Myasthenia Gravis Support Group
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular disease leading to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatiguability. The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness that increases during periods of activity and improves after periods of rest. Although myasthenia gravis may affect any voluntary muscle, muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, and...
I was able to chew and swallow soft and chopped foods today and it was so good. I got two grams of calcium today with my treatment and had some symptoms, but the nurse that was administering the procedure would slow down the pump and bump the calcium to get me comfortable.
I was so glad to have such a competent nurse to get me through it ok. I have one more treatment tomorrow, then i can maybe go home Monday if I can wean back my mestinon to every six hours.. So far so good. So far I have gone four hours and am now working on five hours apart.
I was so glad to have such a competent nurse to get me through it ok. I have one more treatment tomorrow, then i can maybe go home Monday if I can wean back my mestinon to every six hours.. So far so good. So far I have gone four hours and am now working on five hours apart.
Be well,
I am impressed at how quickly IVIG and PLEX improve symptoms in many folks with MG. That has to mean the underlying muscle receptors are still OK and they are being unblocked by whatever mechanism the treatments work.
We read that MG antibodies do alter and destroy our muscle receptors so they don't function very well, and we have to wait for them to grow back to get full strength. This quick improvement indicates there are still enough good receptors available to immediately allow the nerve-to-muscle communication to come back right away for those who get the quick response.
I suppose that the IVIG and PLEX not only stop the antibodies from attacking and blocking, but give the muscle receptors a chance to regrow normally for the time that it works.
I didn't try either, but my neuro told me when I was a my worst in MG, it would give me a chance to be more normal during the time I was waiting for prednisone to work.
Good Luck!