Vanderbilt Appointment, October 14

It took me about five weeks to recover from the crisis in August. But since then, I have had several good weeks in a row. Thank the Lord!

Dr. C.L. said (and I paraphrase) when a person first gets MG and has a crisis and then receives heavy treatment they tend to bounce back quickly. But when a person has serious MG for as long as I have and has lots of heavy treatments, they don't bounce back as quickly. The nerve-muscle junctions have suffered so much damage over time because of the MG antibodies. There are just not that many un-damaged nerve-muscle receptors left for a quick bounce back. 

My six month follow up with Dr. C.L. at Vanderbilt was last Tuesday (10/14). It is really strange how one can become so accustom to feeling un-normal that you do not realize when parts of your body are not working correctly. Along with my usual symptoms, this time I had no reflexes in my right leg and no strength in my left wrist.

I have had trouble swallowing since the last hospitalization and I often strangle on water and saliva. This is because my swallowing muscles are effected my myasthenia gravis (MG). Dr. C.L has scheduled me a swallow test to make sure I am not aspirating into my lungs.

Dr. C.L. and I both believe the cooler weather will help keep my MG under control some (hot weather makes MG worse), but if not he plans to start me back on Cytoxan chemotherapy.

Why chemotherapy? The chemo buys me time between plasma exchanges. It is worth it!

Soli Deo Gloria!