Debra, I know how scary it is and it's not fun to be in a hospital under any circumstances. You need to find a very calm center where you can stay relaxed. It will help tremendously. It can even help to say to yourself "It's okay, I'm okay, I'm safe." Even if you don't actually "speak" those words, or others, it helps to reassure yourself.

Okay, I have a question . . . did they do the arterial blood gases while you were on oxygen? Were you on oxygen? O2 saturation is NOT always a good indicator of how your MG is doing. Even ABG's can be deceptive. If you were on oxygen and they did your ABG's while on it, like they did with me, it skews the results. It's like having your glucose checked right after eating a hot fudge sundae! The results won't be accurate.

I am very surprised they didn't do bedside MIP and MEP, in addition to total lung capacity. And those bedside readings are not as good as the pulmonary "booth" testing.

Do not do the incentive spirometer they gave you too much! You use your breathing muscles to check your lung capacity. Did they give it to you to "check" how you are doing or as something they want you to do regularly? Atelectasis (Ah-tell-ect-uh-sis), which is a small area of collapse of the lung in someone who can't take a deep breath in, is something I've had quite often and they "prescribe" the incentive spirometer in that case as something to do regularly. NO, you don't have to be all freaked out about atelectasis because it's not super serious and you weren't told you have it!!! You could drive yourself crazy by checking on your "lung stats" all day! Go by pulse and how you are feeling. I wish you had an oximeter.

If you are getting close to the end of the steroids and you think you need more, call your neuro's office and ask them if they can extend the prescription until you see him!!!!

Why doctors don't seem to know how to talk to patients in the middle of an MG crisis is beyond me. They were useless during mine too. Just because you aren't eight years old doesn't mean you don't need reassuring!!! As long as you rest, stay coolish (body temp and temper-wise) and listen to your body/MG, you'll do fine. Get as much sleep as you can, that will really help. Anything you can do to make your immune system happy like not getting stressed out or sleeping a lot or whatever will help.

You can always go back to the ER if you need to!!! Don't hesitate to do so.

Plasmapheresis, which I've never had, is similar to dialysis, which I do know about since my Dad had that. It basically cleanses your blood of antibodies. Some doctors don't like to do it because they are afraid of doing anything invasive in case it hurts the patient! Oy. What do they think an MG crisis does to us? Gently massage our muscles?

I hope you continue to get better.

Annie