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Old 05-27-2013, 10:34 PM
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cait24 cait24 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Newtown, PA
Posts: 709
10 yr Member
cait24 cait24 is offline
Member
cait24's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Newtown, PA
Posts: 709
10 yr Member
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Here is a good link for MG and swallowing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VolCFZre4Ys.

Here is a couple of of good informational links on managing with MG and symptoms and treatments:

http://myasthenia.org/LivingwithMG/I...Materials.aspx.
http://www.myasthenia.org.au/html/background.htm.
http://mda.org/disease/myasthenia-gravis.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mya...gravis/DS00375.

I schedule my day around my mestinon doses. I take a snack 1 hr before meals with my mestinon so I am strong enough to chew and swallow my meals. I take my last dose an hour before I head up the stairs at night and schedule most of my activiteis an hour after mestinon when I am strongest. Mestinon makes me feel better but it does not allow me to do more. If I start trying to do things like before MG, I end up paying for it 24-48 hours later with extreme weakness. You need to take it easy and rest until you get your MG stable. Taking a snack with mestinon helps the GI problems. I cut the nausea by snacking on ginger cookies. I take the pill with yogurt, it seems to help. If you do get diarrhea, a lot of MGers use Immodium.

Also be very careful of the summer heat, it makes MG much worse. Stay out of the heat and sun. I have already had the air conditioner on for weeks. Take lukewarm showers. I fold the laundry after it has cooled. I do not stand and cook over the hot stove and I make my daughter do the dishes in the hot soapy water. My muscles ache terribly. When they get bad I put ice packs on them. It dulls the pain and makes them stronger. Nerves communicate better to the muscle when they are cold. Humidity seems to intensify symptoms too. I keep the air conditioner running low just to keep the humidity out of the house. I turn the air conditioner to 72 at night. If i can get cool enough I can breathe and sleep easier and I can function better the next day.

THyroid problems run with MG. I have Hasimotos hypothyroidism. Is your Graves disease under control? Often getting the thyroid under control helps the MG. There are still regulating my synthroid so I am battling both autoimmune diseases at once and they make each other worse.

Just let me know if I can be of further help.
Good Luck and try not to stress. MG is manageable, but it does take time to get to that level.
kathie
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