And more push-up stuff

In the last week or so I have found that I can do between 10-15 push-ups every 2-3 days.  I am definitely not pushing myself this time. And I have not been able to increase the count past 15. I guess that is one thing about HNA. There definitely is not any muscle growth past what you have at any given time.  I am only trying every 2-3 days. I will not do this every day for anything. I have already seen how over exercise does not work in the long run.

Push-ups already gone again and balance issues resurface

Well, this was a very short-lived improvement as these things go.  Just now, I tried again to see if my strength was still at the level it had been when I wrote last. Nope.  I already could tell prior to the attempt that my strength was not there. I was shaky again. That seems to be the key here. If your muscles feel shaky just existing, it is not likely that they will have the extra required to do heavier exercise.  Back to a shaky 3 on this attempt then.

What else is in the mix? Well, through the last few years I have had episodes of dizziness, and vertigo associated with Nystigmus.  Generally, this is confined to nights in bed- specifically getting out or into bed.  Lying down is worse than getting up. But I have a bit of trouble walking straight after I feel I am OK to stand.  Lying back down can be quite exciting as well, and I am thankful that at these times, I have no place to fall to.

I see that I am not alone in issues related to balance.  It is a known that HNA sufferers particularly do have problems with the inner ear and hearing.  Again, it is listed as “rare”.  And again, I just hope that my doctors have not missed something I will eventually have worse problems with.

Some return of strength again. . . Push-ups coming back

For more than a year now, I have not been able to do any push-ups.  This has been due to my frozen right shoulder, and extremely tender muscles and tendons in my right arm/shoulder area.

The time had come a couple of days ago to see if this part of my arm weirdness had passed again, and maybe a bit of strength had returned.

A couple of days ago, I tried and I did 10 a bit shaky push-ups.  Compared to recently when I could barely hold my body in the position to try, I will count them.  Just now, I was able to do 15 with no shakes.  Maybe I am on the mend again. Do not let me over do this.  No need to get greedy and try to do 30 next.

14,000 page views and counting. . .

About a year ago I mentioned passing the 10,000 page view milestone.  Now this little blog is at 14,000.
Time flies when you are having fun?  I have to admit again, there are much worse afflictions out there to have to deal with.  I am fortunate that this one is simply a pain in the arm- or neck (or any other place) as the case may be.  The weakness is irritating.  It can be infuriating.  The pain can be debilitating.  I have been luckier than most with that.  My pain so far is easily managed.  I miss being able to do things.  And I miss being able to not think about how to do the things I can do before trying them.  But again, it is not the same as what many I know have gone through with, say cancer to mention one.  Other than the possible involvement with the phrenic nerves, there is little that approaches being life threatening about PTS/HNA.

When I started this in 2009, there was very little out on the web about HNA or PTS- at least as far as how it could impact people in real life.  Now it seems quite different.  There may still be the out of date information, but there are more places that HNA/PTS patients can go to talk to others about their own issues and how they deal with them.  If I have been any help to any of you, that makes it easier for me.

Good magnesium supplement article on Costco Magazine (of all places)

Here is a good article on magnesium supplements and benefits to the body of magnesium (many of which I have mentioned elsewhere). Costco Connection for Sept. 2013 is on-line, or you may have been mailed one by snail mail if you are a Costco member.

Of all sources listed for magnesium supplements, the one I used most recently is magnesium Glycinate. Another good one they say particularly for neurological issues would be magnesium L-threonate.  The Glycinate form can be had at health food or natural food stores that have supplements.  I have not seen the L-threonate form to my knowledge. I will have to explore a bit more.  For sure, I doubt Costco has anything but the most common form (magnesium oxide) which as I have said earlier on in this blog, can cause laxative effect which is the last thing you want if you are already deficient in minerals of any kind.

Edited and updated. . .  Costco, as I thought, only has magnesium oxide.  My favorite health food store in town where I had purchased magnesium glycinate in the past, has never heard of magnesium L-threonate. And even on-line, there is not a lot of information except from sellers of supplements.  With that in mind, since I am low on my supply anyway, I have ordered the L-threonate version from Amazon.  I will let you know how it goes.

Updated- Magnesium L-threonate may be good, but it is not cheap.  And it takes tree pills to reach a single serving size so it goes much faster than the single serving pills I can get of the Glycinate formula. I vote for Glycinate if you need a magnesium supplement.

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.  

Shoulder update

It appears my physical therapy has ended for now.  I have reached Medicare’s hard cap for therapy for the year evidently.  I am lucky I suppose that most of my issues with my arm have resolved favorably.  I have real good range of motion, even if my strength is still way too low.  Gabapentin helped me reach this. If I had not started taking this, I doubt I ever would have made such improvements in range of motion.  (As of now, I have stopped taking gabapentin as pain has gone away).  Actually, D3 helped also.  Or it may have been a coincidence that shortly after starting D3 supplements, my stamina improved enough to begin some light exercise with goals of improving my strength.  Neither of these helped enough to get me to think in terms of even a short term recovery from NA.

Those sites that suggest that recovery is an easy thing for PTS/HNA are still wrong, at least as far as my case goes.  I am still weak, especially in my lower back.  My arms seem a bit stronger now, but not to any noticeable degree that would allow multiple reps of an exercise with weights.  My therapist is interested in following my case at least as much as allowing me to briefly drop by to fill him in on my progress and get new exercises.  I figure that I saved Medicare as much as $20,000 by use of PT to get use of my shoulder back. Nothing says I would not have problems in the future even with successful shoulder surgery now.