Classic relapse and remitting HNA-

And, I am better.

I had a brief drop to around 80 pushups, and have since slowly worked back to 100. And since then have pushed the count up to 110 again.

I definitely feel this is classic presentation of HNA relapse and remitting attack pattern. I had a quick onset of weakness with no pain, and a comparatively longer period of recovery. So far, it is too soon to say if it is a complete recovery, but i feel just as i had prior to the attack; although strength is nto quite returned to normal.

I also think my ability to exercise prior to this attack helped me overcome any long lasting impacts of the attack.

All things must pass . . .

I know I have been gone for some time now. There was not much to say. I was in a stage where I could exercise, and I felt great. Now, things have changed again.

For the last two years in fact, I have been able to exercise effectively, going from very few pushups originally, to a high of 130. And for about the last year, that amount has averaged above 100. Now, well- I am in a bit of a downward slide.

It started with a bit of shakiness in my lower back and thighs. But the pushups were not impacted at that time. Then pushups dropped to 100 for the first time in a year. Then I did 100 one more time, but it was not feeling good at the end. The next time I was down to 95. Look at him, complaining he can only do 95 pushups. Ah, but the next day it had dropped to 87. Muscles don’t feel right after exercise. It takes way longer to recover from exercise.

I hope it turns out I am worrying about nothing.  I still feel good. I have no pain. And usually, an attack of Hereditary Neuralgic Amyotrophy starts with some amount of pain. Maybe I do not have pain because I had been exercising? Could be. But, pain doesn’t always occur in attacks, anyway. It could also be that I will not bottom out as weak as I did the last time. That had been a major attack, with pain.

How many pushups should you be able to do?

I was never much for physical activity when I was young. Don’t get me wrong. I tried. I was just always behind my PE classes. My muscles would not respond to being pushed. I was lucky if I came out at the average according to the numbers on this chart, courtesy of Physical Living- http://physicalliving.com/how-many-pushups-should-i-be-able-to-do/

Push Up Test Norms For Men

Age	17-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-65
Excellent	> 56	> 47	> 41	> 34	> 31	> 30
Good	47-56	39-47	34-41	28-34	25-31	24-30
Above average	35-46	30-39	25-33	21-28	18-24	17-23
Average	19-34	17-29	13-24	11-20	9-17	6-16
Below average	11-18	10-16	8-12	6-10	5-8	3-5
Poor	4-10	4-9	2-7	1-5	1-4	1-2
Very Poor	< 4	< 4	< 2	0	0	0

Push Up Test Norms for Women

Age	17-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-65
Excellent	> 35	> 36	> 37	> 31	> 25	> 23
Good	27-35	30-36	30-37	25-31	21-25	19-23
Above Average	21-27	23-29	22-30	18-24	15-20	13-18
Average	11-20	12-22	10-21	8-17	7-14	5-12
Below average	6-10	7-11	5-9	4-7	3-6	2-4
Poor	2-5	2-6	1-4	1-3	1-2	1
Very Poor	0-1	0-1	0	0	0	0

 

You know what? If I had seen this information before I started my return of strength recently, I may not have pushed it as fast, or as far as I have. My muscles, I knew, were not very good at responding to exercise. As it is, it took a number of months of daily exercise to get a response that would have been in the consistently “Good” range for a 60-65 year old male. Now, at 50 twice a day, I am close to “Excellent” for a 17-19 year old and way above “Excellent” for my age.

My goal for now? No limit. I will keep doing pushups as long as my body allows me to. My appetite is way better than it has been. My stamina is increasing for the first time is years. And my weight is increasing. Why limit it?

Avoid long term magnesium use- Push-ups now up to 40?

For those interested in my magnesium use, it would probably be best to warn you to keep it at a minimum, ongoing, or stop it all together as soon as you can do so.

In fact, I had stopped my magnesium supplements from time to time, only to restart when I felt suddenly worse overall. Now, I have no plans to ever use it again.

My primary doctor agrees that anyone with a neuromuscular disorder should limit use of magnesium or any other long term muscle relaxer. There is, as it turns out, a possible long term use detriment.

My own update as far as strength is this: Last night, and again earlier today, I did 40 pushups.

Yep. That is still a bit hard for me to believe, since at the height of my magnesium use, I almost never did more than 5 at any one time, and 5 was a hard stretch.  
 
Now, the 40th one is a hard stretch. But it is 40!!!! When did I ever do 40 push-ups in my life? Never, that I can remember. So much for my friends suggesting that I was unable to do push-ups because “We are just getting too old. Face it”.

Four months in, and still going strong- minus the magnesium

I still have been doing better- now four months after stopping the magnesium supplements. It is true they helped in the initial time after my attacks, but ongoing, they only made me worse.

Push-ups have remained in the 15-20 range, so my overall strength is still limited to what is available with this disease. But, I feel much healthier without that supplement.

Two months in- still going stronger

Two months in- still going stronger

I am still doing better after just short of two months since stopping the magnesium.

My breathing is much improved, especially at night. My general strength is improved.

Pushups are generally averaging around 15-20, with 25 to 30 on rare occasions. I am not sure why this discrepancy in amounts exists. It could be due to the time if day I attempt the pushups. I still take a multiple vitamin daily that has a highly absorbable type of magnesium. And I have noticed that if I take a day or two of my old magnesium supplement, my pushup total and breathing suffer.

This link to magnesium impacting my strength and breathing is troubling. It must mean something, but I am not the one to guess what. 

Pushups return, and did magnesium cause weakness?

Hi again to anyone that sees these posts.

I have been absent. Other things take precedence, at times. One thing I have talked about in the past is that magnesium has helped me, at least during and right after the attacks. It, for me anyway, helped to tone down the twitches and leg jerks that I had. I am going to suggest now that you watch out about taking it long term. Do breaks from it from time to time, to see if it is still helping or like I think happened to me, started to cause me more harm than good.

I have talked about my ongoing weakness. Some HNA sufferers report ongoing weakness and breathing difficulties. I had all of that. I never even thought about it at a certain point. It had become part of who I was. The weak guy over there who sits around while everyone else moves on with their lives. That was me. Maybe you are that person too. Or maybe you know someone like that. 

Since my attack, I have taken magnesium religiously. I have taken my own advice from time to time, and have stopped it for a week or two, until I would start to feel those familiar twitches start up again. Or I might feel tightness in general as my muscles tensed up. Magnesium is good to ease those things. It made them go away for me. And I could never stop taking it for long. It did seem to help. But, I had no idea that it also could be adding to my weakness even at the dose I was taking. I had no clue until the most recent time that I stopped.

It has been about a week now since I stopped my morning magnesium pill. And I feel so much better now. I fell less shaky in just doing everyday tasks. My breathing has improved. A couple of days ago, I tried to do some pushups. And I was amazed that on the first try, I could do 10.

Those 10 pushups were a bit shaky, but I was amazed that it was 7 more than I had been able to do for the longest time. So a half hour later, I tried again and did 20 with no shakiness. A half hour later I tried again and did 20 more. The next morning I did 15 and a bit later did 25 more. And now, for the first time in a very long time, the muscles in my arms are actually sore from that exertion. It feels amazing. I have to admit, I thought my doing any sort of exercise ever again, was a pipe dream. I felt like I was aging in an accelerated way with this disease to blame. And now I feel like I have part of my life back. Maybe because that magnesium is getting out of my system.

I know it has its place. I may use it again if I am in an attack. But, I feel like I will never just blindly take it just because I think it has helped in the past. After a while, at least in my experience, that help goes sideways and becomes more of a hindrance.

So, take it but watch out for possible problems of long term use. It might make you feel better at first, but it also can have opposite impacts in the longer run.

And maybe, it is all a coincidence and at some point my return of strength will go away, magnesium or not. 

I will let you know.    .