3 Down maybe only 1 to go!!

So I wore my glasses to drive myself down to Boston today. At a stoplight I paused to look in the mirror and put to on some lip gloss.... couldn't at least one of you have told me that I am growing a mustache?!! Ha. Good ol' prednisone. At least I am not thinking about driving my car into people who cut me off in parking lots. Lemmy see- mustache or murderous thoughts? I guess mustache is the preferable choice.
So I am laughing about this with my nurse down in Boston, and she looks at me and says, "Oh no one would ever notice that. Just don't mention it. Umm, Then again, maybe you should get some bleach!" HA It was pretty hysterical. If I wasn't hooked up to the machine I would have busted a gut. I know after the last fun I had with the wax lady (the red mustache that lasted for 3 weeks was definitely NOT worth getting rid of like 10 hairs) I will never do that again!!!!

On a serious note, I have now had 3 plasma-exchanges, and I am really starting to turn the corner. Feeling very positive that the cyclosporin is going to kick in before I actually do kill anyone on the prednisone. Maybe someone should ask my family if that is true or not. But my Mom and Dad are still here, and I am pretty sure I haven't insulted anyone lately. LOL.

I did get to have a wonderful pop in visit from Guru Gorson today. He was really not expecting that I would need any more than 2 pheresis treatments, so I guess that he wanted to see me for himself. Either that or he just couldn't stay away from my bubbly personality. We are still sticking with the plan (see April 13th's entry). I should say here that it normally takes 5 plasma-exchanges to bring someone out of crisis- and I was very close to a severe crisis last week. Once I get shortness of breath, we are in pretty deep. The concept is that 5 exchanges removes approximately 90% of the anti-bodies causing my symptoms. This isn't anything you can measure- it is just what usually works for people in crisis. As I said, last time I needed 7, but I was really at my worst that time.

The only change in the plan is that in the past I have waited until the symptoms start fairly early in the morning (about 2 hours after I wake up is my general rule) to call a neuro and get some kind of treatment. I am now going to be calling the Guru as soon as I start having symptoms in the hopes that I will get in there, get some clean blood and be able to only have one or 2 treatments every month or so until the cyclosporin has had the time to prove itself. Which it will.

I am taking my bloated self to bed now. All my love to all of you. Thank you for all your good thoughts and prayers. Hugs. Claire

PS- a couple of sites that might be interesting for you:
A site with overviews of MG and all the Meds: http://www.myasthenia.org/
A site about plasma-exchange: http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/plasmapheresis