Joseph Porrovecchio

In  March of 2008,    I began experiencing strange onset of symptoms. I noticed that my jaw would start to tire (the muscles in my jaw and mouth weakened) after about a minute of so, while chewing food and speaking.   I began having trouble controlling the movement of my tongue.  I attributed this odd behavior jaw to general a cold, brushed it off, and waited to see if the symptoms persisted after I got back home.   Upon retuning back to Toronto, my symptoms became oddly worse – I had little to no jaw/tongue muscle power – I could only manage to speak or chew for about 2s at a time and had to rest my jaw/tounge to regain any muscle use. Moreover, I cold not lift my neck up from a horizontal position.   Soon thereafter, I a had several choking episodes as my throat muscles stopped firing as well.  Well,  I was terrified and suspected everything from stroke, to seizures. After 10 separate diagnoses in-and-out of various hospitals, clinics and specialist, I had no answer.  I had lost 20l

Myasthenia Gravis comes from the Greek and Latin words meaning “grave muscular weakness.” The most common form of MG is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by fluctuating weakness of the voluntary muscle groups. The prevalence of MG in the United States is estimated to be about 20/100,000 population. However, MG is probably under diagnosed and the prevalence may be higher. Myasthenia Gravis occurs in all races, both genders, and at any age. MG is not thought to be directly inherited nor is it contagious. It does occasionally occur in more than one member of the same family. The voluntary muscles of the entire body are controlled by nerve impulses that arise in the brain. These nerve impulses travel down the nerves to the place where the nerves meet the muscle fibers. Nerve fibers do not actually connect with muscle fibers. There is a space between the nerve ending and muscle fiber; this space is called the neuromuscular junction. When the nerve impulse or