Thank you, Annie. Your story makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you for telling me how you made these decisions. It is very good for me to see someone else acting with plain old common sense--taking all sorts of things into account and doing the best you can with the information you have. That's what I'm aiming for.

There is so much to weigh in making treatment decisions, and we have to weigh all the factors knowing full well that there are unknowns. I think, for example, I made the wrong decision years ago when I opted not to have my thyroid killed with radioactive iodine, because I think it was the relapse of my Graves disease that brought on my MG. So, in the end it may have been the wrong decision--but it was NOT a mistake. I say that because it was a reasonable decision based on what I knew at the time.

I am impressed that the experiences you had with the doctors haven't left you angry and bitter. Your past experiences--and the present ones of some other forum members--astound me. I constantly remind myself not to take my good medical care for granted: here I am with negative blood tests and atypical symptoms, and I have not only been taken seriously, but I've been diagnosed. Ever since I started having these symptoms, my biggest fear has been (I know this is stupid, but there it is) not some horrible degenerative disease like ALS, but being told my illness is psychosomatic.

I really appreciate your telling your story. I have a big decision to make, and it is a help to reflect on exactly what I'm doing here. If the decision turns out to be wrong (I mean if it has bad consequences), I will try to be at peace anyway.

Abby