Fairly confident in saying that you will feel a whole lot better after the IVIG treatment. I assume that you'll also be taking Pyridostigmine (Mestinon), that's not very nice either, I'd have said far more so than Prednisone. The downside is that the IVIG treatment effects only last for a month or thereabouts. But, if you need another dose, no doubt you'll get more. I'm assuming here that you are following a fairly common path for many of us as your Neurologist puts a more permanent medication regime in place. Imuran takes a relatively long time to kick in, once it does so, you'll be weaned off the larger quantities of Prednisone you currently take. Regards cancer, none of the drugs will give you cancer, they do increase the risk however and we all get regularly checked. There is a book somewhere out there that makes the point that MG and its treatment is a mixture of poisons, toxins and such. Generally, they keep us alive and once your initial diagnosis and such has been sorted you will all likelihood return to a near normal life and enjoy things so much more.

Mymg2017, the unknown is always scary. Try to educate yourself as much as possible from reliable medical sites, write your questions down for your neurologist, so you have accurate information and are not getting miss information that will cause you undo stress and worry. I can relate completely to the fast decline. IVIG has worked well for me. I started my MG journey in February with minimal symptoms to quickly escalating to respiratory failure. IVIG has given me the best relief out of all the treatment so far. It allowed me to breath with ease, restored my speech. I had no side effects from it fortunately. I had 5 days initially, followed by Retxan but unfortunately 4 days post infusion my symptoms returned, and only got worse despite mestinon and tapering up on prednisone. Have Musk MG so Mestinon does nothing for me, so we stopped it. I was readmitted last week for 2 more infusions of IVIG and another Retuxan. Only side effect that I had was a slight headache from the Retuxan. Eating was also a HUGE challenge for me, exhausting and difficulty swallowing. I lost 30 lbs in the last 4 weeks, and was malnourished so they put a feeding tube in to get me better nourishment. Conserve your energy especially with eating. Rest. before meals. Consider protein shakes, like Ensure, or make your own, that way you will get nutrition in but not have to chew. I opted to buy the Ensure, because tackling the blender was out of the question most days. There is also a jello you can buy that has 20 grams of protein in it in a small volume, its called Prosource. The IVIG this last time has again restored my speech, improved my neck strength, double vision, and swallowing. Gaining weight can add to the stress of the situation I'm sure, its a such a struggle to deal with all the changes MG brings without adding bodily changes, especially if you are not getting relief of symptoms. The steroids have caused such thinning of my skin, there are spider veins visible all around my nose. cheek, forehead and chin, and my eye brows are crazy bushes now. My arms get too tired to completely take care of the bushes that now grow over my eyes, but I try, lol. Never was a make up girl, but went to Blue Mercury and learned how to apply some tinted moisturizer to lightly hide the veins without looking made up. With all of this, there has to be a level of acceptance and do things that we can take control of, when there is not much we can control. I had long hair, that I could no longer take care of nicely, so I opted to cut it all off. I got it cut so my hair would look good doing nothing to it, except washing it, which as you know can be an accomplishment in itself. Right now everyday is a new struggle and I look forward to the day I'm restored to half my former active life. I wish you all the best, and understand this is not easy.

If nothing else this thread goes to show the wide variation in symptoms for people with MG. I, obviously, count myself lucky, as indeed I am. But, I am also in the majority and hopefully, for those that follow, trust that it remains that way. @mgingside makes the point - you need to educate yourself but beware, it is too easy on a website to find the evidence you need to match your own beliefs and that is where your relationship with the neurologist comes into its own.

I do appreciate all the information. As scary as this is I know there is more to come but it’s so great to talk to others that are feeling or going through similar issues. Thank you so much, I have found a great neurologist and she has been helping. I have another appointment next week and hope to get more information. Thank you again!!

mymg2017 anytime. It's good to have other people to reach out to that are going through similar things.

Let me echo PeterL's response. I have been taking IVIG every 4 weeks for years, MG symptoms are treatable even though the cause is unknown. Good luck and stay hydrated.