[Michael Roddy]

I find this subject to be very interesting. I recently read an MG publication that there was a chance that MG could possibly be hereditary. This was a big change in their thinking. Prior to this article over the years MG folks denied this possibility.
OK here is my story. My maternal grandmother was diagnosed with MG when she could not keep her eyes open. According to my mother my grandmother had to have her eye lids sewed open because she could not keep her eye lids up.
My mother in the early 80’s was diagnosed with MG when she could not hold her head up.
In 2005, I was diagnosed with MG when I started having lots of blurred vision especially when my MD asked me to look up. Not only did my vision blur my but eyes started blink rapidly for as long as I looked up. I found this to be very annoying. Within 2 years I started to have trouble swallowing and speaking. At this time, I was told I needed a Thymectomy if I wanted to have a chance of controlling my symptoms and getting off some of the medications like Prednisone.
A few years later my oldest sister was found to be antibody positive when she had some difficulty breathing. This was her only symptom of MG.
A few years ago, my nephew was diagnosed with MG. He was seropositive. He had extreme weakness, and double vision with trouble walking.
When tell my medical team my family history of MG some would say it was hereditary while others would say clusters of disease within a family does not mean it is hereditary.
After nephew was found to be antibody positive with related symptoms, I am leaning toward saying yes, it is hereditary.
My sister had an interesting story which makes me shake my head in disbelief. MY sister was serum positive without any symptoms a year or two before she had her episode of shortness of breath. Her neurologist told me he was not going to treat a blood test result without symptoms.
MG is a challenging disease to treat as there are no rules to follow and everyone is a snowflake.
Maybe the answer is genetic testing for all family members.