Kevin, I'm sorry - I didn't see your question. It's hard for me to read a lot of posts.

Back in 2005, I had a neuro who was not very nice, to put it mildly. So, being the rebellious woman I am, I decided that if I only "possibly" had MG as he said, I would go out there and do whatever I wanted to. We had a really hot summer that year and it made me progressively worse. I had "warning signs" that I was getting worse like sudden shortness of breath episodes while I was out running errands. Then my entire back cramped up and spasmed over the weekend. Then my abdominal muscles spasmed. I couldn't walk for two days without a walker. I had breathing tests the following Monday. My pulmy has me come in for those when I'm worse. The MIP (maximum inspiratory pressure) kept going down each time I did it. It went down to -31. Then by Wed., my O2 stats were staying at 94%, and even falling lower. So I went to Urgent Care to make sure I was okay.

The doctor there did an exam and ran blood tests like thyroid and electrolytes (which can make MG worse). He had also done a neuro exam. When he came back in, he said that the tests were fine but I couldn't squeeze his fingers at all. Being really weirded out by that, I said that I was squeezing his purple latex gloves really hard. He said, no, I wasn't. So I had gotten so weak so slowly that I hadn't really noticed how bad I was.

Anyway, I was admitted to the hospital. My O2 saturation was dipping below 80% by the time I was put in a room. The rest of the story I can't really write about because it's one of those traumas that is unreal to even think about. Bottom line is that, after FOUR DAYS, they gave me Solu-Medrol (IV steroids) and then oral steroids and sent me home.

Everyone's "crisis" experience is different. And tell your wife that she can have exacerbations that are an "almost crisis" that are just as serious. She should really get a pulmonologist for that reason.

I hope that answers your question well enough.

Annie