Fatigue
 

Abby;
It has been more than 8 months since I have fallen down or crashed off of walls. My muscles are stronger now but I am still conscious when I walk most of the time. Once in awhile, I realize I have been walking and I was not even thinking adout it.

To me, being fatigued, is when all the musles in my boby are sore. This causes me to be weaker than normal. It takes an unusual effort just to get up and get the remote control that's just 4 feet away from me.

I still do not know if anybody else with MG feels like this sometimes.

Tony

Abby, I know what you mean. I get all three of these feelings

TIRED (lacking energy)
"Tired" has not been on my list of symptoms since I started taking the Methyl B12 tablets that dissolve on your tongue, I recommend them highly (and I can't stop thanking AnnieB every time I say this...thanks AnnieB!!!!!). With MG until recently, I generally went to bed early (6 pm), slept in late and took afternoon naps quite often.

FATIGUED (weak due to overexertion)
If I do one activity for too long, the muscles I use get fatiqued and stop working. Stress does this as well and I get general fatigue within minutes of getting stressed. I have had this same "slow motion collapse" as you describe as a reaction to stress. I am told that it looks like I am doing it on purpose, that it doesn't look like I am falling at all. From my point of view, my muscles slowly give out and I am doing all I can do guide my fall so I don't get hurt. If I am lucky I feel it coming on and I can make it to the couch or my bed before collapsing. I hate stress and I hate it when I collapse on the floor.

WEAK (lacking physical strength)
Weakness for me is usually cured by Mestinon. After I overexert myself in a way that causes fatigue, I have general weakness for 3 days to 4 weeks and Mestinon won't help it (although I am sure Mestinon keeps my symptoms from getting worse). I've tried taking more Mestinon when I feel like this but then I get overdose symptoms. I have learned that I can't overexert myself unless I am prepared for up to a month of doing nothing except basic taking care of myself(showering, eating, brushing teeth, etc). I am like you in that I can't tell I am weak until I try to do something.

If I don't overexert myself I do have full strength for a short time and don't feel weak. Every day I play the game of judging just how far I can push myself without getting fatigued.

I wish you the best.

Thank you so much, Tony and DesertFlower! It helps me so much to see that what I'm experiencing isn't just me. These days I'm convinced I have MG and that I'll get diagnosed eventually.

DesertFlower, I especially appreciated your description of the slow-mo collapse, and how it looks from the outside like you're doing it on purpose. That is exactly how mine feels. That was, by the way, the first symptom of MG I ever had, and I couldn't understand what had happened, because I wasn't dizzy or light-headed, and I didn't have a feeling of muscle fatigue. I just went down.

My experience with Mestinon is like yours too. Twice now I've decided it doesn't do anything for me, because it can't handle overexertion or random bad spells. So twice I took myself off it. And twice I slowly declined over a period of a few weeks, and immediately improved dramatically when I started taking it again.

What Mestinon can't do (for me, at least) is fix me when I'm in the middle of a bad spell. What it can do is keep me from getting that bad, if I'm also careful. (It also can't cure stupidity, but I don't hold that against it!)

I always have a bad day on Sunday. I wondered what the psychological reasons for that are--do I hate church subconsciously or something? But it hit me, today (duh) that Sundays are always bad because in my schedule, Fridays and Saturdays are especially busy days for me.

Thanks again. This is so very encouraging for me! It's not that I want to have MG--I know everyone understands this--it's that I want to have a diagnosis.

Abby