Off-Label uses for Gabapentin-

I had stopped taking gabapentin to check pain levels, and found that there was no longer the pain I had previously.  I decided to stop for a while. No need to keep taking it if the pain was not there, or so I figured.  

A couple of weeks after stopping, I noticed that I was shaking again.  I had not really thought of it, but my shaking had diminished while I was on gabapentin.  I started it up again, and within a few days the shaking had diminished again.  My tremor had also subsided a bit.  Further research on Gabapentin revealed that so called “off label” uses for gabapentin show a reduction of spasticity in multiple sclerosis. 

As seen, spasticity relates to muscle tone problems causing tightness and inability to relax muscle groups, related to repeated damage to myelin sheaths of nerves.  So, either it is also helping the tightness of Neuralgic Amyotrophy myelin sheath damage, or I have something else going on.  

"Could it be low-D? " (Vitamin D3 that is. . .)

Long time readers will remember how I have often wondered if my weakness, tremors and all other weirdness that did not quite all jive with my understanding of HNA were really a part of that illness or some other odd thing a bunch of doctors may have missed. . .  Well, it may well be something the doctors missed that was caught by my Physicians’ Assistant.

In a routine (yeah, like a $2,000.00 test can be routine) MRI of my neck looking for source of arm pain, in an aside, the pathologist said it looked like I might have a small lesion on my parathyroid.  Hmm. On my parathyroid?  Yes.  Well, my thyroid recently came up with a nodule that is benign and thyroid function was normal.  So, my PA ordered a test of parathyroid which was off the charts high for PTH, but showed normal for calcium.  Before the lab had a chance to get rid of the rest of my sample, he ordered a vitamin D test, which showed extremely low vitamin D.  What does this mean?

Well, the parathyroid regulates calcium and phosphates and is linked to vitamin D levels.  I am lucky that my case of hyperparathyroidism seems (so far anyway) to have been caused by low vitamin D. If this is true, I should be able to reverse it with additional supplements of vitamin D.  How does this relate to my weirdness of tremor, weakness and muscle fatigue?  Evidently, low vitamin D not only can cause  secondary hyperparathyroidism, but it also contributes to muscle weakness, tremor, fatigue and even in adults some risk of malformed bones- maybe like what is happening to my pinky of right hand.  The cause of D deficiency varies, but leading culprit is long term vegetarian diets and lack of sun exposure.   If you are worried about sun, use blockers. If you do not eat much red meat or eat other things that have no D3, use a supplement.

I will let you know if the supplement works.

Updated- Yes, the vitamin D supplement has done its thing.  My PTH is now in the normal range, and this is also true for vitamin D levels.  Overall I feel a bit better, but no where near anything approaching normal.  It is one less thing to worry about though. . .

Short Updates

Well, where am I, you may ask. It has been a while. 

Push-ups:  I still seem to be stuck at being able to do 5, and that is with a lot of shaking. Some things do not ever change.

DHEA: I have started DHEA again at 50 mg a day.  This is a 25 mg tablet twice a day.  Why? Well, I thought I would give it a try since every eye doctor I have asked about it says DHEA had nothing to do with my eye pressure spike of a few years ago.  I see that 50 mg is a suggested daily amount that may be beneficial for aging types, which includes me. So far, I really have noticed a decrease of my fine motor tremor since going to 50 mg a day.  It does not seem to help much on shaking, as noticed on almost anything I do requiring any strength.

Prednisone: There have been a couple of times since the last entry where I have experienced pain in both scapulas, and some pain in my right hand. This was noticed when I made a fist. I took a 10 mg prednisone a day for a few days, and that stopped that. 

Cause and effect or coincidence: I just note what appears to have helped me. Recognize that it all may be coincidental that I notice DHEA helping tremor, since it is not one of the probable benefits as listed in the literature of DHEA. Ditto that for prednisone helping scapula and hand pain. Your mileage may vary.  

tremor causes shift to right hand trackball use and other updates

The tremor with my left hand is now at the point I have had to change back to using my right hand for my trackball. And quite frankly, the left hand feels like it is not mine right now even typing this. It seems as if it is taking a bit more concentration than usual to type. I have been using my left hand for trackball use ever since 2001 or so when my right hand was subject to my first documented NA attack. Recently I have had increasing difficulty getting my fingers of the left hand to cooperate and smoothly move the pointer. Also, if I have to select text in this way, it is almost to the point of being an impossible task left handed. Now, after ten years of left handed trackball use, it is very odd to see that thing over on the right again, and even seeing it there it is hard to stop reaching for it on the left side. I guess I had the same trouble initially when I switched from the right side to the left. I will get used to it. I am not sure I will ever be used to the tremor though.

And this tremor is not just on the left. It is also on the right, built the right side tremor is a bit less invasive in everyday tasks. It is interesting that I even now at times think I am getting better as far as the tremor goes. Then I try to do some simple task requiring both hands and it is all I can do to keep them steady enough to come close to doing it. The trackball is one thing. Using a nail clipper is getting a bit hard if I use the right hand to clip the fingers of the left. Oh well. There are worse things out there to deal with.

Pushup strength is still way down.

I tried to do a yard related painting project the other day. And I was able to do it, but slowly. I had to reach out in front of me and upward to stain wood on the underside of a roof. After a couple of seconds of brushwork, I had to drop my arm. Then after a sort rest, I would apply more stain and then a few more seconds of brushing and I would have to drop my arm again. There is no pain associated with this action, even if I push it with all my strength. What causes the arm to drop is simple muscle fatigue. There is just not enough muscle stamina to hold my arm out and do something with it. It has been like this for close to ten years. It never gets any stronger.

Strength update

Well, I am back down to 10 pushups and those are a struggle. Also, I attempted to do a bit of yard work yesterday keeping in mind that I have to watch what I try to do. I seemed very shaky during this and that actually helped me to limit what I tried to do. But, I still had problems later; a tender pain area under right scapula and a feeling of weakness (if I can get any more weak) down my right arm. That arm issue seems better today, but I still notice a pain under my right scapula.

DHEA for tremor and strength issues

I had mentioned that I was trying DHEA for some control of tremor and better strength, and at first it seemed to be helping. It still may be except it seems the help to my tremor and strength comes at the expense of my eyes. The longer I used the DHEA, the more irritated my eyes became. My eyes got tired earlier and earlier each day. I also noticed this in reading, or trying to. It got to the point that after reading for a few minutes, I noticed eye irritation. This lead to stinging and tearing of my eyes, and was rapidly followed by dryness. This gets a bit distracting while reading. So I stopped it.

Within a couple of days, I could read for increasingly longer intervals, and now I can read about as long as I want to. But, I have noticed the weakness returning and a bit more of the tremor again. It goes on.

Strength update and more- or less

The last time I could do push-ups. . .

Well, that would have been towards the end of last September. Since then, I seem to have been stuck on being able to do 3-4 at any one time. At the same time, I have seen a decrease in my ability to stand for more than an hour or two without lower back and upper leg muscles feeling so weak, I have to sit.

This reminds me of a time before either of my known flares, so this goes back to maybe the 1997/98 time span. I also remember noticing my upper legs tremor a bit in that time after exertion. This has me wondering if my legs and back were early signs of NA flare at that point, since this pre-dates my hand issue by close to three years. But I also have a memory of a time in that general time period where my job had changed and I noticed a slight pain (compared to what followed a few years later) in my upper right arm. I remember noticing that arm pain and even telling my employer at the time. But the pain went away, so it never was officially part of my medical history.

I had other neck and shoulder pain episodes in my earlier days- none of which were ever reported to doctors since I had no insurance at the time, and they were not workman’s comp issues at the time either. I guess I am just wondering how and when this all really started. It may well be I have had mini-flares most of my life. All of these mini-flares have taken a toll on me since they seem to be additive in nature, and I have reached a point of diminishing returns.

My current “weak” period is at five months long, and counting. I am not sure why I bother counting it actually since there have only been three or four weeks of more or less normal strength over the last four years. I guess it is safe to say that I have recovered all from my 2006 episode that I will ever recover- and that is not saying much. At times I still feel as if I am still growing weaker as time goes on.

More tremor and twitching comments

A while back, I had noticed that my tremor had returned to particularly my right hand. This was especially noticed while holding a cup of coffee, or even later at rest after setting down the cup. Red flag, I know- at rest tremor can usually mean Parkinson’s and that does concern me. And, I have to admit, the possibility I have MS still is a concern too. So many overlapping symptoms, how do you pick what is right, or what to ignore? Is there a doctor in the house? Seriously, if there is and you would like to add your comments- or email me?

You might ask why I do not ask my own doctor, and if that concerns you- I will say “been there, done that, where is my t-shirt? “ Doctors I have run in to either do not know much about this, or are not willing to say what they really think once a test comes back. Besides that, the days of my good insurance coverage are done. My current insurance is poor to say the least, but I have to have something, don’t I?

Back to the tremor, this seems to come and go just like the twitches and- well, I was going to say my strength, but recently my strength has failed to return as it had been. I must be lazy. You know, I was just on a site NeuroTalk Support Groups where I noticed a MS sufferer talking of fatigue that got worse at the end of the day, or worse when stressed and made others suggest that she was lazy. I have gotten that too, from doctors. This is another reason I seem to not value what they think about my condition at this point. Anyway, as I was saying about tremor, it has come and gone.

First, I thought that Propranolol was helping, but no matter how I increased the dose, tremor would still break through. Then, when I dropped that I thought it had been zapped by magnesium. That worked at first and also seemed to increase my strength. Now that has stopped also. What now? Well, a couple of weeks ago during my tremor increase; I noticed pain at the side of my neck. I thought, here we go again. I thought of breaking into my prednisone stash but it is limited. I decided to first try DHEA (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydroepiandrosterone). So far, I have seen the pain in my neck disappear first, and rapidly following my hand tremor. Why? Who knows? It is probably only a coincidence. But my arms also shake less when I use them. None of it makes any sense.

Timolol and strength update

Well, it has been a bit more than a week since I have stopped the beta blocker eye drops, aka Timolol. The theory is that they may have either caused or exacerbated my tremor and muscle weakness. The timing suggests at least a probable cause enough to be suspicious.

Initially, I felt that my fine motor control was much improved, and the few twitches I have had ongoing appeared to have stopped.

But then I had to go and spoil it all by attempting to do a bit of yard work today.

Trying to lift things is still a problem. But, overall my lower back and upper legs felt much stronger than they have in previous similar outside work. My hands, particularly on the left, still tremor after any exertion. At one point I had my left hand resting on a board trying to hold it steady, and it was shaking quite a lot. I just tried to work through it.

During the work period, I had a few instances of just not knowing how to proceed. I am not good at building things anyway, but this was a fairly simple thing to attempt. I am not sure why things like this seem to happen. I guess there was a symptom for confusion listed in the Timolol. And I also know that can happen for magnesium deficiency. It has got to be the Timolol unless there is still something else at work here other than NA and its associated weirdness.

I got to a point, I just had to quit though. It was not quite done, but I was at a point that going on would have been prone to my making mistakes, and some of those could be dangerous when weakness takes over while using power tools. My shoulders were done. I could feel my scapulas trying to hold my shoulders stable- and it hurt a bit. Now I have trouble reaching my arms out away from my body. I may have over done things.

But I also just did 30 push-ups with only minor shaking towards the end.

Another blunder- What What else is new? Tremor and many other symptoms may be side effect of eye medication

Some of you may remember from earlier posts that my latest official bout of NA hit in the end of 2006. By the early part of 2007, I was having the start of eye pressure increases. After a few tests, I was given a prescription for Timolol. In the period after this, I noticed that I had tremor and fatigue that seemed to go beyond anything seen discussed for people who are recovereing from an attack of NA.

When I went to a Neurologist to see what the tremor was caused by, I told him that I was taking Timolol to control the high eye pressure. He prescribed Propranolol for the tremor. I asked him if it was a problem if I was already taking Timolol, since I knew they were both beta blockers. I knew to ask- He told me there was no problem.

Info on Timolol interactions from http://www.medicinenet.com/timolol_ophthalmic_solution/article.htm

“DRUG INTERACTIONS: Combined use of oral beta- adrenergic blocking agents, for example, propranolol (Inderal), atenolol (Tenormin), metoprolol (Lopressor) or carvedilol(Coreg) with ophthalmic timolol can result in additive effects. Thus, patients may experience excessively low blood pressure or reductions in heart rate.”

Note, it says “can result in additive effects” if Timolol is used with Propranolol. Who knew? Further down it talks about side effects of Timolol.

“SIDE EFFECTS: Ophthalmic timolol can cause irritation to the eye which may manifest as pain or dryness in some people. Rarely, timolol eye drops can result in side effects that are seen with other oral beta adrenergic blockers. For example, persons can experience fatigue, insomnia, nausea, slow heart rate, low blood pressure, cold extremities, and shortness of breath or wheezing.”

From another site http://www.drugs.com/sfx/timolol-side-effects.html

“All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome when using Timolol Gel Eye Drops:

Blurred vision; dizziness; dry eyes; feeling that something is in your eye; headache; increased tear production; minor burning, itching, or stinging of the eye; nausea.

Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur when using Timolol Gel Eye Drops:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); chest pain or discomfort; confusion; eye irritation, swelling, pain, or discharge; eyelid pain, redness, scaling, drooping, or swelling; fainting; pain, numbness, weakness, or tingling of an arm or leg; severe or persistent headache or dizziness; shortness of breath; slow or irregular heartbeat; swelling of the hands, ankles, or feet; vision changes.”

It goes on to add among others, vertigo and tinnitus, both of which I have had since this all started. I have also had quite a few of the others at various times, always blaming NA for the ones not directly related to eyes. My new Eye Doctor asked me if I had any tremor, and when I said yes, he asked about exercise intolerance and depression. Here I thought all of my troubles were either from NA or that maybe other doctors had missed something obvious, and a lot of this could be due to my eye medication. It is no doubt a good thing that I stopped the Propranolol on my own. It may be my tremor was caused by its cousin Timolol.

Needless to say, he took me off of Timolol. If I truly need eye medication in the future, there are others without the mess of side effects.

Weakness, and tremor, and shaking. . .

From what I can see out on-line, and what I see in reports for my blog site, shaking and tremor of various kinds does happen with those of us attempting physical exercise while recovering from PTS or NA attacks. This generally is not covered specifically in sites I have seen, but there are enough general searches by my blog readers to suggest it is somewhat of a concern, and I have decided that it makes sense it would be a problem.

With PTS, you have something attacking the major nerve plexus sites in the body. If it is a big enough attack, you get the most severe symptoms everyone knows about. But, PTS/NA is not specific in the nerves it impacts. How would it determine only to attack the nerves that would lead to a winging scapula? The other nerves of the plexus sites must also be impacted, but maybe just not at the same level. It stands to reason, in my thinking anyway, that there can be ongoing weakness of the areas impacted, just as there is to the most obvious impacted areas. This weakness is caused by damage to nerves that serve other muscles through the body. If the nerves can’t fire effectively as they normally would, you have incomplete contraction of the muscle and this causes fatiguing of that muscle, leading to shaking of the larger muscles and tremor of the more fine controlling muscles of the hands and fingers.

For me, I have a recurring pattern of weakness followed by improving strength for short periods. But, the regained strength does not last. That may be normal also, depending on the way PTS is triggered for the individual. During the strong periods, I have normal strength and no tremor or shaking. As the strength wanes, the tremor and shaking returns and increases again. During this time, effective exercise is severely limited. It is hard to exercise when the muscles stop working. I may have said parts of this before, but you have to attempt to exercise once in a while to keep up on the cycles. During a strong period, exercise works and I think it is good to do it then to try to regain all you can in what may be a very short burst of normal or at least close to normal strength.

Updated Magnesium withdrawal update

First, I had noticed a bit of tension in my arms and shoulders, which seemed to add to my jittery nature a bit. Then I realized my temper had shorthand down a bit. I should warn those around me prior to experimentation with changing magnesium dosage or stopping it completely. Then it was shortness of breath.

Breathing is important after all, and if you already suffer from NA, you are sensitive (or I am anyway) to any breathing changes. Why? If you do not already know, NA can impact the cervical plexus in some instances. The cervical plexus is the place where the phrenic nerves originate and then travel down to the diaphragm. If your phrenic nerves are involved in a NA attack, you can have loss of some diaphragm function. Now, it could be that I already have some losses, and taking the magnesium away just made my function worse than normal. Or it could be a coincidence that for the few days I was off magnesium, I had shortness of breath to the point it disrupted my sleep. The more this goes on, the less I believe in coincidences.

So, I started the magnesium again, and my breathing was back to normal. Well, I still had to take a pronounced deep breath once in a while, but with the magnesium, I could do this. Without it, I was gasping at times.

Neuralgic Amyotrophy - Where I am now

Just a short update- I am about as stable as I guess I am going to get for now.

Whether the weakness I on occasion experience is related to PTS/NA or not, magnesium (chelated) does help.

Whether the twitches and tremor I feel is related to PTS or not, magnesium helps keep that bearable also with no further drugs (i.e. Propranolol).

My weakness is stable at this point. I dropped in my pushups count from the 30’s to around 20 at this point. More magnesium may help get more strength, but I have to limit it at some point. I am not made of money and if I up it too much, I am sure the chelated effect will be overcome and I will cause more digestive problems than it is worth. My shoulders are too weak to pick up anything heavy. Of course, my lower back being as it is now does not help. Oh, and my upper thighs- it is all related to being able to bend and lift. . .

Doctors I know do not want to pursue my case. Hell, Doctors I do not know do not want to pursue it. I recently contacted a doctor here who I had been told was the only doctor in my area to test for and treat Lyme disease. I tried to get on with him as a new patient, and was told he was not interested in taking any patients for Lyme disease. I never told them I had it- just mentioned I had some similar symptoms but did not know what I had. I may have said this before, but I think there are too many doctors who just want to keep it all simple. Insurance companies do not want to take on “unknowns”, and doctors are really no different. I think that is one reason my most recent doctor visits ended as they did. Whoops- I did not find anything concrete that I can either throw pills at or operate on and cut out of you. That being the case, insurance will not pay for a series of tests that cannot be justified. Therefore, I will give you a medication to control the obvious physical symptom without worrying it is caused by anything more severe- nice and neat. It looks good in your chart to be neat. And your insurance will pay me for it.

I guess in order to find out more about the causes of these other possibly unrelated symptoms (unrelated to PTS?) I will have to be in worse shape. I guess in the TV show House, you have to be almost killed by incorrect treatments to find the correct diagnosis. In most real life situations, you just have to keep records of how symptoms progressed over time so when you are near death’s door you can tell the doctors who try to treat you how this all started. And they will no doubt say, “oh, if we had only caught that sooner. . . “

When is a little magnesium too much magnesium?

Well, I am confused about this myself.

I had started off with regular magnesium and it had helped me keep the tremor and shaking under control quite a bit initially. Then it seemed like I hit a time where it was not helping. I switched to chelated magnesium and that seemed to help again. It may be that I did not really need to go to the chelated form after all. Maybe my body was just trying to tell me it needed a rest from the magnesium. I say this because a few days ago, I again started to shake and have tremors even while taking the magnesium. What the? This time I did the one thing I had not tried the first time. I stopped taking magnesium.

The first day without the magnesium supplement, the shakes diminished. And the bit of tremor I had begun to feel also went away. And the twitching (mainly felt in my fingers this time) also diminished. It has now been three days and the initial lack of symptoms has been maintained. And my strength is about the same- meaning good for this weird period of my life, but not what it was when I was way younger. Why is this? Why is the addition of magnesium a good thing and then it becomes a bad thing? This is when it would be nice to be my own doctor so I could explain the intricacies of magnesium absorption and what needs to happen to keep it balanced.

Maybe it all was a coincidence and magnesium never did help me at all. Maybe I got better on my own and it just happened that I had started taking magnesium at that time. And maybe it was coincidental that low magnesium could have accounted for a majority of the symptoms I had been having. That does seem like a bit of a stretch.

Maybe the level of magnesium in my normal daily food has increased, and the supplemental magnesium just pushed me over the edge to the point it was becoming a detriment. Too much magnesium can also cause weakness and other symptoms that I was trying to get rid of. It is complicated and I guess that is why doctors get the big bucks. Not that my doctors ever suggested magnesium could help or hurt. At the dosage I was taking, it should not have been a problem.

I go back to Myasthenia Gravis (MG). One thing that comes up on websites dealing with MG is that if you have Myasthenia Gravis you should not take magnesium supplements because the extra magnesium can make you weaker than you are already. I know that MG tends to cycle as other immune diseases can, so it may be that when MG is in its full swing, you may be more sensitive to the impact of magnesium. And when the MG has abated a bit, magnesium could help in the lessening of other symptoms.

What do I know?

Added 05/17/2010

I had been trying to use less magnesium, thinking maybe I had been taking too much of the chelated form. And I had been slowly getting worse. My pushup count was dropping to around 10 or fewer. My back was very shaky again.

Today, I doubled the dosage of the chelated magnesium, and started to feel a bit better fairly quickly. So, maybe my assumptions about increased absorption of chelated magnesium should not have lead to a conclusion that a lesser dose was needed. If I take two, I feel better and my pushup count is back up to 20.

More on Chelated Magnesium

Here is just a bit more about magnesium and the differences between chelated and regular.

For the regular non-chelated form, I was taking two capsules a day to get to the 600 mg total dosage they recommend. If I take that amount and get a typical absorption rate of 10% for the non-chelated magnesium, I end up with a total absorption of 60 mg and a wasted amount of 540 mg left to cause havoc with my lower digestive tract.

For the chelated form I now have, it has a total of 150 mg of elemental magnesium per capsule. Right off you might think it is a bad idea since you would have to take four to get to 600 mg. But wait. If your typical absorption rate is 40% for the chelated form, you can get by with taking only one capsule to get to that 60 mg dosage. That leaves you with only 90 mg of wasted magnesium in your digestive system. It is still wasted, but it is so much less than the amount wasted with the non-chelated forms.

And there is another difference. With the non-chelated form I always had just a slight residual of symptoms at times. The tremor initially was gone completely, but the twitches were always there just in the background. If I could have done so, I would have tried just a bit more magnesium. But I was already at the recommended dosage and I did not want to push it any higher for obvious reasons. With the chelated form, I am just taking the one capsule a day and it is totally controlling the twitches. And that slide backwards I had mentioned just previous to this entry is reversed. So maybe the absorption is a bit better than 40% or the absorption of my non-chelated form was a bit less than the 10% rate I was assuming.

Chelated is better. Don’t waste your time on anything less than that.

Regular vs. chelated Magnesium

Recently as mentioned it seems I had hit a plateau as far as how magnesium was helping me long term and that maybe I had actually started a slow decline off of that previous level. And as ever I have done in the past, I started wondering why. It occurred to me that maybe it was the type of magnesium I was taking. I was taking just a run of the mill magnesium at around 600 mg daily.

This is beneficial in the short term since I really was down on the magnesium input to my system. But, the type of magnesium at that dosage was also making my digestive system have problems that may in fact have been stopping absorption of other foods, and the magnesium I needed. Enter chelated magnesium.

It turns out that no matter how much my natural food store employees were trying to tell me I had already had chelated magnesium, they were wrong. I just had regular unadulterated elemental magnesium which has an absorption rate of no better than 4% while a chelated form can be absorbed at close to 40%. After the switch, it already seems that I feel better again. In order to be chelated, it has to have it on the label. And even though chelated forms appear to be lower in total dosage, you get more of it.

From http://www.restlesslegsyndromecure.com/cause.html which talks about restless leg syndrome. . .

“Magnesium causes relaxation of the muscles in the entire body including the legs. A lack of Magnesium causes the muscles of the legs to tense up. So the solution is to take Magnesium. Make sure to take a Magnesium that is easily absorbed. Take Magnesium Glycinate or Magnesium that is chelated (the absorption rate is 40%). Do NOT take Magnesium Oxide (the absorption rate is only 4%). Take 400 mg/day - 1000 mg/day of Magnesium being careful to spread it out over the entire day. The Magnesium may cause loose stools since it relaxes the muscles of the intestine. So if you get loose stools just cut back on the dose of Magnesium. The Magnesium will relax the muscles of the leg and reduces the urge to move your legs. Typically, health food stores have a high quality Magnesium. The common run of the mill department store magnesium is magnesium oxide and will NOT be absorbed.”

Yard work and no shaking

I have run our weed whacker for the first time this season, and I have to say that I experienced no tremor or muscle shaking at any time during or after the usual circuit of the yard. I even kept going and wound up a 100 foot extension cord wrapping it over and around my left arm, then mowed the lawns front and back- and then cut up some branches to get rid of.

Of course, I did manage to whack my left ankle. this is not a nylon line weed whacker. No. I had to go and replace that with two plastic blades. I always wondered what would happen if I miscalculated how close my leg was to the working end of this contraption. Now I know. Nothing major damage-wise, but I do not recommend it.

So- what tremor? Just add a bit of magnesium, and it seems to be gone- for me at least.

Magnesium Deficiency and H1N1 shots related to Parsonage Turner Syndrome?

I notice in reports that some have searched to find my blog with these queries. Do not worry, that is all I can see about the site. I do not see any information about any specific users. . .

Anyway, about the queries-

Flu shots a cause for PTS?

I have never seen any evidence specifically linking any particular injection to Parsonage Turner Syndrome. But, I have seen that Brachial Plexus Neuritis (one name PTS can go by) has at least been linked to certain injections, among them influenza injections. Sites I have seen do not say injections are a direct cause, but only that in certain cases, the only thing that had happened recently to a sufferer is that they listed having had a flu shot. See this site for examples of causes- if you have not already found it. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/315811-overview

Magnesium Deficiency linked to PTS?

Magnesium Deficiency is a possible culprit in many diseases as I have alluded to in the blog previously. It does cause overall weakness, tremors and twitching and a general feeling of malaise- like you are just winding down to minimal function. In my opinion, if you also have PTS or NA, or even HNA, the weakness associated with PTS can be additive if you have magnesium deficiency on top of it. It was for me at least. But, as a cause, I do not think magnesium deficiency would be a direct cause for PTS in any of its other names. PTS causes winging scapula and other distinct muscular losses, and may cause a general weakness of the impacted limbs. But, low magnesium would produce weakness all over the body by comparison. Also, once you correct the magnesium deficiency, overall strength improves quickly, along with a cessation of other related symptoms like twitches and tremors. Even at that though, my scapula is still winged, and my right thumb is still partially paralyzed.

Capsules vs. Tablets for magnesium. . . It does make a difference

It seems that the type of magnesium supplement is important as far as how effective it will be. At least this is true for me. I had started out and had been successful using capsules. That is the ones that are a clear material that are packed with powdered form of the ingredients. A couple of days ago, I tried a tablet (hard packed) that also included calcium and vitamin D. After a day of that, I was starting to slide a bit back into tremor and shakiness. I was also getting a bit tense and feeling a bit over taxed again. I switched back to the original capsule form and I have improved again. My guess is that the capsule format is quicker to load into your system because the capsule material dissolves quicker than the tablet. I suspect the tablet was not dissolving until it had passed beyond. . .

How much is too much exercise?

Hey, that is not the real question at all. The question is what happened to the magnesium that I used to get in my diet without the supplements? I have been doing at least 25 pushups daily, and usually with other upper body exercises to try to regain the arm strength I had a few years ago and had lost. I would almost bet money that if I stopped the magnesium supplements, I would go back to being a shaking mess. I am not going to do it. First, no one would pay me anything when I won the bet. And I feel so much better I do not want to stop it just to prove what I already know.

How does this relate to NA? Well, while I had the severe weakness, I could not effectively exercise. Thinking weakness was related to NA made me think the NA is more involved than any website suggests- or more involved than any doctors I had seen who knew NA at all- which is rare. I was convinced the NA was worse than anyone knew, or that I had some other disease that could be life threatening. Maybe that later thing is still true- but that could happen at any time. Wasting away getting weaker was just the start of what could have been the start down the proverbial slippery slope. The weaker I got, the sicker I thought I must be. The sicker I thought I was, the less I tried to do, and the weaker I became. This is all why I jumped into a round of new doctor visits towards the end of last year. Someone had to see what was happening, or I doubted I would be around much longer. Or if I was here, my quality of life would be close to zero.

That sounds pretty extreme, but it was feeling like I was in a pretty rapid slide towards the end of last year. My tremor was worsening. My shakes were worse. I felt weaker doing everyday things. When I felt good exercising one day, I would feel like crap the next day and not be able to do anything. I am convinced that if I had not found that page suggesting magnesium supplements could increase muscle response, I would be in pretty bad shape at this point.

And I owe it all to my doctors. No, actually they did not cure me of anything. But, they were steadfast in suggesting that there really was nothing wrong with me. They proved it. It would have been nice if they could have been better equipped to be able to suggest other things that may have helped, but they are pretty busy with other people who may be sicker than I am. I just needed to slide a bit deeper and maybe they would have taken me more seriously. It is like on House. . . You may want to have a doctor who would take all that time with you and finally cure you in 60 minutes on Mondays at 9 PM. But, I have also noticed that he rarely is right the first few times, and he pretty much has to kill a patient at times to discover what really is wrong with them.

My advice to anyone who is up against a wall with doctors is to not give up. And if the doctors have given up on you, keep looking on your own. There is a wealth of information out here. It might take you what feels like forever to wade through some of it- but the answer you need may be on that next page you look at. But use caution too. There is also a lot of crap out there that is useless. And if you find an answer, your doctor may feel threatened if you suggest it was found on the internet. Get better at using search engines. Refine your searches and look at as many links as you can. If you find something promising, refine your search to include that. You might find your own key that will unlock your answer- or give you something else to mention to your doctor the next time he can spare ten minutes of an hour appointment to talk to you. I now have two things to ask about next time. First, why does magnesium make me better? And is it possible the lack of magnesium in my diet could explain why I got glaucoma? It is funny that the last time I saw my regular doctor; he even suggested to me that it all might have to do with something in my diet. It is funny because if I am right, it turned out to be a lack of something in my diet.