I am a 23 year old male and I have mg. I've noticed symptoms for about two years now with some double vision and fatigue but it never was dabilitating. Doctors always just said I was too tired or stressed. Then one day a couple months ago it just blew up, started having double vision almost all day every day, started having real bad problems breathing, then my eyelids started drooping and getting locked up, speech got all wacky, started wobbling, couldn't stand for too long, eye pain, extreme fatigue, the whole nine yards. Lost my job because of it. I went to an opthomologist who passed me to a neuro opthomologist and when he looked over my MRI and ct scan said son I think you have mg, and he got me in with a neurologist the next morning, saying we have no time to lose. The next day even the neurologist was a lil iffy, 23 year old male going from working 70 hours a week on a horse ranch to not being able to hold his head up or even look at me is weird. After looking at all my tests and seeing I was perfectly healthy on the inside but I couldn't hold my arms out he started me on mestinon. I'm currently on 60mg every 6 hours which I feel like is the right amount for me, and when I have good days I'll even sometimes forget I have this disease, until I swallow back a bunch of water in my lungs or my knees start going out hahahaha. But I've also been on an all organic diet straight down to baking soda for shampoo and I think its helping. You just have to relize that some peoe are going to except there is something wrong with you, and others still won't believe you even on your weakest of hours, they just think man up your just tired.

The thing that worries me about swimming is that if you were to totally go all weak, you could drown. I fell off my horse in a sudden weakness moment. All I did was hit the dirt and get bruised up. If I had been in water, I hope that I would not have been alone......

There are "resting strokes" that you can do. The human body is naturally buoyant, side stroke or elementary backstroke will get you to shallower water with minimal effort. Falling off a horse you can smack your head and break bones... (for me, a big wipe out on the skis can hurt pretty bad) It is all a matter of risk balance. Do the things you enjoy and are able to, when your body says "it's time" ... stop.

I agree with the risk versus benefit. I still ride. I do wear a helmet.
If I were to swim, I would want to know that someone would rescue me if I went under. The horse episode was scary because I just went totally limp.