Magnesium supplements or real food?

I have talked about using a magnesium supplement in prior posts. Every once in a while I will stop taking it to get a reality check of a sort. There is no sense in spending tons of money for a supplement if real world eating is working to supply the missing magnesium.   So, I was surprised recently when after stopping the supplemental magnesium, I felt fine after a week or so.  What is different?  Getting back to basics, I started eating more peanut butter almost daily.  This is not a lot as it turns out.  Usually it amounts to a couple of tablespoons of pretty good quality (not Jiff for example) peanut butter- the kind that is just ground peanuts a bit of salt, etc that you have to mix to get the oil blended back in.  It turns out; peanuts have a high amount of magnesium.  Cashews also work, and have more magnesium, and a bit better than that would be almonds.  If you prefer real food to supplements, it is an easy add and probably cheaper in the long run.  

Update as I approach 10,000 page views

Hello again, after a bit of an absence.  On the face of it, not much has changed for me really in the last little while.  But, there are subtle differences I am seeing as things go on.

I had what may have been another attack a couple of months ago. It is hard to tell if it was a real attack, or just a continuation of what has been happening all along.  I had a bit of neck and upper shoulder discomfort followed by extreme weakness to my lower back and with some pain in the region of my tailbone.  This went a bit lower actually, into my upper legs, and then seemed to reverse up my back again and ended up with weakness across the bottom edge of scapulas.  I am left now with residual pain at times in my right arm and into shoulder that impacts range of motion, strength of my arm and my ability to sleep comfortably on my right side, just like the old days following my original attack in the shoulder.   Along with this, I have a pronounced weakness in my right calf area (near as I can tell the Gastrocnemius muscle area).

What makes it seem like an attack is the general progression of discomfort and weakness.  But, there was no major pain.  I know from sites and publications that sometimes there is not a lot of pain particularly with HNA, so maybe this is all normal.  

I may remember the initial pain for my shoulder attack.  Did I say this before?  Anyway, in 2002 I had been training for a bike ride.  This was a year or so after my hand and finger issue, so I would still have had a partially paralyzed hand at this time.  The morning of the ride, I woke up and had extreme pain in the area behind my right shoulder blade and could barely hold my head up normally.  That was around 4 years prior to the collapse and eventually winging of the scapulas.  And in a long trip by car in mid 2006, I experienced the first sensations of shakiness that I have now as I repeatedly had to exit and enter the car on this trip across country where I was the only driver.  This trip was just a few months prior to the pain in Oct of 2006 that is linked to my scapular winging beginning.  At the time I assumed this shakiness was due to the long hours of driving daily, but now I know it was an early indication of the onset of the next phase of NA.

It has been a while. . .

Well, I am still here in case anyone has noticed an absence.  Not much has really changed except I am having some pain at times in my right shoulder and neck.  And I am a bit weaker overall.  Yesterday I could barely do one good push-up.  And it was very shaky as always.  I have also noticed slight arm pain in the area between humeral head and shoulder joint, particularly reaching out to pull a door closed as I enter a room.  I have begun to wonder about my breathing too.  I have seen descriptions and videos describing paradoxical breathing,  which can happen in the case of PTS/NA if you have partial paralysis of the diaphragm from phrenic nerve palsy.  


Look here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFGzdNFuXIM

I do not breathe that way all the time, but I have. Hmm.  Maybe I do more than I am aware.  This is just one more thing to ask a doctor about.

This one is interesting too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=JeDiS7MWXNk

Seems every muscle group impacting PTS/NA is mentioned here as being an impact on correct breathing.  And it is suggested incorrect breathing can lead to what they call gothic shoulders. Looks to me like winging and a possible “what came first?” scenario.  Those shoulders could be related to what causes the breathing issue more than the breathing issue causing the stooped shoulder posture.  

Health related rant about prescription prices being higher at Wal-Mart than Costco or supermarket pharmacy

I have been getting my prescription for my eyes filled at our local Costco recently.  Their price and the price at a grocery store pharmacy usually runs between $11- $12 for a 30 day supply.  This is their every day price before any insurance, and is for newly available generic version of the medication that had run closer to $100 per bottle in the non-generic.

I had been thinking about switching to Wal-Mart, since my new insurance will be through Humana with a Wal-Mart partnership, and certainly as a Humana member I should expect good prices at Wal-Mart.   I asked, and the price of the same medication at Wal-Mart runs about $60.  I asked- are you sure that is the generic?  Yep.  How much for the non-generic? - Around $102 or so.  (It may have been more.  I was in shock.)   If you have insurance, this is what you would pay until you met your deductable, and then there would be a discount price depending on your plan.  OK, any idea why I can go to at least two other pharmacies in town and get the same thing for $12 or less without having met my deductable?   Nope.  The prices are what the prices are.

Yes they are.   It definitely pays to shop around, insurance or not.  Maybe she was wrong.  I would think though that noticing my reaction to the high price that she had double checked at least that much.  Definitely a rip-off.

Just a bit on legs. . .

In the beginning, I may have had shakes in the legs a bit, and some early fatigue below the knees noted while walking. This is still the case, but I notice even more weakness now. That and weakness particularly to the Jambier anterior- at least that is the one it appears to be.  My neurologist had noted that muscle was particularly atrophied in that areas of my leg a few years back.  I had not noticed problems related to that at the time. But now I notice while driving that my leg gets shakes in the region of that muscle. This was when driving in San Francisco with much stop and go and hills involved.  I was happy when I got back to freeway and could rest my leg by way of cruise control.  Since then, I have noticed leg weakness on the left, early in the morning to the extent it feels as if I could fall if I do not concentrate.

And that may be the biggest concern with this disorder.  It is not that it completely stops you, but that it limits you by requiring concentration to do even simple maneuvers most folks take for granted.  Pay attention, or you drop things. Pay attention or you could fall.  As I age, falling takes on an entirely new level of potential worry. I may be fine otherwise and I fall. I break something, and end up in bed. Lack of movement follows, and then pneumonia. . . It happens all the time.

Neuralgic amyotrophy by Nens van Alfen

I have added a document to my list of links- Neuralgic amyotrophy - Nens van Alfen.  If the name seems familiar, he has written quite a few things I may have already referenced. This appears to be his thesis of 150 or so pages with a section in Dutch if you prefer.  I have only scratched the surface of reading it myself. 

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.