Living with and Managing Multiple Conditions

In other articles, I’ve talked briefly about living with 2 or more health conditions. When I was first diagnosed with myasthenia gravis in December 2008, I was also diagnosed with asthma, hypothyroidism, hypertension, high cholesterol, and later, arthritis.

Before these diagnoses, I hadn’t experienced any health issues. Little did I know, all of this was just around the corner.

Difficult to accept

As a nurse, I’d been taking care of others for so many years that it was quite an adjustment for me to concede - I, too, had health issues. I knew that just because I was a nurse, it didn’t mean I was immune to everything. However, it was still difficult to accept.

I wasn’t used to being the patient, I was the caregiver! I know many others also have multiple health conditions, each of us with different combinations and different severities. But still, we all have to work through those life changes in our own way, in our own time.

While my health conditions are less severe than some, I still had a lot of trouble dealing with them all, especially since most of the diagnoses occurred at the same time or near the same time as the first diagnosis.

Now that I’m dealing with 6 new diagnoses, I am learning to accept each and every one and learning how to tell which symptom goes with each condition.

Overlapping symptoms

Unfortunately, some of the health conditions I have overlap with each other. For instance, hypothyroidism symptoms include fatigue, cold sensitivity, muscle weakness, hoarseness, and anxiety, just to name a few.¹

Then, there’s asthma and allergies. They can potentially cause shortness of breath and life-threatening thyroid or myasthenic crisis.

When those are also symptoms of myasthenia gravis symptoms, how do you identify which health condition goes to which symptom so it can be properly treated?

Identifying the cause

When an asthma attack occurs and it becomes difficult to breathe, I'll start to cough and clear my throat a lot. Then the hoarseness develops. Depending on how severe my symptoms are, I’ll use my inhaler or nebulizer.

So far, I’ve improved a little almost immediately. Usually, I have almost total relief in about 30 to 60 minutes. Then I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s probably asthma!

The thyroid symptoms are much more difficult to identify. I'll have pain all over my body, including in my joints and muscles. During the winter, I’m so cold. When I experience fatigue and voice changes ... that's anybody's guess, but I think it's myasthenia since my thyroid tests are usually within normal limits.

Where is the pain coming from?

Are the joint muscle pain due to arthritis, hyperthyroidism, or myasthenia gravis? How do you figure this one out? For the most part, it isn’t something that is life-threatening. But it is related to comfort – or no comfort! Is this pain coming from 1 of the conditions, 2 of them, or all of them?

The pain I have all over my body can sometimes lead to the depression that comes with these conditions. Regardless, remaining active is the best thing I can do for myself at this time.