When I was 16 I became deathly ill. I would sleep 22 hours out of the day, I would literally throw up my insides because I couldn't wake up to eat, and if I did manage I would just throw it up. I was wheeled into the offices every 3 days for god knows how many months, and they couldn't find anything. I had chest x-rays with the aide of two nurses holding each arm out to stand me up. Finally about 6-7 months in the right side of my face became paralyzed. Therein they thought I suffered a stroke because of this mystery illness. I was a mess. My mom was worried sick and everyone thought I was just suffering some slow death that would become a statistic that no one could explain. About 10 months in some resident dr fresh from the graduation line came in looked at my chart and suggested perhaps I had Bell's Palsy, and that it was caused by the illness or that the illness and Bell's Palsy were separate entities. They just happened at the same time. EUREKA! They pump me with steroids, and I mean these things were horse pills of gigantic proportions. It took everything I had to be able to swallow them I was so weak. Needless to say I missed my last half sophomore and first half junior years. So that is when I became home schooled. I think as a direct reflect of the massive amounts of steroids I was given and the fact they literally drained me of my blood for a good half a year, I was able to make a full recovery.
That being said:
Thursday night I went into the emergency room with chest pains. I knew I wasn't having a heart attack or anything it was high up in the middle of my chest. Dead center. So we go in, I get labs, x-rays, and a cat scan. They thought for sure it could be a blood clot because I was at a high risk being on bedrest recently pregnant, and having just given birth. The catscan showed no blood clot. It did show an abnormal Thymus Gland. 3 centimeters enlarged. That can mean one of three things:
Graves Disease: Not showing any signs or symptoms
It just didn't shrink into adulthood: there's no symptoms associated with this, and I unfortunately am having symptoms.
Myasthenia Gravis: The exact symptoms you read before when I was 16, coupled with the fact in my cat scan, and chest x-ray they say my Thymus Gland was 'abnormal' 3 centimeters abnormal. 10-15% of people with Myasthenia Gravis, and an enlarged Thymus have cancer called Thymoma (which if untreated can spread to other tissues. We're going on 10 years untreated now.) Or another form of cancer called Thymic Lymphomas. Either way the Thymus has to be surgically removed.
The prognosis: With treatment, patients have a normal life expectancy, except for those with a malignant thymoma (whose lesser life expectancy is on account of the thymoma itself and is otherwise unrelated to the myasthenia). Quality of life can vary depending on the severity and the cause. The drugs used to control MG either diminish in effectiveness over time (cholinesterase inhibitors) or cause severe side effects of their own (immunosuppressants). A small percentage (around 10%) of MG patients are found to have tumors in their thymus glands, in which case a thymectomy is a very effective treatment with long-term remission. However, most patients need treatment for the remainder of their lives, and their abilities vary greatly. It should be noted that MG is not usually a progressive disease. The symptoms may come and go, but the symptoms usually do not get worse as the patient ages. For some, the symptoms decrease after a span of 3–5 years.