In the Irish writer Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895), he writes that memory “is the diary that we all carry about with us.” Still, our memories can’t always be trusted; some scientific research even suggests that our memories can be unreliable. Emotions, voluntary…

“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.” That quote from an unknown author is one of my favorites. Contentment is a mindset we usually acquire after maturity or contemplative loss. After my divorce when I was in my 30s,…

My twin brother, Aaron, has always been a fitness nut. When we were teenagers, he routinely invited his girlfriend at the time to come over and exercise with him. Exercise videos on VHS tapes were all the rage back then, so they’d perform intense aerobics in front of the TV…

Incessant worrying doesn’t eliminate uncertainty about the future, only the peace of the present. I’m a worrier. I’m not proud of that, but it’s an ingrained personality trait. My twin brother, Aaron, who has myasthenia gravis (MG), is having strabismus surgery soon to correct his crossed eyes. I…

A recent case report describes an elderly woman who was first diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG) after experiencing a myasthenic crisis while being sedated for a surgical procedure. “This case reports a form of discovery of [a] myasthenic crisis outside the usual circumstance,” its authors wrote. “The prognosis depends…

I don’t recoil at the sight of a scar left by a transsternal thymectomy — the surgical removal of my thymus gland — three months ago. I’d prefer it wasn’t there, of course, but I’m starting to embrace it. The scar reveals a little about who I am, like…

Shortly after I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG), the neurologist suggested I have a contrast CT scan of my chest. This would determine whether or not a thymectomy was necessary. My only memory of the CT scan was that the contrast made me feel like I’d peed my…

Thymectomy, or surgical removal of the thymus, can lower medication use and lessen disease severity in people with myasthenia gravis (MG), regardless of age, sex, or medical history, an observational study has found. Data from the study also indicated that younger female patients with early onset MG, an…

Among myasthenia gravis (MG) patients whose thymomas — tumors of the thymus — are surgically removed, those who are younger, have a more advanced thymoma, and whose surgery is other than a sternotomy or video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) appear to be at a higher risk of cancer relapse, a…

Robot-assisted surgery to remove the thymus gland is considered a safe method of performing a thymectomy on myasthenia gravis patients, a recent study in Singapore shows. The study, “Robotic Thymectomy in Patients With Myasthenia Gravis,…