Hello,
I have been avoiding forums and counting on the medical system, but in Canada, it takes so long to get results, and appointments.
I have been sick for 1 year now and have only decided to seek help from a neurologist in January. My Grandfather had Myasthenia, and I'm just not sure if this is what’s going on with me or if could be something more simple.
Last March I began having dizziness, that progressed over months until the end of November, when I began having trouble walking. I walked VERY slow, sometimes coming to a stop. I finally went to neuro and they discovered weakness in my legs and arms. My Leg weakness is almost my constant companion. It increases and decreases in severity, sometime is goes away all together. I find walking distance (walking to work in the morning) very difficult, I get weaker as I walk. My knees bending further and further as I walk….people stare…I was a runner, running 25km per week. Now I cannot walk around Wal-Mart without a cane. My arms do not bother me to much. My MRI came back Negative. I was clinically tested for Myasthenia, looking up at my neuros finger, testing my smile. I have NO head or neck, eye or swallowing, or chewing difficulties. My Neck is strong. Has anyone’s Myasthenia started out like this? Getting out of a sitting position is hard. I even feel as though my Core (torso) is very weak, when I have bad spells, my core contracts downwards, almost in a bending over motion. At night I am having difficulty breathing, taking very deep breaths ( is that what difficulty breathing feels like). It’s keeping me awake. I am 107lb, and was ALWAYS very healthy. I’m scared when I go back to the neuro he is going to send me to a physiologist. My symptoms’ are weird, on and off and are ruining my life. I’m too young to be sick. I want to go back to running. Any incite, with your experience would be wonderful.
Thank-you

Hi, and welcome to this forum. Please don't hesitate to ask questions.

Your symptoms sound consistent with myasthenia gravis to me. Sometimes it's called the "snowflake disease" because it affects different people so differently. There are muscles groups that are more common than others for the first symptoms, but it can start anywhere. The fact that some of your muscles (like your neck) don't seem to be affected doesn't rule out myasthenia.

Your doctor did a clinical exam on you, but you should have lab tests, too! There are blood tests for myasthenia gravis. If they come back positive, you definitely have it. If they come back negative, you need further testing. You should have a single fiber EMG, which tests the function of the neuro-muscular junctions. Not every neurologist can perform this test--you'll need to be sent to one who specializes in neuro-muscular diseases.

Please be very careful. Myasthenia gravis (which you may or may not have) can get worse really fast, especially after some physical stress (especially an illness like the flu) or emotional stress, or often for no apparent reason. If it starts getting worse fast, that's a medical emergency. If you're struggling to breathe or suddenly having trouble swallowing, get to the emergency room or call an ambulance.

The hallmark of myasthenia gravis (I mean the feature that distinguishes it from many other diseases) is that it's fatiguable. That means that it gets worse the more you use your muscles, and better after you rest. In addition to that, it's typical of myasthenia for the symptoms to come and go, and get better and worse over days or weeks.

For what it's worth, the way you describe your walking is very familiar to me! I walk like that sometimes. In addition, I have muscles that don't seem to be affected, or at least not much, or only for brief times before they get better. Right now I'm having no trouble with my vision, my eyelids, my chewing, my swallowing, and my breathing. My first symptom was trouble with the muscles that keep me vertical from the waist up, so I was swaying back and forth as I walked. My neurologists were very puzzled by this, and it took a long time to get me a diagnosis. As my disease progressed, my symptoms became more typical.

I hope you get answers and treatment soon. There are a lot of treatments for MG.

Abby

Wow Thank you Abby, your response was very comforting. I have felt very alone dealing with this. It's so hard to explain and the variability day to day is hard; even the variability from minute to minute. I am very affected by emotional stress, and it's been so cold here, so I think that's not been helping. It gets bad very quickly with stress. I also have the torso and swaying. That's where I first noticed something odd after my legs. Well I have not been confirmed and it's not for certain that this is what it is,It's just comforting to have someone understand what I’m going through (with weakness)
Thank-you, you have no idea how much I appreciated your response.

-S

Oh, I completely understand how you feel! I went for 15 months without a diagnosis, and that was the hardest part. I worried people would think I was faking or imagining or somehow emotionally generating my symptoms. I worried that my doctors, who couldn't find anything wrong with me for a long time, would tell me my problem was psychological. I felt guilty about hoping for a diagnosis, since you're not supposed to want to be sick. But for me, the not knowing was really hard to take.

Yesterday I had a routine visit to my neurologist. My symptoms are so variable that he has never seen me more than mildly weak before. I got really weak sitting in the waiting room, and when he called me to the exam room, I tried to stand up and ended up slowly sinking to the floor (into a squat). I struggled in, with the help of my husband. He talked to me for about half an hour. By the end of the visit I was much stronger. He tested my leg strength and I was pretty much normal. Luckily, he knows about MG or else what would he think? Half an hour ago I couldn't stand or walk, and now my leg strength is normal. The same thing happened to me long before I got diagnosed, during an ER visit.

Take care of yourself, especially if you get a cold or sore throat. Journal, if you can--write down your symptoms every day and their severity, and anything that might have set them off (what you ate, how you slept, if you're sick, if you're under stress, what activities you did, the weather--anything you can think of). Even before you get a diagnosis, finding patterns will help you learn to manage what's going on, or at least what to expect. That takes some of the anxiety out of it. Hang in there. Ask questions. We're rooting for you.

Abby

Wow Abby!!!
I starting the slowly sinking to the floor just this week. It's been only a 3 month progression for me with these symptoms end of Nov-now. I thought I was crazy, sometime I am like, am I making this up? because it's so weird, and I was always so healthy. I read about people just dropping to the floor. That doesn't happen to me, it's a slowly sinking until i'm in a squat and on the floor. In a way it's good so I don't crash on the ice outside and hurt myself.
I am going to take your advice and start to write everything down. Then at least the neuro will have something to go on and he can figure out whats wrong, even if it is not this disease.
Thanks Again.

-S

That's exactly it! I sink very gracefully to a squatting position. It looks like I'm doing it on purpose. I end up on the floor a lot, sometimes many times in a day (a bad day), but in the two and a half years I've had this disease, I've never actually fallen (though I've crashed into a lot of walls and such).

Re: journaling: I thought that I was paying good attention to triggers and such, and that writing everything down wouldn't reveal anything new. One of the things I did was give a rating on a scale of one to ten of how much physical activity I'd done that day, and a rating on a scale of one to ten of how bad my symptoms were in general. Then I made a line graph (OK, I'm sort of a geek. I really like graphs). Wow, was that ever eye-opening! There was a very strong correlation between the how bad my symptoms were and how much physical stuff I'd done in the previous two days. Way more than I'd realized.

If you are having female cycles (I'm guessing you're a woman only because you mentioned you're 107 pounds), write that down in your journal, too. Many people with myasthenia (and maybe other neuromuscular diseases--I don't really know) notice that hormonal changes are a big trigger. They are for me. Two days before the end of each cycle, I tend to get much worse for a few days.

Abby

Yes, Abby, I am Female. I have been really bad, and my "monthly friend" left on saturday. I started getting very ill Wednesday-Friday night and was particularly bad Sunday (danced in the kitchen on saturday night with some friends of mine, for 20mins,... girls night) and paid for it sunday and monday, and today I am starting to feel better.

Hi Segardin and welcome to this forum!
I started my MG 5 years ago with progressively all symptoms above the waist, but nothing in the legs. After 6 months of treatment, everything went back to almost normal except that my legs started weaking and I'm still at that point now...
I agree with Abby's statements about tests and neuro's who are capable of dealing with MG, try to find one!
I would advise you to be careful with drugs and medications, some can really worsen your symptoms , see for example:
http://dig.pharm.uic.edu/faq/myasthenia.aspx
Maurice.

Most of what I read and what I have learned from my grandfather is that is usually does start in the head and neck. He did not progress to general weakness, however, he was in his late 70's when he showed signs.
Perhaps I am dealing with another type of disease all together. I am completely fine today (it's only 11:00), However, its all just so odd.....

I also keep thinking (because of the dizziness) if inner ear infection can cause severe weakness in my legs.

I think that if it is Myasthenia, it will show itself in due time... i just have to be patient.

-S

hi I don't know how to use this , but your symtoms are identical to mine.I was diagnosed with lambert-eaton myasthenic syndrome two years ago.I have had alot of success useing diaminopyridine(DAP) good luck