by Biologist » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:51 pm
I think well of my doctor. I have an unusually low "contempt factor" for him compared to most when it comes to professional statin ignorance. While he still has a lot to learn about "statin reality," he's more likely than most to change, in my opinion. He's not there yet, but it is just a matter of time. It will happen. (Hell, it better -- eventually it will be a Very Open scandal!) I told him I think he's on his way to being "well ahead of the curve" and believe he will look back on that with some satisfaction in the future; and I've told him straight out that "the gig is simply up on statins"; it's just the massive institutional and commercial inertia behind it all keeping it afloat. (Well, that and the frenzied TV and magazine advertising going on nonstop.)
Time is always tight on his schedule -- 15 minutes or so per patient? And part of that time is me giving him info on what I have found out about statins and my ongoing experiences with the aftermath. Basically I had one question of him when I went in for my last visit (and first visit since the day after I hurriedly took myself off statins). I thought it out in advance on the way to his office. It was a deceptively simple but "loaded" -- distilled down to core. Here it is: while showing him my left arm tremoring under motion (4 - 8 hertz seems a reasonable approximation) and under no load (btw, with "a load" of a few pounds, there is little detectable tremor!) as if I were doing a negative arm curl (i.e., lowering the forearm from the curled position -- as opposed to raising it where the tremor does not appear):
"Have you ever seen anything like this get better?"
That answer would tell me a lot.
As I recall, he answered the question with a question, which makes sense. A little later, after discussion, I asked again (I had already considered that I should be persistent here with "The Question.")
It is possible I asked him a third time but do not remember exactly. I had suggested it was perhaps ALS-like in the meantime.
When he answered the question -- where I perceived that he would rather not directly comment -- he admitted that he had never seen it before and did not know what it was, and a little later added: with the exception of with Parkinson's patients.
He asked if I currently had health insurance in place (I am on and off again with it -- now off). I'm suspect he was going to recommend seeing a neurologist. He had performed the most impressive forearm reflex exam I have ever had or heard of. (BTW, as I understand it, reflexes are a direct circuit from point of contact with "the hammer" to the spinal cord and then directly back to the "point of action" -- amazingly, the brain is omitted from the circuit completely.) I did not know there were that many places to illicit a reflex response on an arm (hell, maybe he just could not find what he was looking for or I was not "cooperating" well enough -- but chances are he knew what he was doing). While I did not specifically ask, I got the distinct impression that he found nothing of interest.
So, I researched Parkinsons a little bit -- I now know just enough to be dangerous, so keep that in mind with the following: What I have is apparently not any classical form of it. That condition is not characterized by "under motion" tremors, but resting tremors. (Later, some small percentage will get action tremors apparently, but after a time of passive tremors first -- for months or longer.) So the message is: He did not know what it was. Which is fitting for a statin diagnosis in my experience here. I do not totally write off a potential Parkinsons-like mechanism for the tremor though, and that would be the dysfunction of cells in the brain that produce dopamine -- a neurotransmitter. Now that's a new one for me: not nerve damage, as such, but supporting cells that produce the "connectivity juice" for the nerves!
In the future, depending on how things go I may consider suggesting a test where we dose me with the precursor supplement (L-dopa, I believe -- along with a supporting compound I read about, which may be prescription) and see if my tremors subside for a while. That would be telling, wouldn't it?
In the mean time, I am going the way of others here and will try some strength training for a while starting this week. I haven't done zip for six months. And I do not have a physical job at all (while like you, bucho, statins have not been helpful for my thinking job one bit!). So I hope you guys (and gals) are right. I believe I am likely well off of the "sweet spot" in that regard, as bucho analogizes. DEB, I think you are right to take his suggestion of adding more recovery time, and I will be doing that too. (You never know, that may even be the reasons for my problems -- atrophy by lack of necessary rehabilitative training after such an "injury" -- not real likely, but certainly a possibility.) I will be very interested in hearing about your checkup in May. I have a special interest in your case and am sure rooting for you. Thanks for your comments, Brooks. BTW, I agree with your recent assessment of xrn's debating skills in the other thread -- he's kicking some serious butt, as we say here in the States -- but being so nice and professional about it at the same time!
Wish I had something more usable. In fact, I figured I better go ahead and get this post off so as not to disappoint for too long. Sorry for the rambling and lack of editing. But I will post on how the lifting goes and how the tremor goes over the coming weeks.
poohhel and mgguy, keep up the faith.
Everyone keep us posted.
Biologist