Our Muscles May Be Weakened, But We Are Strong!

We are so much more than our disease. Myasthenia Gravis is something that we have. It is not who we are.

I believe that we can advocate, increase awareness, fight, and remain hopeful without identifying as our disease.

MG is something we have. It does not define us.

I know, from personal experience, that if you are in the throws of some of the worst of it and MG has robbed you of so much… it can be very easy to slip into that mindset. But it is my desire to encourage everyone with MG to never do it. Never let the disease define who you are. You may have to live with it. You may have to live with it’s battles and it’s limitations. But we can do all of those things, and more, without ever letting it steal our identity.

When faced with a difficult disease, it can be hard coping with how many things it takes from you – how many things you no longer have a choice in. But believe me, you can choose your own identity. Remain steadfast that MG is something you deal with, not something that you are.

I think the world needs to know that people with MG are STRONG individuals – people worthy of respect, caring, and proper medical care.

They fight everyday to breathe, to move, to have their medical needs met, and to be understood by others. Battle after battle – some of them particularly senseless – like fighting to keep the same treatment that has kept them semi-functional, or fighting to ever obtain that treatment in the first place.

It’s very easy for people to say that it doesn’t matter what others think. But when that “other” is the person deciding if you obtain life-saving medical care or not – believe me – IT MATTERS.

MG is not a simple disease. Treatment is not simple. Medical care is often a battle, or a outright war.

We will not be reduced to being defined by our disease.

We are fighters. We are warriors.

Some of us have died in these battles – literally died on this battlefield. Died trying to breathe. Died trying to get access to proper medical care. Some of us have been denied proper care so many times that we are only here by the grace of God. That is reality.

But so is our strength. 

So this year for MG Awareness Month, I asked the members of WWMG to tell me three words that represented their strength. Then the lovely and talented artist, Veronica Sumsion, turned it into the above work of art for us.

Thank you to everyone who submitted your inspiration of strength and thank you to Veronica Sumsion for creating a wonderful visual example of our personal thoughts and feelings.

I wish you all a strong MG Awareness Month. Keep up the good fight! 

Debbie Norman
founder and director of WWMG
WomenWithMG.org