Elise Oehler

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. Elise had been experiencing on and off joint pain that seemed to worsen over a month or two, especially  within the past couple weeks. Doctors ran some basic tests and couldn't find any cause. On the morning of January 20th Elise woke up with numbness in both legs and was unable to walk very far unassisted. By Tuesday the numbness had moved up farther on both legs and after another clinic visit, she was hospitalized at St. Elizabeth's in Appleton. After many tests (MRI of her head, cervical, thoracic and lumber spine, spinal tap, countless specialty labs and chest x-ray) they feel an appropriate diagnosis at this time is Acute Transverse Myelitis.  She has swelling in her spinal cord so they began IV corticosteroids. The reason for the swelling is still unknown but once some more of the labs come back, we should have a better idea on how to proceed. Right now there are more unknowns than knowns but Elise is in good spirits and is taking this all with a smile on her face. She is getting around short distances with crutches and is making plans to decorate her wheelchair. She appreciates all the prayers, visits, gifts, texts and support.