[Poetist]

I'm trying to play catch up and get schooled on my body. I have been ordering up records from past hospitals that I have visited.

The process has conjured up some memories of my first neuro with the thick accent that gave me a diagnosis. I'm pretty sure he said I had Charcot-Marie Tooth (CMT), because he was emphasizing peripheral nerve weakness, which I pretty much have.

I fit the bill of CMT in that I have mild scoliosis, fallen arches, and an inward faces foot. In rare cases, CMT affects breathing. I have a big breathing issue that kicks in when I lie on my back. That's CMT I've discovered, but i was not able to move my right arm or leg at the time, which from my finding is not CMT. I totally looked like a stroke victim, except I had my speech and no facial drooping.

After that visit, I was diagnosed with Bells Palsy. I had two more episodes of one droopy eye lid. I eventually went to an eye doctor, who said I had weak ocular muscles in my right eye.

Flash forward a decade, I wake up struggling to breath. I finally get a CT scan to reveal an enlarge thymus. My primary doctor and the radiologist said it looks like I have MG. Two neuros later and the older doctor (who has seen a lot of MG patients) said it appears as if I have MG, and he wanted to put me on Mestinon. The younger doctor didn't do pretty much of anything, so. .

The older doctor said if my symptoms improve with the med, then I have MG. Well, the breathing and the muscle strength have improve with the med. Now, that I have comfortably transitioned to 60mg/3x a day. It's been about 11 months on Mestinon.

Do I have MG? I have weak muscles in MOSTLY one side of my body, but I do feel my lung weaken on the left side and my left knee. Currently, my right eye lid feels heavy, but it does not droop like it once did in the past.

I'm wondering whether I simply have CMT, MG, both, or nothing?

My opinion changes day to day. I think MG is the lesser of the two evils, so I hope it is MG. Plus, if it is not MG, how can my enlarged thymus be explained.


Here's a link that I found interesting; it discusses both study findings of CMT and MG, and MG possibly being more than one disease, not to say that if you have MG you are exempt from all other diseases:

http://www.mdausa.org/publications/Q...tml#more_genes

Plus, this blog really is informative about CMT, and I think some MG posters might also have CMT. Check out what this person with a family of CMT says about the disease:

http://www.kaikracht.de/cmt/english/text_cr1.htm