I'm fairly new to diagnosis, too, it's not fun! Definitely ask to be referred to an ENT to get help with swallowing techniques for your bad days.

Most people go on immunosuppressant therapy - imuran or cellcept with or without prednisone. Prednisone at high doses to alleviate symptoms while you wait for the other suppressants to kick in is common. You then taper off the steroids... if you can.

Many people take mestinon to help with short term (hours) alleviation of symptoms. However, it's important to note that it can act as a mask to the severity of your disease, since it is not actually targeting the immune response, merely briefly providing relief of symptoms.

If none of those work, or you go into crisis (you get so weak that you can no longer breathe well - or at all), plasmapharesis (PLEX) or immunoglobulin IV (IVIg) are more aggressive and expensive treatments typically given.

1. Rest as much as you can. Any voluntary muscle activity will wear out any other voluntary muscles.
2. Keep yourself cool, especially your core.
3. Manage your stress - from outside factors as well as mental from anxiety, depression, etc. (easier said than done)
4. Eat soft foods to relieve chewing fatigue and avoid straws.

The first year will be hard as you try to work out the best and most effective treatment. Really monitor your symptoms and fatigue, as a state of crisis can sneak up on you through a slow build of weakness. Don't be afraid to tell people you can't do something - most will think you look normal, so you must not be that bad - don't give in to their expectations! Do what you need to do to for your self care.

Hi, it is always good to put some pertinent facts in the first part of your post. For example, my stats, white male, DX Jan 2002 with generalized MG (Over the whole body), i was 42, no existing conditions, nonsmoker. their are 5 medical classifications of mg. Class I being the most common is ocular possibly other facial weakness. Yours is the most common. Facial only is called localized MG. Which is great at this time. I have generalized which is Class V. I was also in IT. That is fortunate because IT is usually sitting at a desk most of the time. IT is also unfortunate if you try to get SSA. The judge decided that since I had IT skills I could sit and still earn a living and was denied SSA.
-----Hopefully yours will not progress any further----------

My husband was diagnosed with ocular MG in Dec., 2016. His was a short-lived (2-3 weeks) of double vision and ptosis of one eye and tiredness. He was on 10mg of prednisone for about a month and still on mestinon. Does he need to continue the mestinon if no symptoms? Should he be on anything else (prednisone) to prevent the generalization of the symptoms?? I have been reading comments that prednisone could prevent the further development of the antibodies causing the autoimmune symptoms? Oddly enough our dog developed generalized MG about 3 months ago which he recovered from by ongoing prednizone and mestinon. (low dosage of both). Does anyone have any thoughts about long term radon exposure being a cause of MG?

My brother is a doctor of veterinary medicine. He said out of all the animals dogs get mg more than any other species.