Jana, those are excellent questions. A pounding heart, wooziness, tingling, or increased respiratory rate--those would indicate trouble breathing. Nope, I don't have those. It's weird how MG affects some muscles and leaves others alone, and how wildly this varies from patient to patient, and even in the same patient.

The first symptom of MG that I noticed (as in Something Is Wrong With Me!) was one of these spells. I collapsed slowly to the floor. I didn't know how to interpret what had happened. I thought I must have fainted, though I had no feelings of dizziness or loss of consciousness. I couldn't even explain to the doctor what had happened--our best guess was some inner ear thing that messed up my balance. I think that the reason I had so much trouble understanding what I had experienced is that the only other times I've experienced weakness, it was in concert with something that made me dizzy or short of breath, like a fever. My normal MG weakness doesn't feel like anything, so that sometimes I don't realize I'm weak until I stand up and find myself back in the chair. But during these intense spells, or when I'm generally worse, I feel a sensation of weakness in my limbs even when I'm not using them. I'm not sure how else to describe it. This is my warning sign.

Thanks to you and the others for discussing this with me. This is a big help to me. Writing about it helps me understand what I'm experiencing and makes it less scary. It's strange that we should have to think about our experiences in order to know what we experienced, but it seems to be so.

Abby