Neurological problem that needs someone as smart as House M.D.

[neuromystery]

I am in dire need for EXPERT help.  We gone to see numerous doctors, but both the doctors and healthcare system is not conducive to finding solutions to atypical Neurological disease.  We typically receive two types of responses when the doctor is unable to diagnose the illness.  They push off the responsibility to some other "specialist".  The illness affected the mother who know close a catatonic state.  My girlfriend is beginning to show early signs of the same disease.  We both fear the very likelihood that she will end up in the same state in a very short time.

The Mother:
She is currently a 60 year old female.  Mother's parents are both lalive and are over the age of 80.  The Grandparent are in good health considering their age.  They lead an active life and maintain good mobility and independence.  The grandmother during a short period of youth was plagued by dizziness.  However, the dizziness had disappeared - never to return.

The mother has began to first show signs of the illness 3 years ago.  It began with a intermittent leg twitching in one leg.  In a short time, that shaking has spread to both legs.  The mother was taken to the several different hospitals for numerous blood tests, MRI and CT scans.  Each hospital have not been able to find anything definitive of the tests.  Parkinson's was the obvious choice, because of the tremor.  However, after taking the medication for 6 months there was no change or alleviation of symptom.  The severity of the tremors continued to increase and new symptoms began to emerge.

Insomnia
Muscle stiffness throughout the entire body nearing the to point of rigidity
Fixed gaze
Blurred vision
Slowness in movement
Facial masking
Poor articulation and soft/weakened voice
High blood pressure
Accelerated pulse rate
Muscle weakness
Sweats and heated feeling
Difficulty urinating
Increased drooling

The head of movement disorder who was treating the mom had believed that she does not have Parkinson's disease.  Once that was discounted, we had tried other angles, such as infectious disease and hormones.  Infectious disease had ran into a dead end, but they did find that she had Thyroid problem as we explored the hormonal angle.  The family does have hormonal issues.  The daughter has prolactonoma and niece also has a Thyroid issue as well.

Before the mother has progressed to a near catatonic state.  We had brought the mother to the Emergency Room.  I had warned the doctors that she will likely be in a wheel chair in a few months in we do not move quickly to find a treatment.  While my words were prophetic, we were unable to find a solution, but one interesting occurrence from the ER visit.  When she had left the ER, for the first time in years, she experience alleviation from her symptoms.  She had experienced breathing difficulty at the ER and was given large amounts of IV fluids.  I believe nearly 3 bags in a 24 hour period.  Large dosage of Potassium and sulfate.

Naturally, we had asked our PCP to prescribe potassium and sulfate in the hopes of replicating the affects of the ER, but they were only willing to prescribe low dosage since blood test did not show anything out of range.  We also did not have IV fluid when we tried the calcium and sulfate.  To our disappointment, we were not able to have any alleviation.

Please help!  I need it desperately.  We tried neurology,infectious disease, and endocronology.  I'm willing to offer a six figure reward to anyone who gives me the right answer.  

Personally, I believe that there may be some kind of hormonal involvement, because of the sweats.  The infectious disease doctors had prescribed her with antibiotics to rule out a chance that the sweats were caused by infection.  The fact that her symptoms were relieved after her ER visit is promising.  Potassium, sulfates and IV solutions may have neurological impact.  Her high blood pressure and trouble urinating may also be heavily related to her neurological disease

[EarthwormRN]

Could be Multiple Sclerosis. Sometimes an MRI misses lesions. Was this explored as well? Also maybe lou gehrig's/ALS, Lyme disease, b12 deficiency/aka pernicious anemia. You could request that these paths be explored. Its tough to have such general neurologic symptoms that could be many different things. All of these can be difficult to diagnose and the severe ones are usually only diagnosed when all less critical options are ruled out. Good luck, I hope someone figures out what it is so the correct treatment plan can be carried out and help relive and slow the progression.

[arachnaphob]

Try copper and zinc levels.