We haven’t started with a joke in a while, so here’s one for you.
A kindergarten teacher is trying to explain to her class the definition of the word “definitely”. To make sure the students have a good understanding of the word, she asks them to use it in a sentence. The first student raises his hand and says, “The sky is definitely blue.” The teacher responds, “Well, that isn’t entirely correct, because sometimes the sky is grey and cloudy.” Another student raises her hand and says, “Grass is definitely green.” The teacher replies, “If grass doesn’t get enough water, it turns brown, so that isn’t really correct either.” Finally, Billy raises his hand and asks the teacher, “Do farts have lumps?” The teacher looks sternly at Billy and says, “No, but that isn’t really a question you should ask in a class discussion.” So, Billy replies, “Then I definitely just pooped my pants!”
Okay, so maybe that was a little off color, but it got me thinking about redirection. Just when you think you have things under control, someone or something does something to throw you completely off track and the unexpected happens.
Myasthenia Gravis is kind of like that. You’ve heard me describe it as the “Snowflake Disease”. That’s because the symptoms are there one minute and gone the next. Or, most embarrassingly, not there one minute and pop up when you least expect them.
MG symptoms also often appear to be something else entirely. Heavily fatigued? I need to get more sleep. Having trouble swallowing? There must be something wrong with my throat. Double vision? I need to get my glasses changed. All of these things can be signs of Myasthenia Gravis, but they can also be signs of something else entirely. That’s one of the reasons MG is so difficult to diagnose and goes undiagnosed in so many people.
Oftentimes, it isn’t until someone starts having significant problems that they actually seek medical attention. And our poor doctors… they have to search through millions of reasons and possible causes for these symptoms happening. Myasthenia Gravis is considered rare, so it’s rarely the first thing that comes to mind when I doctor first starts seeing you.
But, just like Billy, MG can just blurt it out without any misgivings. It keeps displaying symptoms no matter how hard we try to mask them. The symptoms usually end up getting progressively worse until we’re forced to seek medical attention. MG, the trickster, isn’t done yet, however. It sends the symptoms, then suddenly takes them away making it impossible to time a doctor’s visit when the symptoms are active. It tries to play this little game with our heads trying to get us to think we’re just imagining everything. It wants to make us feel like we’re going crazy.
Thankfully, there are good doctors around. A good doctor will listen, examine, run the proper tests, and try to get to the bottom of what’s happening. While their goal is to rule out different conditions, at the same time, they’re trying to hone in on a diagnosis. Sometimes that takes a while. At this point, all we can do is trust and pray.
If your doctor is wondering why you ask so many irrelevant questions, tell them this joke. We’re just trying to confirm our theory and definitely come to a conclusion.