When you’re not even 5th in the queue!

Mesamb posted a link to a YouTube video about two kittens that are believed to have Myotonia Congenita, the same muscle condition I suffer from! I watched the film and got in touch witht he cats’ owner, a nice guy called Ed. He was shocked to discover that people actually suffered from Myotonia Congenita as well as animals.

Having first hand experience of the problems associated with this myopathy I could sympathise with the cats’ plight, even more so because we have two cats as well. However, I wasn’t too please to hear that the Royal Veterinary College referred to the condition as ‘Fainting Goat Syndrome’. The BBC wrote an article on the kittens containing the predictable reference to the (in)famous fainting goats, and also pointing out that MC has been diagnosed in dogs and horses, but that in cats it was extremely rare. No mention of humans, even though it equally rare in us.

It’s taken me over 30 years to get people in authority to take my condition seriously. I only qualified for DLA last year after I bought a medical paper from an internet site that was written about me by two of my consultants back in the early 1970’s and presented it as evidence.

I’ve written to the Royal Veterina College’s princicpal to ask him to stop his staff referring to Myotonia Congenita as ‘Fainting Goat Syndrome’ because this condition was diagnosed in humans first, the rule of precedence should be condsidered there, and that it is also not acceptable for people to be labelled with a term meant for animals. It might seem like a small thing to some people but I can honestly see someone from the DWP reading about the kittens or watching the video and thinking, “hey, there’s a guy claiming DLA for this and it’s obviously and animal problem, not human!” I’m awaiting a reply to see if the RVC agree with my point.

I’ve also contacted the BBC to ask if they’d correct their article and include a reference to humans suffering MC as well but I don’t expect anything back from them. They actually included this in their piece:

Severe cases can result in death, but the condition can be managed with drugs.

The DWP argued with me for years that MC is not life threatening but the BBC and the RVC seem to disagree! Also, MC is not managed by dedidcated drugs, in humans at least. I have to take a heart drug as it reduces the myotonic symptoms as a side-effect but that means regular ECG and blood test to make sure that it isn’t having an adverse effect upon me too. If there are drugs that reduce the myotonia in animals I would like to hear about them as there may be human equivalents that are less problamatic than the depression/epilepsy/heart drugs normally prescribed to human MC sufferers.

Anyway, it seems that after goats, horses, dogs and cats I might qualify as fifth in line for consideration as an MC sufferer, but they’ll have to do their homework first!

P.S. Thanks Mesamb for the link, it has been very educational and I appreciate being able to talk to people about my condition.