MGA News September 1997

I was born a healthy bouncing baby, and all was well until I was three and a half months old. It was then that I was admitted to the Kings Cross Hospital, Dundee. The first diagnosis was croup and they put me in a Barrier Ward along with a baby who had Whooping Cough. Two weeks later my heart failed, I was then placed in an oxygen tent where I stayed for three months, a very sick little baby. Eventually I was allowed home, only to be re-admitted two weeks later, still a very sick little baby, with no further explanation as to what was wrong with me, it was a very long time before I was allowed home again.

It was very obvious that during this last illness I had changed dramatically, I could no longer hold my head up, or hold on to anything I was given to play with and I could not crawl or move about like an ordinary healthy baby. My mother and father then started taking me to various consultants to see if they could determine what was wrong with me, to no avail.

When I was two and a half years old we moved to Arbroath and our new G.P. called in to meet us. His first words were, I know what is wrong with this child, she has Muscular Dystrophy. The change in our lives was dramatic, I went into Ninewell Hospital, Dundee for tests and had a Muscle Biopsy, they then confirmed that I had Muscular Dystrophy.

Approximately three years later, I was asked to see a new Consultant and when he arrived he was amazed that we had no equipment (chair, lift for stairs etc). He then told us, I did not have M.D. and, it was he who did the Muscle Biopsy and had diagnosed me as having Muscular Myopathy. A weakness of the muscles and not a disease. The whole case was a mystery to him.

Years later, now 16 years old I was asked to see a doctor who lectured in Dundee, after talking to him it was arranged for me to visit Newcastle General Hospital. Once there I had another biopsy for my muscles and nerves and lots of electro-myragraphs which were very painful. It was there that they told me that I had Congenital Myasthenia.

Since that day my life style has changed in many ways, before that I did everything I wanted to do to the point of exhaustion, now I must limit what I do so that I may have some quality of life.

I am now in the care of Dr. Davidson a neurologist, Dr. Clark for my asthma, Mr. Valentine for my spinal curvature and Dr. Schnerson at Papworth for my ventilation. My breathing is very weak and they keep a very close eye on it, after I had a myasthenic crisis in October 1993 and was landed in intensive care on a ventilator.

Who knows what the future holds but I know that I love life too much to mope around.

Michelle Watson

MGA NEWS September 1997

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