Thanks, Annie. I'm going to pay attention to whether I feel the bulbar weakness after talking a lot. So far I've been getting it every night around 9:00, even if I take Mestinon at 8:00. But since I added the 8:00 dose, I haven't had that short-of-breath feeling I had one night, which scared me.

It's not exactly the swallowing muscle that's weak. It's more like between my nasal passages and the back of the roof of my mouth, if that makes sense. I have post-nasal drip from the Mestinon, I think (makes my eyes water), and moving the gunk (sorry, this is a bit gross) from the back of my nose down my throat--it's that that takes me several tries sometimes. And when I feel that weakness, I also feel a mild water-in-my-nose sensation. So I'm betting that whatever muscle keeps things flowing only in the right direction isn't doing its job.

Anyway, one thing I know for sure is that wearing myself out makes everything worse, so I've been taking it easy.

Well, feeling short of breath (an oxygen-deprived feeling, very mild, but I recognized it from being in labor) was really scary. My poor husband told me later he was checking on me all night. But it's been a few days, so I don't think I'm headed for a crisis, at least not at the moment...

I had a great day today! I wish I knew why. Maybe the weather--sunny but not too hot. I don't know.

Thanks for all your help, Annie. I appreciate what you do for us here. I have gotten it into my head that a good diet will help me, so I tell my husband (who does the shopping now...), bring me vegetables! He comes home with armfuls of the weirdest vegetables he can find: armfuls of collard greens, beet green, swiss chard, asparagus. I eat them with balsamic vinegar. I feel like Rapunzel's mother. Can't hurt, right?

Abby