Tina Shreve
Hello, my name is Tina Shreve, and I am a 33 year old mother with three wonderful kids! I was born in Decatur, Ga and still reside within the Metro Atlanta area! My time with Myasthenia Gravis has been a very interesting one. My doctor referred to it as baking a cake! 6 years before the actual diagnosis, I was pregnant with my first child and developed a kidney infection. I was given Azithromycin like I had taken several times in the past, except this time wasn’t the same. I ended up having to be rushed back to the ER due to not being able to hold my head up, lift my arms or anything. They told me to discontinue the use and listed it as an allergic reaction. So this was the “baking of the cake”.
Several years later, when my second child was 5 months old, I was giving her a bath and my legs went to sleep. When I stood up to get the blood flowing again, I lost balance and hit the top of head on the door frame. I was miserable and developed a migraine. I went to sleep and woke up the next morning and BOOM everything was double! I was terrified to say the least, so I went to the ER to figure out what was wrong but of course they just said a migraine also. So, I left out full of medication and a referral to a neurologist. Finally, this was the “icing on the cake!”
I went and saw my original neurologist and he kept writing me off like a bad check, telling me I wasn’t being truthful in my symptoms and so much more. He had me constantly in a MRI machine, repeating single fiber testing, and others. Finally, he referred me out to Emory to a neuro-ophthalmologist who was finally able to officially diagnose me with Myasthenia Gravis within 30 minutes of our first appointment. He then advised me not return to my original neurologist and strictly deal with Emory neurology. That was the best advice I had been given over my 10 month period of trying to get answers!
Needless to say, here I am 9 years later, still kicking and fighting, while continuing to advocate for myself and others who deal with MG. I no longer work due to MG controlling my life and taking it over, but my three kiddos are my reason to continue the fight.
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