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I am lucky it only took about six weeks to find out I had Myasthenia Gravis. Before I started having symptoms, I was working full time, going to school (online) full time, and fostering/transporting dogs (sometimes cats) in my limited spare time. I generally would drive on Saturday and Sunday each week to help get these animals to their foster and furever homes. My symptoms began with generally being tired and some blurry vision while driving.

I am a bit of a hypochondriac and will go to the doctor if I feel like something isn't right. About a week after Valentines Day, I was feeling bad, tired, blurry vision, and my leg was achy. I went to my primary I had seen for eight years. She said it was probably an inner ear infection and that I pulled a muscle in my leg and put me on some meds. Over the weekend, I just got worse, driving to and from Cookville from Knoxville on Saturday and Sunday just pushed me over the edge and I started to experience double vision. I called my primary on Monday and she told me to go to the eye doctor to see if they could figure out why I had double vision.

My eye doctor did all the tests and noticed I had some peripheral vision loss in both eyes and decided to order an MRI to be on the safe side, although he didn't think it was anything other than my eyelids beginning to drop from age. The MRI of my brain came back clear and my primary at that point said my symptoms were severe anxiety and put me on a new antidepressant medication. I gave the medication a week to get in my system and during that week I progressed quickly with additional symptoms. I lost the ability to speak clearly, I lost the ability to swallow food, I had double vision more often than not, and was weak all over. I had a constant dull headache and slept constantly when I wasn't at work. I didn't know what was wrong with me.

I went to my mothers primary as I lost faith in mine. She did a slew of blood work, could this be an allergy? Was it Lyme Disease or Lupus? Could I have Gillian-Barre? The MRI was clear and did not indicate MS, but could an MRI miss MS? She ordered CT Scan of my head, an X-ray of my chest and as test after test came back clear, she decided to refer me to a neurologist because she didn't know where else to turn. The wait to get into see a neurologist was months, finally my mother and sister wore me down and I left work on March 22nd and went to the ER in hopes of seeing a staff neurologist to hopefully diagnose me and on the path to recovery.

I walked in the ER presenting as if I had a stroke, slurred speech, drooping eyelids and facial muscles, difficulty walking and using my arms, extremely weak and fatigued. Luck was with me that day, the ER doctor had seen Myasthenia Gravis on a few previous occasions in his twenty year career. He quickly consulted the staff neurologist and they performed a Tensilon test, a test which quickly confirms if one has MG or not.

Testing me for MG was a big deal, there were many doctors and nurses in the room, it is so rare I could potentially be the only case some of them will ever see in their careers. The Tensilon test was positive and my blood was also sent to Mayo to test for AChR antibody, which came back positive a week later.

June is Myasthenia Gravis awareness month, throughout the month I am going to document my diagnosis and my treatment to help raise awareness of this devastating disorder.

Till Next Time:
T.