beaus lines in fingernails?

[beema36]

I have some deep horizontal line in my fingernail. A couple years,ago after an mri with contrast my nails turned blue and stayed that way until they grew out. I was told it was toxicity probably from contrast. Now I have developed the lines. My Dr told me today its from something toxic possibly a med or it could be something systemic. He seemed very unconcerned although did say it sometimes leads to a necrosis.
Does anybody have this? Could it be related to autonomic dysfunction? I am concerned as feel this is something that should be taken more seriously.
Beema

[beema36]

I would love for you to kick them in the shins:) Out of my primary Dr, electrophysilogist, and neurologist none of them seem to get it. They all have in their own way told me there's only so much drs can do and I need to accept my conditions. I do understand that but quadrapelegics(sp?) function better than I do right now. That's,all I ask is some quality of life. I force myself out of bed daily and push myself and try to smile and do my best but am reaching a point where I am tired of not being able to do anything. Dr did switch me from phenergan to zophran for the nausea so am hoping it will work better. I hate nausea.
I may get back to you on a plan B as I don't want to just give up.
By the way I love spider plants. You are lucky you have it to remind you of your dad. My dad was one month from turning 92 but I still wasn't ready to let him go.:( I do know he's in a much better place though. I an sorry you lost yours,at such a young age.
Renovations of older homes is very costly. We were going to try it with one we found and loved but it got sold out from under us. Now with my health I am thinking that,was for the best as I am no help at all now and no longer have my income.
Hope you have a great weekend. It's to be very hot here so I am staying in and using our ac.
Beema

[Heiferly]

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.  I lost my father when I was 12.  I have a spider plant from his funeral that will NOT give up the ghost.  It's determined to take over the house.  It has been divided into about 5 separate plants now and just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  There was a very surreal time in my life as I realized the plant was old enough to have graduated from high school (and thus my dad had been gone for that long).  I have a sort of love/hate relationship with the plant.  Part of me wishes it wouldn't keep thriving and following me from apartment to apartment to house to house through my life, growing and growing ... it's not the most attractive plant, either.  But the other part of me can't let go of it, even when others offer to adopt one of the divided "subplants" of it ... I just can't seem to let any of it go.  Wow, that was a tangent ... sorry.  So, yeah, that's the story of the plant from my dad's funeral in 1991.  If I figure out a moral or a point to that story, I'll be sure to come back and let you know.  :-/

I love the house.  I mean, I really love the house.  I just don't know if we're going to be able to stay here as long as we'd hoped.  It has become much more expensive to restore the house than we had anticipated, and we certainly hadn't anticipated the downturn in the housing market and the economy, which has made our "project" that much more difficult.  I suppose there's a good bit of guilt on my end from time to time because my disability income is only there to support me, and certainly can't contribute to the house.  If there's a possibility of me working again in the future, it's far enough into the future that I'm not spending my time thinking that far ahead yet.  

As for you, the presyncope symptoms are certainly not nothing.  It's the daily, nagging, ongoing symptoms that really grind away at your peace of mind, in my opinion.  Exactly the type of things you mentioned:  pain, nausea, weakness, etc.  If your doctor isn't hearing you out about these things, you (we?) need to come up with a Plan B.  Sometimes saying things in a different way to the same doc can help, sometimes asking for a referral to a different type of specialist is what is needed, and sometimes a second opinion or changing docs entirely is the solution.  So long as you still have a problem, you deserve to have someone at least *trying* to find a solution.  Succeeding may be a different matter, but there's some peace of mind that does come from at least knowing that you're on track and an effort is being made.

Let me know if you want to talk about a "Plan B" for any of your specific symptoms and we can discuss your current treatment (and any past treatments that have been tried), what you've said to your doc(s), what's been said in reply, and what you might try as a Plan B to get some action on that symptom.  Or you know, if you just want me to kick your doc in the shins to "spur" them into action, apparently I can barely feel my feet from the neuropathy so at least my toes won't get sore from it!  Ha!!

:-)  Heiferly.

[beema36]

Oh and meant to say your house sounds wonderful. I love old houses but had never thought about the potential electrical and wiring problems. That sound scary! Glad you weren't hurt.
Beema

[beema36]

Heiferly,
Thank you so much! I needed this today. It's been a bad couple weeks. More symptoms, my dad passed away which threw me bigtime and my drs just seem so removed. They make me feel like I should just accept the fact that I am losing ability to function. The pain, nausea, weakness, and all those constant presyncope things to them apparently are nothing. Now my hands look scary and hurt and Dr basically shrugging his shoulders was too much.

So you are right I do need to regain my focus. You are definitely an angel.:)

[Heiferly]

Beema,

I entirely understand.  I think it's important to *try* to focus on taking one day at a time and to live in today.  (I emphasize "try" because this is a goal of mine, not something I'm always able to achieve.  But I do see the difference it makes in my attitude and mental well-being when I'm able to do it.)  When I can put myself in the here and now, it's easier to put it all into perspective.  Yes, my autonomic nervous system is connected throughout my entire body, so with it "on the fritz" I'm going to have symptoms popping up EVERYWHERE.  

It's much like having a fundamental problem with the entire electrical wiring in a building.  If all of the electrical system is wrong, you are going to have issues in every single room.  We live in a historic house that was built in 1904, and let me tell you the electric that was here when we moved in left a lot to be desired.  Not enough outlets in any of the rooms, ancient wires with the insulating layers around them breaking down due to sheer age, none of the proper grounded outlets that are now standard in modern kitchens and bathrooms (due to proximity to water), a dearth of three-prong outlets (where were we supposed to plug in things like computers, printers, etc.??), and an inability to even get in easily to see what the wiring even looked like because of the whole house being plaster and brick rather than simple drywall.  So maybe it wasn't THAT much of a surprise when we got a short in the kitchen that nearly started a fire to burn the house down.  What did surprise me was that as the short went in the kitchen, lightbulbs started literally bursting in the basement, other lights flickered and burnt out in other areas on the second and third floor of our house (the kitchen is on the first floor), a TV on the second floor zapped out (never to be functional again), etc.  It was just like dysautonomia.  The short in the kitchen made symptoms EVERYWHERE and while my better half sprang into action, I sat there smelling the sick, burning smell of the short and watching and hearing everything zap and burn out around me and was too paralyzed by all the chaos to do anything at all.  He saved our home from burning down, and taught me an important lesson:  you can't focus on everything at once or you will just get paralyzed by your emotions.  Figure out which is the most important "fire" to put out and just focus on that.  The rest can be solved later.

Now I make a lot of lists.  I make lists for myself.  I take lists to my doctors' appointments.  I try to prioritize, too.  What is *most* troublesome to me?  What is *most* urgent?  Which "fire" needs my attention today, and what can I put down on paper and then let go of and put entirely out of my mind for another day?  Of course, with symptoms, putting things out of your mind is easier said than done.  I find this especially true with nagging symptoms like pain or nausea.  These symptoms tend to come up over and over again as higher priorities on MY list, even if my docs want to back burner them because they feel helpless to solve them.  As some here know, it took me years to get my allodynia (skin pain) addressed to my satisfaction.  I did my "squeaky wheel" thing from time to time and eventually it clicked with the right doc and I got help for my pain.

Sorry if this is rambling.  I guess I'm trying to say that I commiserate with how you feel and that my best advice is to try to take things in small pieces and one day at a time, rather than trying to look at "the big picture" too much or focus too far into the future (or worse yet, get depressed about how much better things may have seemed in the past).  You can do this because you only need to do it a little bit at a time, and because you have your own personal cheering section here to boost your morale!!  We're in your corner, don't forget that.

Big hugs,
Heiferly.

[beema36]

Thanks Heiferly. I do have raynauds syndrome and am wondering if its from that. Just seems its one thing after another but you know all about that with your own health. Somedays I just feel like giving up.
Beema

[Heiferly]

Have not come across anything about this in any of my reading about disorders related to autonomic dysfunction.  I think your speculation about it being medication related is probably more likely.  There are also nutritional deficiencies which can be associated with Beau's lines.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau's_lines

I hope it turns out to be nothing, or at least something easily remedied.
Hugs,
Heiferly.

[beema36]

Christy, I actually had my neurologist and electrophysilogist look too and they were as unimpressed as my primary Dr. I guess I will try another Dr as its happened too much. I was reading that betablockers and interferons can cause it both of which I take. Was just wondering if there could be any connection to autonomic dysfunction.
Beema

[CHRISTYDRAKE]

Perhaps have it looked at by another doctor.  My mothers internist caught her multiple myloma because of the lines she had on her finger nails.  It could be nothing, but it wouldn't hurt to have it looked at again.

Christy