Together - a Column by Mark Harrington

Texas in July is rough. By 9 a.m., the light is blinding and the heat is oppressive. The grass has given up and gone the color of straw. Cicadas saw away at the heat. You move from one air-conditioned location to another. The spaces in between are brutal reminders that…

It’s sweltering here in Texas. The air quality is abysmal, and a sense of “blah” seems to be everywhere. For somebody like me living with myasthenia gravis (MG), daily life is significantly more difficult this time of year. I’m forced to be semi-monastic, only crawling out of my lair,…

Before I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG) and neurologists started timing how long I could hold my arms in the air, I had another name altogether. To my family, I was never really Mark. I was Boo, a shortened form of Booza. Usually, we don’t choose our nicknames.

“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.” The apostle Paul was not writing about myasthenia gravis (MG) with those words. He was speaking instead about the whole human condition, the arc of a…

Here’s a riddle: What has more compartments than a tackle box, more variety than a buffet, and takes longer to sort than a load of laundry you’ve ignored until you ran out of clean underwear? If you said my weekly pill organizer, congratulations! You clearly know me or someone like…

On Memorial Day, my sister posted a photograph on Facebook that made me stop and think. There was my father, a World War II Navy veteran, standing in front of our town’s monument to all those who served in the military. He stood straight, with the assistance of a cane,…

When I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG), I believed I understood it. My father had lived with it, and from a distance, his struggle seemed manageable. But MG has a way of exposing illusions. It teaches, often brutally, the difference between what appears strong and what actually endures.

For those of us living with myasthenia gravis (MG), the burden isn’t confined to the body. It relentlessly finds its way into the wallets of those who live with it. Checkbooks, retirement accounts, pensions, and daily expenses are all affected and often determine whether one lives with dignity. In…

We are told that stress, inadequate sleep, poor eating habits, and the lack of an effective medication protocol can contribute to flare-ups of myasthenia gravis (MG). Sleep, at least in theory, is manageable. We can adjust routines, sneak in naps, and pretend that going to bed at 9:30 p.m.

I like to think of myself as a rational person. I try to meet each new challenge with calm and logic. But with myasthenia gravis (MG), fear has a way of quietly slipping in. For me, that fear has taken up residence at the dinner table. The MG crisis…