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.

A new cycle of strength?

Well, for whatever reason, I have been having a cycle of strength return since about the time my bad tooth was removed. I am now up to 20 pushups. Actually, I did 20 followed by 15 a few days after the tooth was removed, but then it dropped back again. Over the last week or so, it has built up again. No doubt, it is just a coincidence as other cycles have also been. One thing does not imply another. Of course no doctor would ever suggest that the overall health of my teeth had any impact on NA symptoms, or vision problems even.

That second part I know since I have already asked my eye doctor if my tooth infection could ever have impacted my vision health. Of course, he said no, and then suggested- Not that I know of anyway. I had mentioned that I have had a minor improvement of reading ability. Prior to dentists getting involved with my mouth, I had noticed my ability to read was diminished at least partially by stinging and tearing within minutes of starting to read. Eye doctors suggest that is due to dry eyes and of course there are drops for that. What I had said of course was that prior to my tooth removal, I had this symptom, but not since. And overall, my length of reading ability has also increased. They do not hear that part. And continue to suggest there is not a link between infection and eye health. One other thing eye related is that my intraocular pressure was even in both eyes this most recent time checked. Even as pressures have declined with medication over time, the two eyes have varied quite a bit. Of course, pressures should be even in each eye even if they are elevated. This had been a concern of my doctors. Now that it is even in both eyes, they do not even comment on the fact that my eyes have never had equal pressure since any of this has started.

How is any of the vision stuff related to NA/PTS? I wish I knew. Maybe it is still a coincidence that the two conditions started up around the same time. Maybe my teeth impacted both issues.

A few days later. . .

Well, I had mentioned I felt like I had been hit by a truck after my extraction of infected tooth. I was weak, and with aches and even a fever of 100.7 for at least part of it. Now, it has improved again and I am noticing that at least one previously tender lymph node has returned to standby mode. It must have been switched on so long I had stopped noticing it was there. And, since no doctor ever seemed to notice it either, even if they took the time to look, I guess I started to take it for granted that it should feel like that. I almost seem to remember thinking that tenderness might be associated with my NA. And who knows? Maybe it was- just not in the way I had thought. Maybe my tooth infection was the cause of the NA flare-ups and tinnitus in ears and even my eye issues. It is too soon to have any definitive proof. But a few days after the flood of bacteria has been handled by my autoimmune system, I do feel better overall.

I feel a bit less weak than before, but due to cyclic nature of this in the past, I could just be going through a stronger cycle. But, I suppose that the nature of infection could support cyclic changes. My reading ability may even have improved. Prior to extraction, I would start reading and have instant stinging and tearing of both eyes. The first time reading after things stabilized a bit seemed almost normal. That is probably a coincidence, but it has been a long time since I have pad no eye related issues after starting to read a book.

We shall see how things progress, or if they do. It probably is just coincidental that I feel any different at all. But, it is a good reminder too to keep watch for those teeth. They may be a good source for things that could be adding stress to your health.

To pull or not to pull: a question of possible tooth infection

Here is something else to consider as far as discovery of a cause for PTS starting- maybe, and I stress maybe, since I can’t find anything out there that alludes to what I am going to say. And that is, what about your teeth?

OK, I have to admit I have not been particularly tuned in as far as my teeth have gone for a few years anyway. It is for any one of the common issues; no time to see a dentist regularly because other health issues take precedence, no insurance or too little insurance to do any good, no job or other income to defray the possibly huge expense, or you just do not see anything up there that is amiss and there is no pain. Well, I guess you can have things going on even if you have no visual or pain related clues. And some of that should be dealt with insurance or not. OK, and now I see there are low cost clinics out there I didn’t not know about so there is really no reason to put off that visit.

So, as it went, I had some infection in the root of a tooth. Is this enough to cause a bout of PTS or any other autoimmune disorder? My hygienists and dentist suggest it could. But the only thing I can find out there about this sort of a link goes the other way. Namely, talk of autoimmune disease causing dental problems. Go figure. Infection is infection, and if it is noticed by your autoimmune system, it might just never turn off until that source of infection is removed. That is the theory anyway to lead to removal of that tooth. One issue I take with my own case is that my dentist did not give me any antibiotics to help kick the infection. He suggests that with the tooth gone, the source of infection will be gone and therefore the reason for the autoimmune system response. I wish he had opted for antibiotics anyway. I feel I have been flooded with infection now and I hope he is right about not paying any attention to that. We will see. Or I should say I will see since I do not see him here anywhere. I feel as if I have been hit by a truck, and it can’t all be due to trauma of having a tooth pulled.

I will let you know if any of my other symptoms improve now that the infection source is gone and has been dealt with.

Weakness continues and irritability

I really am getting tired of this at this point. I never know if I will be able to stand in one fluid motion. Usually, it is not in one motion but in a series of starts and partial stops. My legs seem to be worse in general than before. Usually the left leg recently has bothered me but today it was more noticeable in the right one. Maybe this actually was a good thing because it evened out my stride a bit and I was able to walk faster overall than recently.

My left arm/hand seems to tremor a bit more than my right and that is fairly consistently how it goes. And today as I said my right leg got a bit worse as far as weakness and tremor. Actually, maybe tremor is not the right word. I had been on a step-stool for maybe 10 minutes. When I got off it, I could not put full weight on my right leg without it twitching. So, if that is a tremor in the leg, I have not noticed that before after such minimal activity as standing on a step-stool/

And I am a bit more irritable than in recent years.

Is this a part of Neuralgic Amyotrophy? Or is there something else? I still worry about that.

This is NOT Turner Syndrome

Sometimes I look at reports to see just what people are searching for when they pop into my blog. It is interesting to see that I am not alone in some of the things happening to me, at least judged by the searching terms used to get here. One thing I should mention from time to time is that Parsonage Turner Syndrome is NOT the same thing as Turner Syndrome. If you are here looking for experiences that relate to Turner Syndrome, nothing I have said is related to you. This is one reason I usually refer to what I have as Neuralgic Amyotrophy. That way, no one gets the wrong idea by only remembering a part of the name, or only one of the two doctors associated with it. Doctors Parsonage and Turner were the first to describe this syndrome, and that is the reason those names are associated with it. Turner Syndrome is a totally different thing.

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.