New Kid on the Block

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to introduce myself, and share a little about my family.

First, to tell you my name, and

how I found this group. My name is Cindy, but my family and friends

call me Cin. I was at a picnic a couple of weeks ago,, and one of

your members, Ruth, told me about the group. I have read only a few

messages, but thought I'd jump right in, and get my feet wet.

That's usually what I do, but the thing is, I go head-first, so my

feet are the last to get wet .

Well, to get to my family history, we are just now going through the

process of being tested and confirmed with mitochondrial myopathy.

My older sis is the guinea pig in all of this, and she's had an EMG

and muscle biopsy, among other tests. The muscle biopsy did show

abnormal mitochondria, so now the University of Michigan hospital

has sent her tissue samples on to another clinic that specializes in

mito diagnoses, and we are awaiting further information on that.

Although it isn't 100% certain yet that it is MM, they are quite

sure on this, and it's just a matter of formal

diagnosis from here on out. Our family has a history of deafness,

and many of us have bipolar disorder, or at least some type of

mental dysfunction (mood swings, depression, SAD, etc.). There

are several in my family with neuropathy, as well. When my sis went

to the U of M in Ann Arbor to see the neurologist, she (the Dr.)

thought right off it was either mito, or else Charcot-Marie-Tooth

syndrome. Now with the muscle biopsy completed, they are leaning

more fully toward the mito. I had heard of the mito before, but I

mistakenly believed that it can only be passed on from the mother to

the children. So, in my limited knowledge, I threw that out, as it

was impossible for us, since the deafness, and other symptoms were

passed on to my mother from her father, and his father passed it on

to him. Well, lo and behold, there are some forms of mito that the

father can pass on to the children, too.

So, that's the medical history as far as our diagnosis, and now

comes the fun of learning all about this disease, how it may affect

us, how we can manage the symptoms, etc. And this is where I hope

this group will come in, and be able to help us as we learn more

about it. And of course, I'm a whimp, I don't like pain, so I'll be

blubbering and slobbering about in here from time to time, while

trying to dry the tears and blow my nose at the same time . I'm

sure I'll have many questions for everyone, and will try to make

some sense of all this, somehow. So, here I am, the new kid on the

block, and I look forward to getting to know everyone. Feel free to

ask me any questions you might have about our family, our history,

or about just plain old me. I have no worry about sharing

anything, as my two sister's already have enough on me to blackmail

me for the next hundred years or so, LOL.

I hope to hear from the group real soon, and I'm so glad Ruth has

shared her group with me.

Take care,

Cin