Positively MG - a Column by Megan Hunter

Finding the Right Doctor Is Key to Good Long-term Care

Choosing your healthcare provider can be as important and daunting a challenge as finding your life partner. You need someone who will advocate for you and who has your best interests at heart. You need someone who is passionate about what they do and who wants to make a difference.

My Animals Are More than Pets

My husband and I have a cat and two dogs because I believe no home is complete without pets to love. Our animals sleep in our bed and come along on family trips — they are our “fur-children.” As my health has declined, I’ve come to see these pets as…

The Lost Stem Cell Transplant Hope

What do you do when told there is a treatment that could put you into remission, but your health insurance denies it because there “isn’t enough clinical evidence”? There will never be enough clinical evidence for my rare disease because there are not enough people affected by the condition to make…

Take Time to Appreciate and Thank Those Who Provide Care

This past week, I was lucky enough to attend the RareX 2018 Conference organized by Rare Diseases South Africa. It was a chance for healthcare professionals, support groups, and patients to meet up, interact, and attend really interesting lectures. I knew it would be a worthwhile event, but…

The ‘Weight’ of Being Sick

Before my diagnosis, I was perfectly healthy. Even childhood ailments like chicken pox or mumps didn’t inflict me. In fact, I had never even had the flu! I was an extremely active girl and am proud to say that I even had a six-pack from all of my competitive dancing. At…

The Importance of Finding Your Tribe

At school, I wanted to belong to the “cool crowd.” I used to watch them from the outside and was so jealous of the way they seemed to glide around school, owning every little aspect of it. We all wanted to be in their little clique because they were the…

Make Yourself Priority No. 1

When I was diagnosed in 2004, it was a shock to my entire family. We had never heard of this disease and had no idea what it meant for my future. I had to take a year off school due to hospitalizations, treatments, and a thymectomy. I felt like…

You Can Be Happy for Others While Still Mourning

Recently, I was chatting with some of the other ladies in my support group who have been on a similar path as me — constant hospitalizations and relapses. They have also been through the heartbreak of having yet another treatment not work and the uncertainty of their future, health-wise. We…