The hunt is ON

One of the big questions with this kind of disease (Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy) is WHO STARTED IT? 

Since ostensibly our immune systems are trustworthy and exist to protect and defend the home body, the attack my immune system is waging on my muscles is presumably coming from its reasonable response to an invasion — like exposure to a virus or a developing neoplasm.

So the hunt is on for pathogens and tumors.* My task over the past couple of weeks has been to check the following items off the list in this pursuit of the wascally first cause. So far, so good . . .

• colonoscopy ✓
• mammogram ✓
• diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound ✓
• pap smear   ✓
• CT scan of head ✓
• CT scan of chest pelvis abdomen ✓
• echocardiogram ✓
• electrocardiogram ✓
• barium swallow study ✓
• endoscopy of esophagus ✓
• paraneoplastic autoimmune antibody evaluation ✓

Prior to starting on steroids, I had tests to rule out these possible underlying issues:

• X-rays of chest  ✓
• hepatitis tests ✓
• tuberculosis test ✓
• got a pneumonia vaccine ✓

*Though, to further complicate things, sometimes the cause, the etiology, is never determined. These are referred to as idiopathic diseases or conditions which arise spontaneously or for which the cause is unknown.

ADDENDUM and spoiler alert: No cause found.