Today’s Peace

People with Myasthenia Gravis need to see their neurologist on a schedule the neurologist deems appropriate. Yesterday was one of those visits for me.

I don’t get nervous seeing my neurologist. He’s so good to me and has helped me so much that I view these appointments as a means for us to communicate on a regular basis. These appointments allow him to assess the progressive nature of my MG and they allow me an opportunity to ask questions and relay any developments since my last visit.

On this particular visit, he determined that I’m now showing weakness in my lower facial muscles. He assessed this in several ways, but the two most telling were my inability to whistle and by having me puff my cheeks with air while he applied pressure to my cheeks to determine my level of resistance to the pressure. What he found is I’m no longer capable of whistling and my ability to resist pressure applied to my cheeks has diminished.

I used to love to whistle. Oftentimes when I was alone and doing something physical, but didn’t require a lot of thinking, I would whistle a happy tune to myself. Chores like raking leaves or painting were especially fun times to whistle. Whistling made the tasks less monotonous and made the time go by faster. I was never a talented whistler; I just liked to do it.

So, what is it about whistling that gets affected by MG? I’m no doctor, but I assume the muscles that are used to hold your tongue and mouth in a certain position that enable you to whistle are weakened by the acetylcholine receptors no longer being able to do their job.

Such a trivial and minor side effect. I can still talk, eat, chew, swallow and everything else with my mouth, so losing the whistling part isn’t a big deal. What is a big deal is the weakness I’m already showing could progress to the point where I could experience difficulties talking, eating, chewing and swallowing in the future. That makes life a little more difficult.

I choose not to focus on those “could” items, however. It’s not that I’m in denial that they could happen; it’s that there’s no value in worrying about tomorrow. I’d rather spend my time enjoying today.

Instead of whistling today, I think I will sing. I can still do that. I’m not that talented and it may not be that enjoyable for others to hear, so I’ll just sing softly to myself.

When given the opportunity to enjoy life or fret about something I can no longer do or that I may not be able to do in the future, I’ll choose enjoying life every time.

I enjoy the quote from the famous composer and song writer, Randy Armstrong, who said, “Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace.”