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About MightyMouse

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  • Birthday 11/28/2004

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  3. I had two rounds of steroids recently--once in late Oct 14 to treat disc and nerve pain/spasms, which was given via epidural, and then again in Feb orally for a week for same reason. I had never had a problem with steroids, injected or otherwise, but these past few times sent me into massive runs of PVCs, tachycardia even while laying down, and tetany (random muscles spasming and causing my limbs to jerk or move involuntarily). The steroids caused me to have very low serum potassium and magnesium, requiring IV infusion 2x to stabilize me. I've learned now to start with smaller dose of whatever I'm supposed to be taking. I also recently had a horrible reaction to Lyrica--made me manic. Very fast talking, very active physically, and actually felt awesome, but when it wore off every part of my body hurt b/c I over did my physical activities for about 24 hours. Like Katie, I feel for you. So frustrating sometimes. For me, I never know what to expect when taking something new or something I haven't taken in a long time--it's always a surprise what happens afterward.
  4. Hi Pumpkin, I am also petite and have dangerous sensitivities to many medications...morphine is among them, as is oxycontin and codeine. As I have a known genetic disorder called SHOX, I know my collagen is defective--collagen is one of the places in the body that is associated with MAST cells. I also have trouble with local anesthetic; the normal novacaine or lidocaine just doesn't get me numb. I've also woken up during endoscopy. For me, I have a short list of pain meds that work: most of my pain is from spasms--so benzos help, but I try not to take them b/c they can be highly addictive per my doc. NSAIDS like Alleve work amazingly well, but bother my stomach big time. Dilaudid is my go to med if I'm in the ER, but only time I've had it at home was post-surgically. Nina
  6. Exactly my response dkd... You really need to ask your doctor. For my test, I was told to be off everything. It took a month to go off of florinef, and I had to be done weaning myself so that the last dose was more than 2 weeks before the testing. I was told to do by slowly tapering down the dose. I was told not to stop florinef suddenly. Then for 24 hours before the test, I was not permitted to take midodrine, caffeine, and a few of my other meds that I cant recall now b/c it was 15 years ago. As I recall, the only thing I was allowed to take on the day of the test was water, and nexium (may have been prilosec, nexium's predecessor)...no food, no other drink than water the morning of the test, nothing to eat after midnight. But...that was my doctor's instructions... I can tell you that typically, most TTT's are done w/ no meds, but again, depending on other things going on with your body, that might not be safe for you, which is why I would strongly encourage you to talk to the doctor--or if they gave you paperwork about your testing, read it carefully, as it may give you specific instructions. Nina
  9. Here's how to check accurately: first, go to the gene broswer, and open up gene x by clicking on the link for it. Then, open the any of the intergenic sequences you see listed under the "gene" column. Click on the reference link for dbSNP lookup, which takes you to NIH's gene library to cross search your own data. Scroll down to the integrated maps section, where there is a search box that has the word "find" on it. Type in the gene you're looking for. When I type in SHOX, a pop up search window shows from 624344 to 659411 are positive for SHOX. I have 14 pathogenic sequences (show up as purple blocks). To see the details aobut them, you close the pop up window go back to the top of the gene map, immediately left of search box you used, mouse over the letter and number sequence right of the blue left facing arrow, which will open it up to "full view" (entrez view is the standard view). Once the map displays, If you mouse over blocks that are purple, blue, green, it will give you the exact alleles that are pathogenic, suspected pathogenic, benign and unknown outcomes. Entering SHOX in 23andMe's search box comes up with nothing for me too, but I am most definitely positive for SHOX
  11. I found my own dwarfism gene on the X chromosome a few years ago using 23andMe as well. I ran it through free gene processing on NIH's gene database and then wen through the snp's myself (an snp is a segment of genetic material), segment by segment. About a year later, I did the same thing you did to check my work, running through the Promethease system for a small fee, which replicated my own findings, but also showed me a few other things--for example, I carry a bunch of mutations for hemochromatosis--and now it makes perfect sense why my blood iron readings have always been high. I've shared my findings with my physicians. For dwarfism genes I carry at least 9 pathogenic alleles for SHOX, a bunch of probable pathogenic alleles, and a bunch with unknown outcome. "Pathogenic" means the genes cause problematic outcomes. You may recall dominant versus recessive genes from your basic biology classes--the problem with my pathogenic genes is that all them fall in a location that's called "pseudo autosomal dominant region" of X. This means genes in this area are expressed as if they're dominant... SHOX, like EDS and Marfans, causes bone and collagen tissue defects, from fragility of blood vessels, hypermobile joints, etc. When I went to my doctor with my info, I printed out a screen shot of each of the SHOX related gene's location on X, the associated report from NIH for each individual pathogenic and probable pathogenic SHOX gene, along with the general SHOX gene report from NIH, here http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/SHOX I am curious. How have your current medical team members responded to your findings?
  13. Sarah, thank you so much for dedicating your valuable time and energy to our forum. Warmly, Nina
  14. Not in heart failure, but I'm having major heart problems and may need catheterization soon if we don't figure out what the heck is causing all types of dysrhythmias. My 23 hr Holter showed 561 ventricular ectopic beats, most were PVCs, 132 late beats, SVE, bigeminy and trigeminy, PACs, atrial runs, and more than half of the events happened between 11pm and 5am, while I was sleeping. I've had problems with low serum Mg and K, as well as a slightly off thyroid reading... but we've been treating that stuff... I understand your frustration and the impact on your life. I've been short of breath for weeks, I turn bright red all over, sweat, and have nausea and dizziness. My biggest worry is that I'll end up like my dad, paced and ICD... granted, I'm a nonsmoker, and average drinker, so that makes a difference as he smoked for over 40 years, and drank very heavily until he had a massive heart attack in his early 60's. Dr. Oz was his heart surgeon 2x; He probably would have died b/c no one else would take him as he was too high risk. Here's the thing with being paced...they often do an ablation first...and for many of us, the tachycardia is FUNCTIONAL, in that the heart speeds up to make up for dropping blood pressure. When you zap the sinus node, it can no longer shoot the HR high enough to make up for the loss in pressure, leading to permanent problems with fainting and dizziness. It's a complicated issue, b/c some folks need the ablation regardless of their other diagnoses, just to live. Hang in there and hugs Nina
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