I did see a psychologist yesterday for the first time. She thought it would be a good idea for me to talk to my doctor about antidepressants. She was very nice and I am going to see her on a regular basis.Of course I cried almost all of the session.

It's just so difficult because I never thought that after 15 years of having MG that I would be where I am right now. I had been doing so well for such a very long time and I am having such a hard time with all of this because of how it just came out of nowhere. It's not even the MG that is causing me so much difficulty at this time. It's all this other crap that is sometimes so hard to explain. I just don't understand my body and I really don't understand what is happening right now. I guess this last MG flare knocked something else out of whack in my body. Lucky Me. My chest even hurts to go along with everything else. It's not the MG related chest discomfort but something else. It hurts when I inhale

I wasn't supposed to see my doctor again until the 28th but I am going to make an appointment to see her before then and ask her for more detailed tests. I have been in her office so much lately that I am now worried that she will think that I am becoming a depressed hypochondriac. I have to keep at it until I find out what is going on because I shouldn't feel sick on a continual basis like this.

If anyone else has an idea of what she can check for from the list of my symptoms then please feel free to post it in this thread.

I just don't want the stress of everything else to make my MG worse.

Thanks to everyone for your care, responses and listening to me when I need someone to hear me during this difficult time.

Shari, does your doc check your lymph nodes -- under your arms -- your groin -- behind your knees -- the front and back of your neck -- etc.?? Have YOU felt any little lumps??

Anti-depressants and therapy got me though the rough times. I was very depressed and didn't know it (not unusual); my wife at that time was a therapist and told me I needed to do something. It took a few drug trials to come up with a good match for me. Therapy helped and was good to have in place when my wife got sick then died. I went off of anti-depressants before my MG got worse and never needed to go back on them.

Bill

Kendra,
What effect does your antidepressants have on your MG? Of course I am finding something else for me to worry about.... If I get on them, I just don't want to take a pill and end up in a MG crisis because of weakness. But I know that when i wake up crying every day, then something has to be done about that.

Hi Shari,

When I read your description of waking up in the middle of the night feeling sick and even more tired I wondered if you had ever had a sleep study. 35% of people with mg have sleep apnea because we have weak lungs and when we are in REM every muscle is paralyzed except for our poor, weak diaphragms. It's just a thought but for some reason what you said rang a bell with me and reminded me of how I felt before I got a ventilator (bipap) to help breath at night.


Before I was treated, I didn't have chest pain per se just a terrible gnawing weakiness in my sternum area. It doesn't sound bad, but it was torturous. Since being diagnosed with sleep apnea I have never had it again (huge relief). Turns out my sleep study showed that I was suffocating for up to 45 seconds on and off all night long. My oxygen sats were falling into the 60's. That's why I was waking up in the mddle of the night sweating with adrenaline sometimes rushing through my body. I would wake in the morning feeling like the newly dead.

Obviously this is just a thought but I wanted to throw it out to you. I think everyone with mg should have a sleep study anyway since there's a significant chance that an mg patient will have it. Still - just my thoughts.

I hope you eventually can find the answer. There have been some great suggestions here! Try to hold on, I know very well that slide into depression. It's awful.

Ally

Good thinking Ally,

I did have sleep apnea when my MG was active. A CPAP really helped with being tired and waking up, but had no impact on my depression. It certainly is worth while following up on.

Bill

Shari, Since you feel pain when you breathe in, you cannot wait to see a doctor. Especially for women, if you have pain when you breathe in, you need to go to urgent care or the ER. There are a lot of reasons for pain upon breathing, like a PE (pulmonary embolism), costochondritis, pleuritis, coronary artery disease, etc.). You need a doctor to help you figure it out and waiting is dangerous.

You might be having too much immunosuppression. On some people, it is like having chemo. I suspect something else is going on though. A thorough doctor would do rheumatoid arthritis and lupus tests, as a start.

I think you need to document exactly what is going on in black and white. Put headings across a page like: Symptom, description, onset of symptom, when it occurs, does anything make it better.

Then list everything. Let the doctor sift through it. It takes less time for them to read a piece of paper than to hear you say it all. And it might make you remember an important clue that you hadn't thought to bring up.

Bottom line here, at least for me, is that you cannot wait. You need someone to address the pain upon breathing issue right away. And I mean in the next day or two. Or NOW since it has been going on a while.

I hope you can get it all figured out. You need doctors and you need them now though. I'm glad we can support you but that's about all we can do!!!


Annie

Annie,
I guess I should have explained the pain in my chest better than I did. It isn't a severe pain but more like the pain and discomfort you feel when you have a chest cold. Only in my case it is without the cold. It comes and goes as does a lot of my crazy symptoms right now. I have taken tylenol for it when it happens and that seems to take care of it until it decides to pop up again. If it does get worse then I will go to the ER.

She usually checks my neck but not anywhere else. I just checked all the places you mentioned and don't feel anything out of the ordinary.

Well, Shari, it may be nothing but women can have a heart attack and have absolutely no symptoms. All I'm saying is that without being checked out, you can't know for sure. Taking a pain med only gets rid of a symptom and may actually cover up something that needs not to be. Get where I'm coming from? All too often we pooh-pooh or put off symptoms because they aren't "severe" yet. There are so many serious conditions that never present in a strong or severe way.