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. . . “