28. MY CONTINUED ILLNESS

After being discharged from Danville Regional Medical Center in March 2004, I went home for a very slow recuperation. MG saps all your strength and it is hard to make even the slightest movement without becoming completely exhausted. I began the process very slowly and it was around September before I would consider myself at approximately 75 % of my normal strength. I played nine holes of golf and was completely exhausted. After waiting one week, I played ten holes and was exhausted. After two more weeks, I got in eighteen holes and was exhausted, but recovered fairly quickly.

The next day, which was a Sunday, I drove down to Blain and Lori’s to attend Seth’s birthday party and made out very well. I just knew I was on the way to a full recovery. However, the following week, I got to the point I could not breathe and Barbara took me to the emergency room at DRMC. They admitted me and I was there for thirty-two days and then discharged.

After spending five nights at home, I suddenly could not chew sufficiently to cut my food to the point I could swallow it. Barbara called Blain and he decided he would come get me and take me to U.N.C. Medical Hospital at Chapel Hill, N.C. We were hoping we could get to see Dr. James Howard with whom I had an appointment scheduled in December. He runs the myasthenia gravis clinic there and is very knowledgeable about it. After spending twenty-four hours in the ER they found a room for me in the Neuroscience Hospital. Without question, this was the finest hospital I had ever been in. The physicians and nurses there are the kindest, best organized, and more helpful than any I have ever seen

I spent thirty-eight days at U.N.C. and received the very finest attention. They checked me for everything and ran every test imaginable. They were going to send me home two weeks earlier but would not do so since I would have had to pay $4,700 for the medicine I would have to take after being discharged. Medicare would not pay for it unless I was in the hospital, so it probably wound up costing them nearer $20,000. No wonder Medicare is in trouble financially.

After being discharged and returning home with my medicine having been increased considerably, I began the slow process of regaining my strength once again. As of today, I have been home six weeks and am improving very slowly. I try to walk a little each day and that seems to help. I hope to get back on the treadmill and work my way back up to a mile each day very soon.