Initially so healthy I didnt even remember what my doctor's name was. Above average stamina & fitness level for age

9 rounds of non MG friendly antibiotics in a row for recurring staph aureus infections (the last round provoked breathlessness after speaking 3 words)

previously worked with neurotoxic darkroom chemicals for 5 years (on a commercial basis in non-ventilated darkrooms)

previously positive Epstein Barr virus

later some accidental exposure to large quantity of monsanto round up

5 years total of progressive, fluctuating & spreading weakness general moving to bulbar and ocular last

2 blood tests & SFEMG not remarkable

Mestinon was working for ocular, breathing & deltoid muscles but not bulbar

I am in complete remission now (not because of the Mestinon of course!) it took 2 years for strength to gradually return so I could use my hands again. Last muscle to remiss oddly enough seems to be the stapedius muscles

Dogs & horses have MG too though...

Very good point!

Why only dogs and horses....
Do wild dogs get it or only domesticated...

What fascinating research that would make. Less variables perhaps.

We should start a registry for them as well!

Very good point, about MG in animals.
I wonder if this eliminates - a toxic trigger?
(... moi - je n'ai aucune idee ...)

I mentioned animals (take a look a youtube and you might recognize your own "walk" around the block :) - to remind us not to be too hard on ourselves. Sometimes- things just happen.

great point about animals having MG also..well. i have been exposed to those toxins during my life too. but it wasnt until after i had my heart attack 5 years ago that the MONSTER MG started to come forth. i can look back and see now it was probably 2 years later that mg appeared after the heart attack, best i can remember anyway. but im now looking into research that maybe the statin drugs im taking could of induced the Mg. ive read reports that it is the case in some people. but one would stand to think that something has to trigger our immune system to attack those receptors. do we all have something in common that we just dont know about? a screwed up gene perhaps passed down through the ages and finally picks the lucky person to attack. who knows. but i never have read anything about a dog taking lipitor....just saying..... take care my friends

Hey all MGers, I know it sounds strange, but a bout of stressful situations(my love life, my house and in my ofc) altogether within a span of 2 months triggered my MG.
I was so stressed and depressed that I prayed to GOD to make me so bad that people would feel my pain through my suffering. and VOILA ! the next thing i knew i was diagnosed with MG within a month......I din know GOD would answer my prayers so soon. :-(

I really have no idea what caused my MG. The only link I can think of I was diagnosed with Graves' disease in 2005. I had to have my thyroid removed in 2006. I now use meds to replace the hormones my thyroid created. I was diagnosed with MG in 2013. The only connector I come up with is if you have one autoimmune disease there is a good chance you'll get another.
Michele

I finally went on a statin drug, after 3 years of my PCP scolding me for my high cholesterol. After six months, I came down with MG. I promptly stopped the statin drug, but still have MG for over a year now.

I had Sjgren's syndrome, another autoimmune that only effected my teeth and sometimes eyes. I also had a big period is ridiculous stress at levels way past the norm. I was getting weaker but thought it was sjogrens flaring in other areas due to stress. I had to have some teeth extracted under general anaesthetic and viola, MG made its grand entrance - well not really an entrance as I couldn't stand after surgery and kissed the floor.

Dr had told me when dx with sjogrens that I could develope other autoimmune, MS, cancer... so I think once you immune system is compromised this could be the trigger.

Only toxic chemicals I am exposed to is nicotine as I am still battling that addiction and I am convinced in my mind that this is the real cause of my MG as it is the nicotonic Acetylcholine neurotransmitter same targeted NT that quit smoking aids target.

IVIG got better for me second time around. No side effects at all, and while still weak at the time I released it was because I had spent months not using my muscles. It's now slowly coming back and I am coping fairly work in my second week back to work.

Many now also consider diet and stress as contributing factors. I know that I'm as stressed out a "HIGH A" person as you can get.

My crappy diet (now VERY healthy) and poor condition (now exercising regularly) are suspect, although there does seem to be a genetic predisposition.

Good luck

Type a personality, that's me too! Couple that with a bout of Lyme disease that should have just gone away uneventfully and voila! MG, a life sentence....

I read the suggestion that Hashimoto's left untreated can lead to other autoimmune disorders. I think a lot of us have heard that autoimmune diseases like to travel in packs, and I know quite a few of us have Hashimoto's in addition to MG. But, I'm not sure whether to buy in to the theory that Hashimoto's was the trigger for MG. Has anyone else read that?

There was a very interesting discussion on this in one of the Facebook MG groups. A period of stress prior to the onset of symptoms (emotionally medically or surgically) seemed very common. I am 'clinical MG' but still waiting for the outcome of tests. I have never had mono (or glandular fever as it is called here in the UK) but I do have Hashimotos. I also had a period of major stress before the onset of symptoms: a very tramatic 2 years when my daughter started dating a heroin addict (I won't go into details but we had an horrendous time), major work stress, husband critically ill, then three months to recover from an ankle fusion during which time I developed an ankle to groin DVT...while on lovenox. Instead of the surgery improving my walking it got worse along with developing double vision, arm weakness and fatigue.

Hi Mat,
This is a great question, I really appreciate reading everyone's responses, it helps so much to know that others are out there questioning the reasons behind our MG.

I have other autoimmune stuff in my family, RA, thyroid. Looking back I had symptoms after birth of my children, and then had full blown horrible symptoms after extremely stressful illness of a family member (he had autoimmune response to flu shot, was paralyzed with guillian barre after flu shot and in ICU, if you google this illness it is simply horrific). I was up around the clock in ICU and then home to care for my toddlers, never slept at all.

I will tell you that I probably had MG for a long time, but the stress and a certain medication left me with extreme symptoms. The medication was the steroid preparation in allergy spray. As you know steroids can cause us to initially worsen, and then for some they can really help with the right dose. With this nasal spray I would induce the worsening of the MG in myself without realizing what was happening. I used this spray for over 20 years intranasally, it is not just topical, it enters our body (obviously, but some docs will say, hey it is only topical! no big deal!). A nurse told me that I may have unmasked my MG by the decades of use of this product, and perhaps it would have stayed more under wraps, or undetected or symptom free if I had never used it. :( I was also misdiagnosed as Lyme and took tons of antibiotics which kicked off the most severe exacerbation I ever had.

So here we have a familial predisposition to autoimmune disorders, perhaps unmasked by stress and then further induced by the chemicals I introduced into my body. It seems that many of us have a similar story to this, it is so hard to know. Good luck to all and thank you for all of your awesome posts. I read here regularly and it always gives me strength to face another day.