Hi Kendra,

I was reading through some old posts and I came across one re. antidepressants and MG. I noticed that you are taking Zoloft. I'm not sure if this fits the same as tricyclic antidepressants, but apparently, prednisone and at least tricyclic antidepressants are sorta no good together, but again, I'm not sure how it would work with SSRIs. This sorta ties in with the issues you were having with insomnia. I came across an interesting article about prednisone and psychosis. I know that you're not experiencing psychosis, but it did mention problems with insomnia and how administering tricyclic antidepressants to those people worsened their symptoms. It's sorta far-fetched, but maybe the anti-depressant is making your insomnia worse? Here's the link, if you wanna check it out. Again, it's kinda far-fetched because it doesn't really mention SSRIs and deals more with psychosis issues rather than insomnia as its own entity, but here it is anyway...

http://www.drrichardhall.com/steroid.htm

Sorry you've got the blood disorder to contend with too, but I'm glad that it's not your spleen causing the problems. I feel pretty sure it's the prednisone since I've got the same problems you're describing. I'm considering asking my doc. about a potassium supplement, but I hear it can be dangerous. I'll see what he says.

I'm really glad to hear that the prednisone is working well for you even with the bad side-effects. He might want you to stay on it for a little while longer, just to maybe make the good effects 'stick.' But before you know it, I think you can start weaning down. That'll be an excellent day!

PML stands for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (something like that). It's very rare. It's a reactivation of the JC virus that we all get as youngsters, and is pretty benign, but when the immune system is very weak, it is re-awakened and able to cross the blood brain barrier and is almost always fatal. It can be reactivated in people with AIDS, or those who are very immunocompromised for other reasons. It has occurred with certain types of immunosuppressants (a lot of which have been taken off the market because of it), or combination immunosuppression (like pred. + cellcept/imuran, etc.). I think that it's pretty uncommon, but I sorta worry about it because my dosage of prednisone is high and I read that people who got it were also at high doses of prednisone plus another immunosuppresant as well as plasmapheresis (all of which I'll prolly be getting if things don't improve with my current treatments). The idea of it just freaks me right out, not to mention that fact that the swine flu is still floating around and I'd basically be trapped in the house on these treatments. I don't know if I'm just worrying too much, or if my fears are legitimate. I have no idea what the stats are for things like this, and I guess that's why I feel unsure. *sigh*

Kendra...The blood disorder that you have, is it hypogammaglobuneria? If it's private, don't worry about answering...It's interesting, though...For some reason people with this disorder tend to get MG, but especially when a thymoma is involved. I'm pretty sure that you didn't have a thymoma (from what I remember), but when there is a thymoma with this disorder, it's called Good's syndrome, but many other people have developed MG after being diagnosed with the low Igs syndrome without having a thymoma.

I hope that you get approved for LTD. I know the feeling of being desperate for a good rest- our bodies are really being pushed to the limits with the illness alone. Throw in another illness, plus the stresses of work, and all the side-effects of treatments, plus the time spent seeing the doc./getting treatments, and it can be nearly impossible!

I think that 2010 is going to be a better year for all of us too! Sharing info. on this site, rest, effective treatments and better health are on the way!

Nicky