Welcome missgomes!

You and I share a very similar story. I started having trouble speaking in December of '08, but was having some slurred speech every once in a while prior to that. It became very severe in December; very nasal with weak tongue movements. I was also diagnosed with a thymoma in June of '09 (took me forever to get the CT scan due to my job, taking time off, etc.). My thymoma was a type AB stage 1, but my doc. considered it to be malignant as well. Smaller thymomas had begun to grow on my thymus- this is why it was considered malignant. I didn't have to have radiation/chemo. 'cause the doc. was sure he got all of it out...

As for the symptoms, I still have slurred/nasal speech often, with barely any ocular involvement. I had my thymoma removed in July of '09 and started taking prednisone, 80 mgs at the end of that month. I'm still waiting to see the full effects; I often still have slurred/nasal speech as well as chest weakness. I'm also taking mestinon 60 mgs every four hours and mestinon sr in the nighttime.

I have found that plasmapheresis is helpful for me, but the positive results are short-lived (2-weeks). My nasal speech disappears at times and I am able to move my tongue enough to speak clearly and eat normal meals. Have you tried this?

I had to stop working due to my speech. I do not have any children and am 26-years old.

My doc. is optimistic about improvement, but it's hard to get lasting effects. I"m really hoping that the prednisone will start working soon.

Is it mainly your tongue that is affected? I wanted to add that my tongue is so severely affected at times that I cannot elevate it to touch my teeth. I can't move food to the back of my mouth to swallow, and have to use my fingers to move the food around in my mouth. When I get plasmapheresis, though, people will say that my voice is pretty much normal aside from being a bit nasal after talking for a while. Also, when my tongue is weak, it looks really pale, fat and 'crimped' at the edges, I guess due to not being able to flex it. Sorry if it's too much info., just wanted to be thorough!

I'm planning on seeing a naturopath to see if that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Nicky