Quote:
Originally Posted by cyclelops
Since you have a diagnosis of CMT, can I ask a few questions? (We don't have many CMTers or hereditary PNers here) I do read the CMT forums, however, can't find a few answers to questions.....I know these are kind of personal, but.... Did you ever have dysmenorrhea and if you had pregnancies, did you have issues with labor and delivery, and also how do you do with general anesthesia? Have you had any issues with drug intolerances, and which ones? If that is too personal, I understand. Thanks.
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Hi Again,
Yes, it is too bad that there aren't more CMTers on here. It is nice, so to speak, when they do come on.
To try and answer your questions, I had no issues with labor and delivery. As far as anesthetics, you would want to stay away from Suxamethonium (Anectine). It is a muscle relaxant and it causes the release of potassium icons (K+) from the muscle tissues into the blood. With normal people this doesn't really bother. But a person with a NMD may normally leak K+ so then it would be a further increase in those levels. This could lead to abnormal heart rhythums. There is a test that can be done preoperative to check the K+. Most of us CMTers are pretty relaxed anyway so no need for that type of drug. And there are lots of others out there now.
You would not want a spinal or epidural either, especially with CMT Type 1's as you could have enlarged nerves and it would be harder to get the needle in the right spot. Your anesthesiologist should be aware of this. These enlarged nerves are called "onion bulbs".
I've only had an issue with a sulpha drug. Otherwise, I have not had any trouble but then I do not take any medication unless I absolutely have to. Most of the time I just live with pain. At some point, that certainly could change. But, no issues there.
I should mention that CMT symptoms can come on when you are young, old, or in-between. Or they may never be that evident but yet the person can pass CMT on. Symptoms vary greatly even within the same family. It comes from my Mom's side. I had my children long before there were any evident symptoms (of course there were no gene tests then and so didn't know that I had inherited it either). Mine showed up much later in life. My Mom had her children long before her symptoms were evident and the same with her father. My Mom's brother's symptoms were there when he was 11. So there is just no way of telling how a person will end up at all. And we have to remember that there are many types out there but the Type 1's and 2's usually have that 50/50% chance for "each" child to inherit.
By the way, with the exception of Type 1X, which is inherited through the X Chromosome, CMT Type 1 is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern. Type 2 represents axonal forms that are dominantly inherited and they make up about 1/3 of all dominant CMT cases.
Hope this helps some and as I say, you seem very knowledgeable and probably know a lot of this anyway. Thank you again. I do appreciate it.
Kitt
