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The MG you don't want !


hilldweller

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Hi there again forummers.

I'm afraid I've been absent from SH for some time.

I've been having MG problems, not one of those lovely sports cars from the 1950's with a slab tank and knock-on wire wheels. Not even one of the much cheaper modern saloons bearing the same name.

My MG stands for Myasthenia Gravis, a very nasty auto immune disease which causes extreme muscle weakness.

It started last April when I nearly choked to death on a bit of breakfast toast. At the very last moment I managed to get a tiny bit of air down my blocked windpipe just as I was blacking out.

After coughing up half my breakfast from my lungs, my wife got hold of our GP who sent me straight into hospital.

The cause of the disease was a small tumour which had grown on my Thymus gland under my breastbone and which was sending out antibodies which block the transfer of messages from the ends of nerve fibres into muscles. The disease was affecting my swallowing muscle as well as other muscles.

I had my Thymus (and Thymoma) removed in June by keyhole surgery but this doesn't stop the disease once it's started.

It's extremely rare, a few cases per hundred thousand people. Of course the many scans and tests showed that I've got other problems of a serious nature.

The treatment for the condition, to keep it hopefully under control, are strong drugs including MASSIVE doses of Steroids. These have caused terrible problems with fluid retention and breakdown of my skin. The breakdowns have affected my existing lymphoedema problems leading to celluitis and other infections.

I've been in hospitals more time than out this last ten months.

I'm now being allowed to very gradually reduce my steroids and am feeling a bit better, but have very little strength in my legs.

It's no fun being ill, but it's better than the alternative.

Hope to start posting again soon.

hilldweller.

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Very sorry to hear that you have been so ill Hilldweller.
I hope you are recovering well and manage to get back to some degree of normality.

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