The Return of MG

Yessiree, I'm having a relapse of my myasthenia gravis and I just thought I should be writing everything down to keep a record of my symptoms and the dosages of my medication.

This first started way back in the middle of November last year 2006 (that's about 2 months ago). I was exhausted during the week of mine and J3's birthday and in the succeeding days and weeks I couldn't sleep properly. As a consequence, my eyes started drooping and I felt weak in each passing day.

I called up on our GP and had a bloodtest. He found out the reason for my sleeplessness. My blood test showed that for the first time I am hyperthyroid which was a complete surprise because I have been on daily medication since I was 11 years old for hypothyrodism. With that revelation, he lowered my thyroxine to 75 mcg per day plus gave me Piriton to help me sleep. We both surmised that if I get enough sleep and rest then my MG symptoms would go away. Unfortunately, despite getting the needed rest my MG simply marched on and got worse. So he referred me to the nearest specialist in Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. Now the staff in the neurological department there judged that my condition wasn't serious enough (through the letter my GP gave them) so they gave me an appointment in February 2008 - 3 bloody months later !!! I would have been crawling through the door by that time or maybe in ER.

Well, it's a good thing I have a private medical insurance which referred me to the very same neurologist in QE hospital but this time in Nuffield hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham as well. He adjusted my medications to:

Prednisolone - 15mg every other day
Azathioprine - 100mg x2 a day

This is for 2 weeks then lowered down the Prednisolone to 10mg for another 2 weeks. In the first 2 weeks at 15mg, my symptoms did not get worse but did not significantly get much better. (As an aside, this is the problem with steroids and azathioprine, it takes them weeks even months before you can get full benefit from it.) Then on the 3rd week when I started on 10mg I tried to get back to work on the 7th Jan 2008 but I really wasn't strong enough nor my eyes open up enough for me to work productively.

I went back to my specialist and he upped my dosage again to 10mg of Prednisolone everyday plus added Mestinon to once every 4 hours. It's now almost 1 week of this new dosage and I could feel that my left eye is opening out more though it still does not have the stamina to keep open for a long period of time. Hopefully I would have better news in the weeks to come.

My current dosages (as of 15 Jan 2008):

Prednisolone - 10 mg per day
Azathioprine - 100 mg x2 per day
Mestinon - 60 mg every 3-4 hours
Thyroxine - 50 mcg per day
Metformin - 500 mg per day
Sodium Alendronate - 70 mg per week

You could just see the cocktail of medicine I have to take. But I'd do anything to keep myself on the path of a normal health.