3. Coming to Greece

Friday February 24th

As soon as I arrived in Greece I immediately felt better. I believe it was the hot dry climate. I did come over in summer which seems to help. Winters still affect me even here, just not as bad since they are milder the winters of Connecticut & New York.  Found a new bunch of Doctors here and was given their prescription medications and sent on my way. In November of 2009 I started to feel a strange kind of weakness which evolved into partial paralysis all over. I was sent for tests and Myasthenia Gravis was discovered. Here is a medical definition of the disease:

Myasthenia Gravis causes weakness that fluctuates from hour to hour and day to day. The muscles usually affected by this weakness control the eyes, face, neck, and throat. In half of patients weakness affects the arms or legs as well. The disease results from an auto-immune attack of the patient's immune system against receptors that stimulate muscle contraction.
The initial symptom in 40% of cases of myasthenia gravis is weakness of the eye muscles and eyelid. This results in double vision (diplopia) and drooping of the eyelids (ptosis). These two symptoms will eventually occur in 85% of patients with myasthenia gravis.
Weakness of the lips, mouth, tongue and throat can lead to dysarthria (slurred speech) and dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing). Aspiration of food into the wind-pipe and lungs can lead to pneumonia, which can in turn precipitate respiratory failure.
Approximately 20% of patients experience an attack of myasthenic weakness so severe that the muscles of breathing fail, necessitating placement on a respirator. This condition is called myasthenic crisis.

Except for having to go on a respirator, I have or have had ALL of these symptoms before medication. Even with the medication I still feel weakness and just a general uncomfortable feeling in my body. It was then discovered that the lung problems I have been having for years now was due to Myasthenia Gravis which means I have had Myasthenia Gravis for a while before it was diagnosed. Having surgery to remove the thymus gland now made since, Myasthenia Gravis affects the thymus and makes it enlarge. It is removed in the hopes of making you feel better. In my case it made me worse or at least did not help in making me better. Heat seems to aggravate the condition so the summers in Greece are overwhelming for this condition and the winters affect the psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. So all in all I have a couple of months in the spring and a couple in the fall that I can tolerate being alive.    

Diet of the day
DAY 6, Friday February 24rd

9:30 am
Small cabbage & carrot salad with lemon and olive oil
1 orange

11:30 am
1 apple
1 pear

2:30 pm
1 large salad- curly lettuce, cucumber and ginger with olive oil & lemon
1 banana

5:00 pm
Medium cabbage & carrot salad with lemon and olive oil
1 large boiled sweet potato with salt

6:30 pm
4 dry figs
1 small handful of dry blueberries

7:45 pm
Large salad- cucumber, parsley, arugala topped with lemon & olive oil

11:00 pm
1 banana

Disease update  
Yesterdays status was similar to the day previous, so nothing new to report. Today skin is still flaking and very itchy but not as red and starting to calm down a bit. Pain in the joints (feet, ankles, thumbs and low back) is still hurting. Been drinking more water so pee looks clearer but going #2 (once today) is not great, had a bit of constipation with mucus. The lungs were the same today with some mucus coming up through out the day and breathing still shallow. Eyes are getting better by the day, still red but much less itchier.
I have been at this stage before, nothing new yet.