Tina Hancock, who lives in Georgia, has managed myasthenia gravis (MG) for decades. She offers insight into her approach to navigating an MG crisis with composure and resilience.

The first thing I do is I tell myself, “Stay calm. You can’t do anything if you lose your head.”

The next thing I do is I do an assessment: “OK, what’s going on? Is it your breathing? Is it your swallowing? How bad is it? OK, do you need to call for help? Call for help. Are you OK if you sit here a minute?”

I’m honest with myself, and I’ve learned that you have to call for help immediately. Whether it’s a friend, whether it’s somebody in the house — whatever it is — you gotta do it immediately. Because with MG, it could get worse, and if you wait, you may not be able to call for help.

So you have to stay calm, you gotta figure it out, and then you gotta follow through on it. And don’t try to be too brave and say, “Oh, I can handle this myself,” because you may not be able to. And that’s what I’ve learned about myself.