Thank you, Annie. You've been an inspiration to me since I first came to this board. That sounds like a mere pleasantry, but I mean it quite literally: you give me something to shoot for. You show me how my suffering can be used to help other people. I want to be like Annie when I grow up.

We are all still somewhat in the dark. We know that "MG is never progressive" is a false statement. But from what I can tell, to say "MG is always progressive, no matter how it is treated" would also be false. The truth is somewhere between.

Most of the people on this board are very sick (much sicker than I am). I know that the symptoms of MG vary so wildly from patient to patient that it doesn't make sense to talk about "average symptoms." But what about the average severity of the disease in general? Is the average severity of MG here representative of the average severity of MG in general?

The picture of reasonable expectations that I get from my doctor and the picture I get from reading stories here are radically different. You and Alice and others have convinced me that my doctor's picture is unrealistically rosy. But I'm still wondering if the severity of the disease experienced by members here is typical. If not, newbies need to know that, too. Your points about false hopes are indisputable. I'd like to also talk about reasonable expectations.

Abby