A Good Life with Bad Muscles - a Column by Retha De Wet

Managing University Life with MG

Life with myasthenia gravis can be incredibly frustrating. At times, it feels like no one understands my battle and what I’m forced to go through just to lead a functional life. This frustration is especially emphasized when I attempt things that my peers do with a whole lot less effort,…

Conquering Anxiety and Myasthenia Gravis Together

Struggling with physical and mental health is challenging. In my case, myasthenia gravis shined a light on underlying anxiety, and now I am in a relationship with both. I battle both muscle weakness and my own mind. Often, it’s difficult to determine which of the two is causing my problems.

The Joy of Being Alive

Like most chronically ill people, I often get the line, “I don’t know how you do it.” To be completely honest, nor do I. I just do exactly as healthy people do. I wake up, get up, survive, and go to bed. On some days, I have an emotional breakdown in…

5 Ways to Brighten a Hospital Admission

Hospital visits that end up going less than smoothly either make or break your spirit. Physical strength comes and goes in the lives of the chronically ill, but it’s our emotional toughness that gives us that mind-boggling endurance no healthy person can seem to comprehend. It is almost like a…

I Shouldn’t Be Shamed for Using Disabled Parking

Myasthenics adjusting to reduced physical abilities must make lifestyle adaptations. To ensure the continuation of my tertiary studies, I’ve acquired disabled parking on campus. Applying for the placard dented my pride. I struggled for months before finally admitting to needing disabled parking. I could no longer walk the distance from…

The Reasons Behind Falling Ill

Wondering about the reasons behind life-changing moments is only natural. It is normal to guess what your part in your eventual fate was, but sometimes things cannot be understood so simply. And that is almost more frustrating than the actual reason behind most things in life. My myasthenia gravis…

Looking After the Mind and the Body

Nothing has ever made me feel more alone in this world than lying awake in my hospital bed at night. Myasthenia gravis patients are not allowed sleeping tablets because they could be fatal. So, I will often lie in my hospital bed at night for hours. When that happens, I…