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Erik Mattheis - symptomatic
Onset of symptoms: age 13 Birthdate: 10/29/67 |
| Medications: Zinc Acetate (Galzin), Tetrathiomolybdate | |
| How My Wilson's Disease was Discovered | |
| I fell off my bicycle and gave myself a nasty concussion in the summer of '96. When the resulting double vision hadn't gone away in a few days, I visited the eye doctor, who recognized my KF rings. I then went home and found the symptoms on the internet, and was quite certain I had WD. I contacted the WD Association, and Dr Sellner recognized that my slurred speech was the kind typical in Wilson's patients. He directed me to Dr. Brewer at the U of Mich, who confirmed the diagnosis and has been treating me since. | |
| My Symptoms Before Treatment | |
| My hands started shaking when I was 13, about then I began to be fatigued more than an adolescent should be. The doctor my parents took me to said it was just a phase. Later in my teens, I tried to donate blood, but they wouldn't let me because I had low blood iron, this prompted a visit to the doctor who discovered I had a low platelet count in addition to low blood iron. He said unless it gets worse it was nothing to worry about. In my early twenties, depression set in, and slowly over the next few years, I started loosing my balance and coordination, began to act unreasonably, became more depressed, and my right arm started sticking out from the shoulder. I also had constipation, obsessions, paranoia. During the winter of '96 I took a suppliment that had a lot of copper in it - it was some sort of chloryphyll thing. By the summer, I was horrible, afraid to leave my apartment, shaking violently (hands, head, and torso), was drooling, ande my insomnia, which I h! ad attributed to depression was keeping me up for 72 hours straight at times, then I'd sleep for 18 hours straight. I also have slight cihrossis, but didn't know this till after I was diagnosed. I also thought the arthritis in my knees was just from getting older. | |
| My Symptoms Now | |
| Slight tremmor but hardly noticible. The insomnia and irregular sleep patterns are still as bad as ever. My knees are occasionaly stiff, and I think it's a wee bit harder to concentrate, everything is worst when I'm very tired. | |
| Additional Comments | |
| I think a lot of people over react in a negative way when the diagnosis is made. For me it was releif from wondering what was going on with my body and mind for fifteen years. WD is very treatable, and if you take the right drugs, you'll never get any worse and will most likely get vastly better. During the time I haven't been working (for anybody else) I've started a small record label and spent a lot of time on my computer teaching myself how to author for the web. | |
| Contact Info | |
| Erik Mattheis (grmndzr@isd.net) 3010 Hennepin Ave S #154 Minneapolis MN 55408 USA tel: (612) 827 3963 fax: (612) 824 9334 url: http://www.isd.net/gourmand/ |
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