Hello;

My wife has had MG since the summer of 2000 (she's now 51 years old). She's had her ups and downs over the years but the last few years it settled into a place where it stabilized. By this I mean the disease quit fluctuating so much and she found a mixture of drugs that helped control it (was on cellcept, prednizone, and mestinon). She's an elementary school teacher and has, fortunately for her (she loves to teach), been able to keep working (although there were a few times she wasn't sure if she'd be able to).

However, at the end of April of this year she ended up having gall bladder surgery (immediately after intense pain started) and a few days after coming home her MG started acting up in a big way. Long story short, she ended up in the ICU for 15 days, 8 of which were on a ventilator. She spent a total of 18 days in the hospital, then 19 more in an acute care rehab getting her strength back to where she could walk and take care of herself again. At first, they thought the problem was precipitated by the surgery. However, it turns out she had CMV (a virus) and now we all think it may have existed prior to the surgery (she was having fevers prior to the surgery). Anyway, while in the hospital she was in pretty bad shape (pneumonia on top of the virus, very high fevers spiking, respiratory failure, etc.) and the doctors weren't sure if she was even going to make it. Turns out CMV is a virus 50-85% of adults over 40 have latent in their system. However, for most of us you can't even tell you have it; but if you're immunocompromised it can be deadly.

Thankfully, she pulled through and has almost fully recovered (to her pre-incident self). Which leads me to my question...

Has anyone had an MG crisis without other factors precipitating the crisis? I'm assuming the answer is yes and that it's common, but I thought I'd ask the experts here that live with MG day-to-day.

As an fyi, a 5 day course of IVIG is what finally (about a week after administered) seem to help pull her out of the crisis, along with a gazillion doses of antibiotics (mostly Ganciclovir, which is specific for CMV). And she's currently on an every other week regiment of IVIG.

Thanks,
Kevin