periodic paralysis muscle disorder

I don't look like the sort of guy who'd suffer from intermittent muscle weakness, but there you go.

This is what I refer to as a flaccid episode (not that kind of flaccid; get your mind out of the gutter), where my muscles are relaxed and weak, there isn't much twitching or fasciculation and I'm generally a bit floppy. My muscle tone is poor for much of the video, allowing my abdomen to distend at times and giving my body a soft appearance, but I regain some muscle tone for short periods while moving around.

I get tense episodes at other times, where my there's a lot of tension in my muscles, a lot of twitching and fasciculation, and instead of being floppy like a rag doll, my body tends to remain in a position like a manikin; if I raise my arm, for instance, the muscle tension will tend to keep it in a raised position without any concious effort on my part, and it will actually require a concious effort to lower it from the raised position. See this video for an example of a tense episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxeLfPMRLAM

The episodes are accompanied by facial flushing and cognitive impairment. I also have polyuria, passing 3-4 litres of urine a day (normal is 1-2 litres, and polyuria is anything over 2.5 litres).

I'm being investigated by a neurologist at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, and I don't have a definitive answer to my problems. This is the closest match for my symptoms that I've found so far:

http://periodicparalysis.blogspot.com/2005/07/maybee-family-syndrome.html

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• periodic paralysis
• muscle weakness
• paralysis
• muscle
• weakness
• muscle disorder
• muscle membrane
• genetic
• mutation
• channelopathy
• ion channel
• calcium
• magnesium
• sodium
• potassium
• chloride
• polyuria
• hyperexcitability
• hypoexcitability
• muscle tone
• flushing
• fasciculation
• twitch
• twitching

[Peter5930]

@jamesrking1 Thanks; I'm hoping that the videos will be helpful in arriving at a diagnosis, and I've made some useful contacts through people watching them. I have a webcam set up so that I can quickly start it recording when I'm having an episode.

[jamesrking1]

I wish you the very best living with your conditions. I find it interesting how you film yourself . I have a slight sleep apnea problem snoring and breath holding. You have given me the incentive to turn a camera on my self one of these nights. I love your amphibian films .