All Posts Tagged With: "weakness"

Linda’s comments: Linda’s comment:  This is the reasons why I try and guide people to make their own healthcare choices and learn all they can about holistic/alternative medicine….There are wayyyyyyyyyy to many folks with Lyme disease who are given these products…..<sigh>

link: http://www.medicationsense.com/fluoroquinolone.html 

Excerpt:

Levaquin and Cipro Reactions

In 2001, Dr. Jay S. Cohen published a ground-breaking article* on the severe and often disabling reactions some people sustained while taking Levaquin, Cipro, or another FQ antibiotic. Dr. Cohen says, “It is difficult to describe the severity of these reactions. They are devastating. Many of the people in my study were healthy before their reactions. Some were high intensity athletes. Suddenly they were disabled, in terrible pain, unable to work, walk, or sleep.” 
The 45 subjects in Dr. Cohen’s study reported the following side effects*.

Peripheral Nervous System

: Tingling, numbness, prickling, burning pain, pins/needles sensation, electrical or shooting pain, skin crawling, sensation, hyperesthesia, hypoesthesia, allodynia (sensitivity to touch), numbness, weakness, twitching, tremors, spasms.

Central Nervous System:

 

Dizziness, malaise, weakness, impaired coordination, nightmares, insomnia, headaches, agitation, anxiety, panic attacks, disorientation, impaired concentration or memory, confusion, depersonalization, hallucinations, psychoses.

Excerpt:

If you have multiple sclerosis (MS)––or you know someone who does––you probably remember how long it took to make the diagnosis.  You also may remember a lot of blood tests, a lumbar puncture, at least one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, as well as many visits and examinations by various doctors.  You may wonder why it still takes so long to make the diagnosis in this modern age of MRIs and other sophisticated tests.  We are going to try to explain why it can be so difficult for even the most expert MS neurologist to determine that someone has MS.  You have to live with the diagnosis and face the disease and the treatments.  You should understand and have confidence in the diagnosis.  Also, if your case of MS does not fit the typical pattern, you need to be aware of the other disorders that can mimic MS.  This is important because the treatments may be very different and, just as in most cases of MS, treatment begun early in the course of the disease is the best way to prevent or slow further neurologic damage.

MRI and new laboratory tests have definitely helped speed the diagnosis, but it still takes longer than anyone would wish, even in easy cases.  This is partly because of the variable nature of the disease in its many signs and symptoms. But it is also because a rather long list of other medical disorders can cause neurologic symptoms and signs that resemble MS. Furthermore, the “white spots” on brain MRI can be caused by a number of other conditions that also need to be ruled out.

The diagnosis of clinically definite MS requires that a person experience at least two neurologic symptoms of the type seen in MS, in two different areas of the central nervous system (CNS), at two different times (‘disseminated in space and time’).  Most typically, the symptoms are optic neuritis plus either an abnormal sensation or a problem with movement.  It can also be numbness in one part of the body and weakness or lack of coordination in another.  But in every case, there can be no other explanation for the symptoms, the changes seen on the MRI, and the abnormalities in the spinal fluid.  Many “mimics” need to be ruled out in order to make the diagnosis of MS. 

Clinical practice guidelines are increasing in number. Unfortunately,
when scientific evidence is uncertain, limited, or evolving, as is often
the case, conflict often arises between guideline committees and
practicing physicians, who bear the direct responsibility for the care of
individual patients. The 2006 Infectious Diseases Society of America
guidelines for Lyme disease, which have limited scientific support,
could, if implemented, limit the clinical discretion of treating physicians
and the treatment options available to patients

Introduction

Clinical practice guidelines are now ubiquitous throughout the
United States. The National Guidelines Clearing House, under the
category “diseases,” currently lists 2,126 separate guidelines on its
web site. Clinical guidelines are intended to assist physicians in
patient care by clearly communicating the results of the guideline
committees’ evaluation of available therapeutic options. However,
the processes by which individual guidelines are constructed may be
less clear, leading to disagreements between the issuing committee
and the physicians who treat patients-physicians who may well be
as experienced and knowledgeable as the guideline committee. Continued

Linda’s comment:  I have a friend who drives truck from the east coast to the west coast and recently I got a telephone call from her.  She told me that she would NEVER EVER roll her eyes at me when I talk about “free range”, organic feed, and how the chickens are killed and processed.

They had to pick up a delivery of processed chickens, (they drive refrigerated trucks) and the rot and smell were more than she could take.  She said many of the chicken in the confined cages had no feathers on their wings.  She thought it was because the cages they were kept in were so small that they could not flap their wings.  They picked up their load then delivered it to a place that the smell of rot was so bad she puked.  She has sworn off any chicken or eggs that don’t come from free range and organic fed.  Of course I was doing a happy dance that two more people saw the light!!  In the following article it doesn’t surprise me how sick our farmers are from managing chickens and pigs in such nasty conditions.  What has this world come to?? Continued