[Chirley]

Hi,

I forgot to mention that my zinc level was a little raised as well but that I had taken some zinc tablets last winter to ward off colds. The Prof of Metabolic Medicine said he didn't think I took enough zinc to account for the raised level and that it was more a cation/metabolic problem to do with cu/zn ratios. I'm not an academic and the chemistry of it all is beyond my capability.

My cu level is now 15 (13-25) so has finally reached normal levels so I have been changed to oral copper sulphate this week (hated the needles).

The good news is that I feel as if my ataxia has improved. I still have to use a walker most of the time but I can walk around my own house occasionally without assistance. I was at the hospital last week collecting my copper needles from the pharmacy and I met my Neurologist accidently and he got me to walk with and without the walker and he said that he thought I had improved as well. (this was done in the foyer of the hospital and was a little embarrassing in front of everybody). I also feel that my thinking has become clearer, it used to feel as if my head was full of cotton wool and I used to blame the anaemia. I mentioned that to my haematologist yesterday and he told me that it would have been from the demyelination in my brain. That was a shock, I didn't know that I had white matter lesions in my brain, noone had ever told me. I was only told about the spinal cord lesions.

The downside is that my lymphocytes remain low and my neutrophils that had returned to normal have dropped below normal again and my platelets have fallen as well (for the second blood test in a row). The haematologist says this is a "little worrying" and that I'm going to have another BMB in about 2 weeks time. I have my fingers crossed that it shows the MDS was really copper deficiency and that the blasts etc have returned to normal.

Thanks for the link Birgitta, the interesting bit for me was the mention of copper causing migraine because I have had three nasty migraines in the last couple of weeks and prior to that I only had a migraine once every 2 to 3 years. Thank goodness my migraines are self limiting and only last an hour to an hour and a half because I lose my sight when I have them, the actual headache component lasts longer but that responds to paracetamol.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I had a very quiet one because we had floods here and the only people who could come were my parents. Everyone else was stranded in their homes by flood waters. I'm still trying to eat all the food and I don't like turkey much to start with.

Regards

Chirley