It is never going to be too late to complete and return the TMA survey. The survey was sent to you in the first mailing of the TMA Newsletter in 1997. It continues to be sent to new members as a part of their initial packet from the TMA. Thus far, there have been more than 530 members who have completed and returned their surveys. All of these responses have been entered into the database representing thousands of pages of critical information. After the completion of the survey analysis and publication of the results, we will continue to update our database of information and will continue to generate updated results from subsequent respondent survey additions.

We are about to begin the coding of the information, and upon completion of the coding process, we will begin our analysis. As we have stated previously, the results of this work will be shared with our members and with the medical community.

If you have not completed and returned your survey, please do so as soon as possible. You hold one of the important pieces that will help doctors and researchers solve the Transverse Myelitis puzzle. Please share this information; do so for yourself, for everyone who has TM and for all of those who will develop this condition in the future. It is important for you to take the time to record this information. We will be administering additional surveys in the future. As we begin to develop a greater understanding of TM, we will require the collection of better and more detailed information. For instance, it would be important for us to understand how many people have had recurring episodes of TM, not MS; whether there has been more than one additional episode, what symptoms accompanied each episode and what the time span was between each episode.

If you have access to the Internet, you can download a copy of the survey from our web page. You can mail me the survey through the postal service or you can send it to me electronically.

You can really make a difference. Help yourself and help everyone else in the TM community. Thank you so much, if you have already sent me the survey. For the rest of you; it will never be too late to complete and mail me this information. Thank you!

Please mail the completed surveys to:
Sandy Siegel
The Transverse Myelitis Association
1787 Sutter Parkway
Powell, Ohio 43065-8806

It used to be fairly easy to find an error in the TMA database; it does not take much time or energy to look through 180 names. Our membership today is about 2800 people! The task of finding duplications has become a more difficult proposition. If you receive more than one mailing from the TMA, please let us know so that we can correct our database. This simple gesture can save the Association a great deal of money in printing and postage costs.