Questions from Ellen

[Guest guest]

Ellen,

You mentioned that your daughter had low muscle tone. Do you have that

symptom as well?

I ask that because low muscle tone was involved with our teenage

daughter. At times she could not stand for more than a few moments,

even got to the point where she had to crawl from her bed to go down

the hall to use the bathroom. Others times she was not able to hold a

spoon to feed herself. She had other symptoms such as inability to

fall asleep and once asleep could only sleep for 3 or 4 hrs at a time.

She had enlarge lymph nodes especially around the neck and under her

arms. Because of the number of tender points in through out her body,

she was given the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia in early 1993. There were

blood tests that indicated she bordered on Lupus.

For myself -- in Sept 2000, I lost the strength in all the muscles in

my body within a 24 hr period of time. I would say I lost about 80% of

my normal strength. My shoulders felt like they were out of their

sockets. I could not raise my arms above my waist. My husband had to

help be out of bed and dress me. I had to hold onto the walls and

furniture in our house to go from one place to another. Prior to that

happening, I had various odd sensations that I choose not to tell

anyone about because I thought others would think I was crazy. These

included random twitching of muscles especially in my thigh; feelings

like there were bugs crawling under my skin; and tiny pieces of metal

moving in my veins. Very wierd! The doctors who I went to could not

agree on a diagnosis. And so I took matters into my own hands and used

products that had helped our teenage daughter improve 5 years earlier.

The main thing I hope to do by posting this is to encourage you. I do

believe one day you will be much better and able to fully care for your

family and yourself. Who knows you might even be able to practice as

a doctor once more!

Each time I am able to do something that involves a lot of strength, I

count my blessings. One of those came last month when I was able to

help with cleaning up debris from a tornado that hit in a nearby

farming community. Along with 90 others, we gathered tree limbs,

roofing and metal siding from pastures and hay fields that had tall

grass 18 " high. There I was helping for 2 solid hours at age 61 years

of age!! I found myself reflecting on the fact that there was a time

when I had to stop and rest just going from one end of our house to the

other!

Jan