I’m still pretty numb to my emotions. Lows are tempting and the highs feel just out of reach. My love for my wife, daughter and son have deepened and my love for our Doby-mix Annie has also taken deeper root.
It’s ok to hurt now.
On to today; PT went good this morning and then following that we went back home and then my dear friend and mentor Art Yeap came by and took me to lunch nearby. CC came and met us at The Habit in Citrus Heights/Fair Oaks for lunch and we were blessed by his heart, spirit and words. Art is a gift to those who know him and I count myself richly blessed.
Following lunch, CC and I headed out to pick up kids from the schools and run them to their homes (2 other families in addition to ours) and it was during the final leg of this run that I began to fade. Couldn’t really move my legs after sitting as long as I had and then down went the eyelids. The hit ended up not a bad one, but my body was exhausted and I think that was a key contributor to the attack.
I was reading an email earlier today and it does a good job of speaking more basically regarding HKPP so I’m going to close out with a quote of part of the email here but not include the name of the writer until I get their permission to include it. Just know that I didn’t write it.
The symptoms of PP are caused by the fluctuation of serum K+ which then affects muscle tone, *but* hypokalemia - in general - affects every neuronal junction in the body, as potassium is one of the two charged cations that "fire up" the electrical grid that our cells operate on.
You might think of this as a dimmable light switch, one of the dial- types, with an infinite number of settings. It will handle a 100 watt bulb, but let's say we only had a 50 watt bulb in the drawer, so we stuck that in the socket.
So, the mark straight up means potassium is at a normal level. When you turn the dial down (dim the lights) you are actually *increasing* the resistance to the flow of electrons in the wire. That's just what happens when K+ ions drop in the blood serum. Cell membranes ALL over the body increase their resistance and become more resistant to stimulation. The muscles get weaker, because the stimulation can't overcome that resistance. In the brain, low K+ causes reduced reaction time, less reaction, a "dimming" of the normal emotional responses.
If you turn the dial UP the light gets brighter because electrons flow more easily, resistance to stimulation is reduced. Just the same in us. Too much K+ in the serum causes the ion gates to become too sensitive to stimulation. They contract too vigorously, or too often, and become weakened. If the dial is turned too high the light bulb pops. In HyperKPP or PMC this is the point where weakness becomes paralysis. The muscle packs up and says, "No more until you get this wiring problem worked out!"
Fluctuations in K+ don't just affect the skeletal muscle, they affect every cell and organ, because we literally run off a power grid created by the movement of sodium and potassium ions in our cells.
And while the PPs are loosely grouped with the neuromuscular disorders, the brain has nothing to do with creating the symptoms.
Peace
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