Six months in, I thought I’d give an update on how the pyridostigmine is going.
Taking an Increase
Hoping pyridostigmine would help me be out of bed more, Dr. Levine asked me to start it at 30 mg in the morning, and that’s where I was in the last post. When that went well, she suggested I try adding a second dose in the afternoon, starting at 15 mg and then increasing to 30 mg. I did so.
The increase coincided with my getting a dental splint to wear at night for bruxism, and at first I thought maybe wearing the splint was making my sleep less deep and that was why my arms were feeling increasingly weak in the afternoon and evening. I customarily write postcards to a bunch of junior pen pals, and I found that I couldn’t even pick up the pen to begin.
After a couple weeks, becoming skeptical of my splint hypothesis, I looked back and realized that the weakness coincided with the pyridostigmine increase. It was supposed to make my muscles feel stronger; could it be doing the opposite? I wandered the internet a bit, searching for experiences of others, and learned that too much of it could indeed do so. Could I be taking too much, even though people who take it for myasthenia gravis take ten times the amount?
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