prayerwarrior61 what chemicals did u work with

chem solvent, film-kote a rust inhibtor, vanishing oil 530, 533, 500, L-20. with not protection. the gloves we used soaked up the oil with in the 1hour. very small family owned bussiness only 5 of us. Jen

531also

petroleum distillares, glycol ether, and others. what chem.did you work with?

I think that my triggers were thyroid disease, then a stressful experience (family member dangerously ill) followed by a dose of Cipro. I had noticed my vision a bit off from time to time over the past six months, but these other triggers may have led to more generalized symptoms.

I had mono in high school.

I did not respond to anesthesia-spelling??? when I had my first baby by emergency C-Section. At age 31 - (Not a good memory-the baby yes, the surgery no) After this are my first memories of MG symptoms.
Steady decline of muscle weakness and fatigue. Ugh!

I was DX with hypothyroidism at age 36.

DX with MG at age 50.

I had problems with my white blood cell count from the day I was born. Had flare ups throughout my entire life with it. No signs of anything wrong with me though. I remember test after test every week until I was 4, then it stopped. Returned for a brief period when I was 12, then 19 for like a year. Still test showed nothing. No infection or anything. Then it happened a year before the MG diagnosis and this time it didn't go away. Doc says it's possible I was born with MG, it just waited to show it's ugly head....45 years later.

I think chemical exposures from my 30+ years in various research labs did me in. The year I got sick our dept installed a new xray developer in a broom closet-sized room with no ventilation and light-tight seals on the door. It started a series of autoimmune diseases: celiac, thyroid, Sjogren's and some kind of calcium disorder and throughout the time, symptoms of MG.

I don't think it is a coincidence that the only other person I know in our town of 100,000 with MG developed it 11 years ago and her desk was outside the same darkroom for many years. The chemicals don't have hazard warnings on the packages but the neuro I saw in 2008 who was ruling out MS told me to wear a chemical filter gas mask when I worked in that darkroom. It was closed for months and the hospital was suing the contractor. I got laid off and now work in a healthy office with plants that thrive!
Flutebell

My neuro thinks I've probably had it my whole life and he's probably right but some things make me wonder if that's is true.

I was given steroids pretty frequently for migraines as a young adult. I had cervical cancer at age 19 and again took many hormones and steroids after my surgery for that. Then at 20 I noticed weight gain which I couldn't lose. Weakness was so bad at that time that many days I couldn't stand up on my own and would end up crawling (literally) to the bathroom and back. It took the doctors a full 10 yrs to discover the thyroid disease that I knew was there all along. Then it was another 2 yrs before they removed the left thyroid and discovered Hashimoto's which is autoimmune.

My neuro says that there are cases where steroid use can bring about MG. Suppression of the immune system with the rapid taper which doesn't allow your body to restart the immune on it's own. So it's kind of like kicking you while you are already down.

What made my MG stick around since 2009-ish was an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that nearly killed me. I was given a ton of steroids and epinephrine in a very short period of time which were stopped very suddenly. Which is where we are today and I'm still on those damn steroids... lol

I've never had mono, lymes or ESB. I've heard there is a suspected link to MG with those and other autoimmune diseases and chemical exposure, especially with veterans.

I didn't realize that so many of MGers had mono though. Interesting topic. Thanks for posting it.
Aloha,
Angie

I don't recall any particular thing that caused my MG because it took a long time to discover it. However, in my earlier working life we didn't know or have the good sense to use protective clothing or masks and I have worked with some bad things.

For example, I used to clean electronic equipment with trichlorethelene, which was later banned for causing cancer, and with freon in a sonic bath (breathing the vapors as it cleaned). Both did a great job of cleaning the equipment, but probably didn't do me a lot of good.

I once spent over six months removing old cable from an old telephone office with the dust that had accumulated over the decades raining down on me. And, I don't know what was in the old cloth covering of the cables. It could have contained something awful like asbestos for all I know.

When I worked in a garage I washed the tools, car parts, and my hands in raw gasoline.

When I did electronic repair and installed telephone systems I breathed the smoke from the solder. During a large telephone installation I might be soldering all day for several days at a time.

As an added bonus, I smoked about a pack of cigarettes a day for most of my life.

I haven't had anything like mono. I have taken Cipro, antibiotics, and steroids a few times and don't know of any allergies to any meds.

So, I don't know if the MG was suddenly triggered by something or if something or an accumulation of things, but that's my list of chems and meds.

I wonder if it can be triggered by mental stress. For a couple of years before my first problem I was being hit on almost all fronts, except, thankfully, my marriage relationship was good. I had a nasty boss who made work hell, my house got involved in another guy's bankruptcy and the rent stopped while lawyer fees went out of sight, driving me to the edge of bankruptcy, and for icing on the cake my teenagers started getting in trouble and rebelling. All of this took a toll on my wife's health and she thinks that, because I had to hold my anger in, it may have been a factor in my present problems.

My symptoms seemed to sneak up on me and my wife thought I was depressed and made me go to the doctor. When they measured my blood pressure, it was way down, like 60 over something. So, I was prescribed Midodrine to keep the pressure up. Years later Vanderbilt diagnosed me with Pure Autonomic Failure and MG and I was prescribed Pyridostigmine.

I may have gotten a little off topic, but your phrase "what causes this darn MG?" is something that I have often wondered.

I also had mono as a teenager - a really bad case that kept me out of school for 2 weeks.

Angie, I, too, had cervical cancer at 19/20 years of age leading to a partial hysterectomy. A few years later, had both ovaries removed due to continued problems and a non-malignant tumor was discovered in one ovary. In 2001, I had squamous cell carcinoma (chalked that one up to too much sun as a teenager).

I've a few other non-malignant tumors; suffered with migraines my whole life. In fact, the headaches have been excruciating the last week and I don't know if they have any relation to the possible MG or not.

I was a healthy young athletic person. Five years after the birth of my daughter I was diagnose with MG. Cabbage7

I had a thymoma, which is what ultimately gave me MG, so the question in that case could interchangeably be, what caused the MG or what caused the tumor to grow in the first place. I went to art school and have worked in the arts and so have had exposure to many chemicals over the years, and also used to allow myself to feel a lot of anger and stress about things. Then right around the time I began having symptoms, I had this mysterious severe upper GI illness that too me four weeks total to recover from and was not recognizable to either of the two doctors I went to. This was very strange to me because I couldn't even guess what was making me sick (no one else I knew was sick and I hadn't noticed eating any spoiled food) and it was after 29 years of very rarely getting sick, or of recovering very quickly from illnesses. After being diagnosed with and reading more about MG, I actually wondered if this was a slightly weird presentation of an Epstein Barr infection, since I did have very severe fatigue, unlike anything I've ever felt, along with the vomiting and nausea. But I guess it could just be as likely that I had terrible food poisoning or some other stomach virus that just lasted a long time and disrupted my immune system. Also, right around the time I started having minor symptoms I started getting a cold and so I took one of those homeopathic remedies that is supposed to boost the immune system and it worked, by cutting my cold short, but I always also wondered if that helped push me along, after things were already going wrong. I think I've heard of distant relatives having RA, but no other auto-immunity recently that I've heard of. So it seems like maybe I had a strong immune system to begin with, but could have been overloaded with chemicals/stress, which might have triggered the growth of my thymoma, and then this bad stomach illness was the final straw. Plus turning 30; since so many women are diagnosed in their thirties or right after having a baby, (or men diagnosed in their 50s or 60s) it seems like a fluctuation of hormones can trigger symptoms as well.

Wow. Is this a tough bunch, or what! I read all your posts.
I really am - amazed - at the personal strength and the personal courage - that is seen here, everyday! And not just within this topic.

I'm like many of you. A lot of work, with toxic chemicals. TCE, Benzene - and all the toxic materials used in the electronics industry - they are all very familiar. Other jobs, involved: working in deep, dank tunnels - in the worst fungal-slime you can imagine, with insecticides and herbicides to boot (infectious or toxic agents). Similar to Tomken: I also worked in telephone switching offices, with old wire-sheathing, raining down (containing asbestos? or who knows what). I also worked with toxic agricultural chemicals.
All with minimal protection.

Besides MG, there are other autoimmune diseases in my family. Thyroid Disease, RA, and Diabetes. (There's that genetic predisposition, that b. talked about.)
Bless the toddlers we see here, and their Moms - fighting MG!

There are other theories too, about MG causes: it may result from antibodies, fighting off cancer; or - that MG may result from antibodies, fighting a reactivated childhood virus (chickenpox?)

b. is right. Very important to have a central MG registry.
Sidenote: it's been a little frustrating, with the online MGFA Survey. I've tried the survey, several times - but it hangs up, don't know why. I'll have to ask for a paper survey. (No big-deal - it's just real!) - Ross