Everyone ask me about my cheeky monkey, so I will tell you something about this sweet young man, that has clearly given a reason for his mommy to be here.
Riaan was diagnosed just after his first birthday with a long list of Neurological issues OMS (OPSOCLONUS MYOCLONUS SYNDROME) is the worse.
Everyone always ask what is OMS, and trying to explain it to people is really not easy, so here with the help of Medical journals is in short what OMS is.
I will in other post write how it affects our lives day to day, it is not easy, but if he smiles then the world is a better place.
Opsoclonus Myoclonus Syndrome (OMS), also known as Opsoclonus-Myoclonus-Ataxia (OMA), is a rare neurological disorder of unknown cause which appears to be the result of an autoimmune process involving the nervous system. It is an extremely rare condition, affecting as few as 1 in 10,000,000 people per year. It affects 2 to 3% of children with neuroblastoma and has been reported to occur with celiac disease and diseases of neurologic and autonomic dysfunction.
OMS IS ALSO KNOWN AS:
Synonyms of Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome
dancing eyes-dancing feet
Kinsbourne syndrome
myoclonic encephalopathy, Kinsbourne type
OMAS
OMS
opsoclonic encephalopathy
General Discussion
Opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) is an inflammatory neurological disorder, often identifiable as paraneoplastic. It is characterized by associated ocular, motor, behavioral, sleep, and language disturbances. The onset is usually abrupt, often severe, and it can become chronic.
Signs & Symptoms
The component features of OMS include repeated, random and rapid eye movements in both horizontal and vertical directions (opsoclonus); unsteady, gait (ataxia); brief, repeated, shock-like spasms of several muscles within the arms, legs (myoclonus). Extreme irritability, reduced and fragmented sleep (insomnia), rage attacks, difficulty articulating speech (dysarthria), or inability to speak (mutism), decreased muscle tone (hypotonia), and vomiting are common.
Causes
When opsoclonus and myoclonus occur together, the cause is a tumor until proven otherwise— not a brain tumor, but rather an occult body cavity tumor. In approximately 50 percent of affected children, a tumor of embryonic nerve cells (neuroblastoma) is responsible for the symptoms associated with OMS. In other cases, the disorder has been designated ‘idiopathic’ or attributed to various mostly viral infections, such as Coxsackie virus B3 or St. Louis encephalitis virus, however, the high rate of spontaneous tumor regression means that the tumor may be gone before it is looked for. In adults, the tumors are most often lung and breast cancer.