Carol Mitchell
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I turned 50 years old 2 days after my thymectomy, and that was in 1989. At that time, the doctors in Austin would not perform the surgery. I went to Houston to have the tymectomy, and the doctors there performed the open chest surgery. I was in the hospital for 10 days, and when returning home, I went on IVIG for several years. I am happy to say that most of the symptoms are gone. I have learned to manage the ones that have not gone away. I am really glad I had the surgery, and I believe that is why I am good today. I still have fatigue if I do too much or am under a lot of stress. My biggest problem is traveling. I get extremely fatigued, and it takes several days to a week to recuperate. Does anyone have the same problem when traveling?
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In 1993, after 7 years of double vision and wearing very thick glasses with prisms, I did have muscle eye surgery to correct my double vision. The doctor is was a pediatric eye surgeon, and the surgery improved my vision. However he did not succeed in correcting my left eye totally. He told me he was not sure he could correct that eye completely. The brain compensates and is able to pull both eyes together. I have prescription glasses with a small amount of prisms in them. I don’t wear them all of the time. I do wear them when I drive. I am really glad I had the surgery because living with extreme double vision for the rest of my life is something I did not want to do.
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My first signs of Myasthenia Gravis happened as I was on a week long road trip. I was extremely tired and as we came over a hill, I saw 2 trucks coming at us. With double vision, we all know if you close one eye and everything becomes one. My friend, who was driving, assured me that there was only one. I went to my ophthalmologist/neurologist, and she was teaching a student. She told the student that I had Myasthenia Gravis even before she told me. I had never heard of MG, and turned to the doctor and said WHAT. That started my journey to learn as much as possible about MG. I was diagnosed in 1988. In 1989, I was in Houston getting my thymus gland removed. No other doctors in the Austin area would perform the surgery. They referred me to Dr. Bernard Patton in Houston. He ordered the thymectomy, and I have slowly gotten much better. I was on IVIG for many years. I am no longer on any medication for this misunderstood disease. If I pace myself and don’t get too fatigued, I feel pretty normal.