How To Fight MG Fatigue

Here's a guide to help patients preserve their strength: Around The House: • Don't stand when you can sit. • Plan your activities and assemble everything before you start. • Reschedule daily tasks so you do some only three or four times a week so you have enough time to rest each day. • Delegate tasks: ask your children or other family to help. • Schedule regular rest periods each day. • Use a cart, wagon, or basket to carry things from one part of the house to another to eliminate retracing your steps. • Move things you use often to low easily accessible shelves. • Use power tools and labor savings electrical appliances (i.e. electric can openers, etc.). During Personal Grooming: • Sit on a stool in the bathroom while shaving or applying make-up. Prop your elbows on the counter top if you can. • Allow enough time to complete personal grooming in "phases" allowing for frequent rests periods. • Take short Showers or baths using warm (not hot) water. • Prolonged bathing in warm water may worsens muscle fatigue, and you may have difficulty getting out of the tub without assistance. The hotter the water, the more exaggerated your muscle fatigue may be. When Taking Your Medicines: • If you feel extremely weak in the morning, keep one dose of the drug and some water at your bedside ready to take when you wake up. Or, discuss with your physician the possibility of taking long acting pyridostagmine bromide (Mestinon Timespan) tablets at bedtime. • Use a watch with an alarm to remind you to take the next dose. • If you have a daily medicine routine, tape your schedule to the bottle. A printed schedule is especially important at times when you are unable to medicate yourself or unable to tell someone else when your next dose is due. • Perform strenuous activities only at peak drug times. • If you find that you are weaker or more short of breath than usual and have more difficulty swallowing, call your physician, go to his office, or go to the hospital. Your MG drug dosage may need to be adjusted. • If you have no trouble swallowing, take your medicine with food to reduce stomach upset and diarrhea. If you do have trouble swallowing, some medicines are available as liquids and others may be crushed and added to small amounts of liquids. • Keep several doses of medicine in your car, at your work place, and in your wallet or purse. • Do not take new drugs, especially over-the-counter remedies, without first checking with your physician or nurse.

Fatigue