Please tell me if anyone has heard of this
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June 16, 2007 at 8:59 pm
First of all I find it kind of funny that I am asking this question following the cooling vest request. I have a friend who is going through a rough time with diagnosis of gbs and treatment and I encourged him to join us on here to help but my question is….has anyone ever heard of a “sweat test” ? This is not to be mixed up with the sweat test for Systic fibrosis for children. They are putting my friend through this uncomfortable test of putting him in a warming outfit in a hot room for a period of time and then turning his table upside down for a period of time all of which will take 3 hours and this supposedly is to get answers about his immune system. I have researched this and found nothing and I have never heard of it. (not that that means anything). Please post if you have any thoughts about this. His protein levels proved his gbs but alot of fumbling has been going on (sounds familiar to alot of us hey.)Thanks to all.
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June 17, 2007 at 8:24 am
Wow, that is the strangest thing I ever heard of! The suit and sweat, sounds like a bad diet infomercial. Good luck with that test!
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June 17, 2007 at 10:24 am
Wow. That sounds horrific! Three hours of heat-related torture? I’d pass out within the first five minutes, I’m sure! I’m not sure what exactly that test is supposed to prove. I’ve truly never heard of such a thing, and like you, my internet searches brought up nothing. If you find out anything more from your friend, please come back and post it here because now my curiosity is out of control!
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June 17, 2007 at 11:00 am
piglet,
never heard of it. did he/she get ivig or pp? if not, something is terribly wrong. even so, seems like you think so anyway. if your gut feeling tells you something is wrong, it usually is. take care. be well.
gene gbs 8-99
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June 17, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Is your friend on heavy medication? I had wild dreams of being cooked on a stove along with being frozzen and then thawed out, which took place while in a medical induced coma. It took me a long time to sort out what was real and what wasn’t while coming out of the coma. I did have the sweats real bad for quite a while until more nerves came back to life.
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June 17, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Hi to all
I figured these were the results I would hear from you guys about this sweat test. To me it is absured. I guess it is supposed to reveal something about his immune system which makes no sense to me because wouldnt we all have had that to make sure we never had a second bout of gbs. duh:rolleyes:
Gene- he has had ivig (9 treatments I think) but no pp treatment yet. I feel so bad because they have him on alot of different meds and now added ridilin to it. :confused: I gave him the names of different Docs so hopefully things will get rolling and I am calling him tomorrow to let him know our thoughts on that dumb test that I am thinking that if he is batteling gbs that could really set him back. They have the information packet from the foundation and I will encourage him again to come on and meet all of you to help. Thanks again and thanks for the humor from you guys, sometimes it just cracks me up…..which I totally need sometimes. -
June 20, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Piglet,
I too have no idea what the “sweat test” is, but in the old days, one way to help diagnose MS was to put the patient in a hot bath. While not definitive, if s/he became significantly weaker quickly, it was taken as an indication of MS. The reason is that nerves conduct more slowly when warm. With the damage to the myelin already slowing conduction, the change caused by heat would slow conduction to the point of weakness. Maybe the doctor is thinking along those lines.
Diagnosing GBS is not as easy as it might seem. In another thread, there is a link to a presentation on GBS given to the Transverse Myelitis Association. The clinical presentation in both diseases is very nearly identical, to the point where most TM patients are initially diagnosed with GBS.
By the way, a single test (high protein level in CSF) is rarely sufficient to prove a neurological disease. Other tests (other than the sweat test, I think) should be done, and done soon.
Godspeed with this. I hope you friend has gotten treatment by now.
MarkEns -
June 23, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Hi ‘Piglet”,
Where on earth is treatment being done -???- I can’t imagine that sort of treatment on a healthy person let alone on someone who is already suffering.
Jann
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June 23, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Piglet, It has been about 15 years ago but they did something similar to me except they put me in a tub of hot water. It was to check and see if I had MS. The neuro said that proved 99.9 % that it was not MS and he did other test and came up with GBS/MS. I had GBS/MF about 5 years before and another doctor did not diagnose it correctly, so there was nothing they could do for it.
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