hi grecogirl

sorry about your arm and pains,since you have gone a long period on cast, your muscles have taken a beatting due to MG
,, you will have a tuff period untill your arm be able to fuction properly, but dont despair.

i would sugest that you take peptides as they are good for muscles mass, and try to swinm as the excersice will give the necesary movenents to regain some stenght, and will not excert you to get to tired
best of luck Andre

I started to take Peptides. I just couldn't figure out why my arm was so weak and then came to realize that after being in that cast, the muscles were affected and are having a hard time coming back. I cannot take the chemicals in the pool water at the gym unfortunately, but I do move my arms when I walk, may just exaggerate it a bit more. Tried using a 3# hand weight yesterday to see if that would help as well. I guess I will just keep at it, but it is so discouraging, because before that accident I was feeling just fine and now almost 6 months later, I don't. It truly affects my mood as well. Thanks for your reply.

Not so sure that MG will be a factor here, but certainly agree that swimming as an exercise will be of great help to you.

Peter

Hi,

i was thinking at the time i answer, but forgot to mention, so i will ask you knowi that you are familiar with this.

have you some elastic cords that you use in the gym for strenghting you arms legs.ect, if you do try that as it will help to stenght your arms with out to much force into it.

some times i use that unstead of doing push upus against the kitchen counter, hpe that will help you, i know how frustating it can be when you do not feel as before, but with the help of the peptides and continous excersises you will be able to feel much better,
best of luck, andre

This is a little more complicated that at first view.

In MG, our weakness is due to communication to the muscle receptors from our nerves. Our muscle fibers may be completely normal but communication to them is blocked or diminished.
One test is a double dose of mestinon -- if the arm feels stronger probably MG receptor problems.

And of course under muscles will deteriorate with the disuse and so the actual muscle strength and size is diminished.

When I had the worst level of weakness early on, my muscles were still there and strong as I could tell by taking big doses of mestinon. My weakness and fatigue was from the communication link to them.

Exercise was difficult as I couldn't get the muscles to do much. My strategy was for one dose each morning, take more mestinon-sometimes 2 pills at once or one every 2 hours. That let me do more physical activity to exercise keep the muscles from deteriorating. I needed a couple of almost normal active hours each day to accomplish what I needed and mestinon made that happen.

The fatigue I had with MG was the communication link failure making my muscles feel tired, although the muscle fibers were fine, just not getting messages to move. Prednisone got me going in about 4-5 months and then my strength was back. However, certainly we can get muscle loss from not using them.

I was a subject in a Mayo Clinic research study of how to prevent muscle loss in older people (I was about 50). We had three parts.
1. Normal activity for 6 months with no special efforts to do anything extra in exercise for 6 months. I was a computer programmer and picked because of a somewhat sedentary life with mild working efforts.
2. Six months of 45 minutes per day of exercise bicycle under controlled conditions.
A leg muscle biopsy was done before starting and then after each 6 month period. There was no muscle loss for me, but no muscle gain either, even with 6 months of exercise biking.

The conclusion was that for older folks, muscle mass addition did not happen with aerobic exercise. Later they added a weight-lifting type segment and that did work to add muscle strength for older folks. It appears that younger folks up to age 30 can put on muscle mass either way. The aerobic exercise was greatly beneficial for heart and respiration, but did not add muscle mass unless a strength type exercise was added.

A forth segment was also tested, use of hormones for men. That worked with or without exercise.

Good Luck
Russ

Thanks Russ for your input, it is always appreciated. I see what you are saying. I have been taking Hup-A in lieu of the Mestinon. I was finding the Mestinon didn't really seem to make a difference in how I felt and I read on a holistic site that Mestinon after it wears off, just brings back the weakness and you just have to keeping taking it. I realize Mestinon is not a cure, but when I used to take it I did feel a positive difference and for a long time, didn't take it at all. Anyway, all of this MG stuff is making me dizzy. The thing is I can function now, but not at the level I did before, riding my bike and playing tennis. I can ride my bike, but I just don't feel that confident if I had to stop suddenly and hills are a bit of a challenge. I know I couldn't go on some of the rides I used to go on. It is hard for me to get off and on the bike, I need to be by a curb as my leg just won't go over the bar to the pedal and it is a ladies bike.

I don't know if I should just resign myself to my limitations and go on or try to see if there will be some improvement in my strength. I am on the fence about starting up with the Mestinon again.

I have searched many different sites, including a group on Facebook, and again everyone is different, either with their symptoms and/or treatment.

Again, thanks for your reply.