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Post by Anna on Nov 19, 2009 18:57:56 GMT -5
Here's a question for my medical type friends. What's it called when the brain sends signals to the muscles, but they don't respond? Like...the brain says, "Breathe," but the lungs don't answer. Or it could be that the brain just stops sending the signals. I can't remember which. It may be an age related condition, too... My sister has told me what it's called a couple of times, but I've forgotten.
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Post by Hope on Nov 19, 2009 23:01:11 GMT -5
Not breathing is called apnea. Central apnea turns off the drive to breathe.
Disconnect between muscles and brain can happen anyway along the pathway from brain, through nerve, to muscle.
There may be a more general term, but I am not grokking it tonight.
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Post by Anna on Nov 19, 2009 23:20:20 GMT -5
I'll have to ask Katie again. I may be misremembering the description, too. Thanks, Hope.
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Post by Anna on Nov 23, 2009 22:13:09 GMT -5
Okay, found out what it was. I didn't describe it properly. Myasthenia gravis Okay, now that I've got the proper name for it: any ideas regarding treatment and living with? Non-Pernese, that is...
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Post by Hope on Nov 24, 2009 7:50:58 GMT -5
OK, that's a nasty one. It's progressive, which means it gets worse over time. Is this for fiction or RealLife?
There are people who communicate only with their eye lids. The big problem with these Neurological disorders, though, is when breathing becomes compromised, and swallowing, and hard decisions have to be made. Lou Gherig's disease is another one; can't remember which one Stephen Hawkings has.
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Post by Anna on Nov 24, 2009 9:22:55 GMT -5
Real life, Hope. My grandfather was recently diagnosed with it and it's been the concern of the month but I couldn't get anyone to give me a good, clear description of it or what it means to him. All that anyone really said was that it could be dangerous and he needed to move back to town. How fast does this condition usually progress, and how effective is medication? As for Stephen Hawking, here's what Wikipedia says... "Stephen Hawking is severely disabled by motor neuron disease, likely a variant of the disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or ALS). Most neuromuscular specialists believe he has Spinal Muscular Atrophy type IV. Hawking's illness is markedly different from typical ALS in the fact that his form of ALS would make for the most protracted case ever documented. A survival for more than 10 years after diagnosis is uncommon for ALS; the longest documented durations are 32 and 39 years and these cases were termed benign because of the lack of the typical progressive course."
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Post by Hope on Nov 24, 2009 18:36:13 GMT -5
The good news is that medications do help with the symptoms; when treated, life expectancy can be good, and if he's older, he's got an excellent chance of dying of something else. Untreated, it's pretty bad, and eventually likely fatal, although problems with swallowing happen before problems with breathing. It's a weird one, in that it's autoimmune--antibodies attack the nerves. A cure is probably doable within 10 years if there were enough funding...unfortunately, that's true of a lot of diseases.
The social implications, though, as often the worst. Muscles of facial expression and speech are affected very early in the disease state, which makes people socially isolated. Medications help this a lot.
I hope he accepts treatment.
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Post by Anna on Nov 24, 2009 18:48:50 GMT -5
He's taking medication, but I think some of the kids (my aunts/uncles) have been talking about him moving into town. He lives pretty far out now. I think forcing him to move to town when he loves being out on his land would kill him quicker than this will. I firmly believed that's why my Grandpa Claude faded away and died so quickly after being forced to move to town. I'll hopefully be seeing him at Christmas.
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Post by Chantal on Jan 5, 2010 10:46:20 GMT -5
Were you able to see your grandfather at Christmas? He probably will have to move inti town, but maybe not right this instant. I hope the best for him. I had no idea myasthenia gravis was so serious. *opens mouth to grouse about the breast cancer lobby; shuts mouth* I'm glad Katie knew what it was, because all I could think of was some form of ALS. Very interesting to hear that folks think Hawking might have SMA. I've mainly seen that in children. There's one particular child I know, and I pray that's not what he has, but whatever he has is permanent. Hawking has lived a very long time with his disease--since age 22, I think, and he's in his sixties now. The doctors who think he has SMA might well be right.
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Post by Anna on Jan 5, 2010 10:59:08 GMT -5
I wasn't able to go home for Christmas. First, it seemed like I last a shock on my car and I just couldn't take the chance of that long a drive on the car without getting it fixed first, and if I got it fixed, I wouldn't be able to afford to go home. Then, at hte last minute, the shock came back - I'm guessing it was a spring that was the problem, and something was just blocking it, then it worked itself out or something. By by then, my car was sputtering. Never run your gas tank almost dry. It'll pick up the trash in the tank and you'll need to get a new fuel filter, and it can take two or three tanks of gas before it stops sputtering. I'm still working through those tanks, so while the sputtering is better, it's not gone. I don't know when I'll get home. Maybe I'll try for Easter. I don't think it would be good for my grandpa to move to town. Yes, he'd be closer to a hospital, but emotionally it wouldn't be better for him. He's in his mid-80s. He knows what hte risks are, and if he's going to prefer to stay someplace where he's happy, even if it's a risk to his life, I'm not going to argue against him. So much of our lives are spent doing what we should, what we have to, what makes sense, what's best for others. At some point, what makes us happy should come first.
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Post by Chantal on Jan 5, 2010 11:25:36 GMT -5
And by the time you reach your mid-eighties, I think you're justified in claiming some happiness for yourself.
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Post by Anna on Jan 5, 2010 13:19:31 GMT -5
Exactly. I remember, ten years ago, thinking that my Grandpa Claude's death seemed really sudden. As far as I knew, he wasn't really ill. A couple of years before he'd been in the hospital for a procedure - a stint, I think - but I don't recall it being anything too serious. Certainly nothing as serious as what my mom's had done at least once, if not more, since then. But when his daughters convinced him to move to town and leave his land (which was just a couple of miles from town), he just seemed to lose all of his interest in life. Within a year or two of moving to town, he was gone. Grandpa Harry may risk shaving a few years off his life by staying where he's happy - but at least he's happy and content there. His mind is still sound, and he's not alone out there on Billington Hill.
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Post by ginnystar on Mar 2, 2010 20:01:26 GMT -5
I feel with you, my grandmother dad's mom, was in her middle 90's when she pass away, she was start to have problems, and want to go to FL, where her 'winter home' was, most of them have a 'winter home' in FL, my uncle has one daughter that lives there all year round his other and she was get him confused with my dad, for I don't live need my dad now, and now she been gone two years, and now my dad's retired, he is the youngest in the family, and has a 'winter home' in FL.
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Post by ginnystar on Mar 2, 2010 20:04:07 GMT -5
At the moment, a RealLife fall has trigger, one bad thing, my fingertips and/or hand or arm get numbs/cold if I type too long, write to long, or carry something too long. Eek.
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Post by Chantal on Mar 8, 2010 11:50:03 GMT -5
Speaking of the respiration issue, isn't there an ailment in which you are able to breathe as long as you are conscious, but you cannot breathe, once you fall asleep? I remember it was named after someone in a Greek myth who would die if he or she slept.
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