Permanent loss of strength or sensation in the arms or legs may occur. Inability to control the bowel or bladder function may also occur
VR  (+ info)

How many people in the world have Devic's Disease (NMO - Neuromyelitis optica)?


As an MS type of illness (non contageous) that is some 200 years old it amazes me that so little is known of it by so many professionals.

So why?

Is it really that deadly that people don't live long enough to be diagnosed or researched?
Or so rare as to be too few to sample?

If I have this - and I am under tests now then I have probably had it most of my life - and I am 46... So, why am I teaching professionals about this illness before they treat me?
From a guy awaiting his diagnosis in the UK.
http://www.devic.org.uk
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I have a friend with Devic's disease. They dx'd her with MS for years and treated it as MS. Overnight she went from walking to a wheelchair, so they treated her with chemo for MS and it did nothing. About a year later after switching her from drug to drug they retested her and found it as Devic's. She does well just can't walk and that is really her only problem.  (+ info)

what are the possible outcomes for a baby diagnosed with septo-optic dysplasia?


How severely handicapped will he be? What is the cause of septo-optica dysplasia?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septo-optic_dysplasia  (+ info)

Australia- private health insurance for FAMILY, average cost? hospital cover & some extras like dental, optica?


i just called 2 places mbhba and hba,, its roughly $200 a month,, way over $$$$ what i was hoping for

its for a family of 6,, we want hospital cover, optical, dental mainly,, any idea what insurance company is best? thanks

or is that pretty much what they all charge?

you reckon its worth getting?
thats $50 a week, thats alot, considering when u do need to use the insurance, like for instance last year my daughters eyes [glasses] cos $800, id only get $250 back,, not a great saving

and my sons dental work was $4,000 id only get half back

so out of those 2 claims in one whole year id save $2,250,, but will cost me $2,400 in insurance,, id be losing more out of pocket than if i NEVER had insurance,, makes me wonder if its worth it
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Calling over places mbhba and hba is a A1 idea  (+ info)

im 14 years old and i need?


I am an aspiring photographer i need for one a camera and a good fisheye lens. Im getting a Canon rebel xti and an optica fisheye lens i need for all that about 550 bucks....whats a good way i can make money at my age...i already do lawns and stuff but i need something bigger and faster
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