» On 2/12/2026 06:20:00 PM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Humorous Story About A Humerus. 

Yesterday at about 5pm, I tripped on the edge of a rug. Went down like a sack o' potatoes. Stupid old f*ck. 😉 Broke my right humerus. PAINFUL!!!!!!!! E.R., good drugs, immobilizer sling. Healing for several weeks. Hopefully, no surgery. OK, so maybe this story is not so humorous. But I had to go for the wordplay. Incorrigible. 😉

RADIOLOGY REPORT: X-ray reveals a spiral somewhat displaced mid/proximal humerus fracture. FINDINGS: Acute oblique fracture of the proximal humeral diaphysis. Distal fracture fragment is displaced posteriorly by a bone width. Glenohumeral alignment is maintained.

UPDATES: FriFeb13 (2 days) - The ER doc said a sling would do the trick, but that I'd have pain for three or four days. I'm sleeping upright in a chair, and the shoulder seems like it's full of marbles. The Myasthenia Gravis produces balance issues anyway, so I guess that's a decent excuse, but I can't help kicking myself with what-ifs.

MonFeb16 - Still extremely painful. Feels like a set of serrated steak knives, floating in my shoulder and stabbing me at frequent intervals. Started calling orthop(a)edic specialists.

WedFeb18 - Appointment with a surgeon, who offered me an external-compression clamshell device (which my Hungarian wife interpreted as "clamchowder"😉), but it would simply prolong the agony, IMHO and IHHO. So we scheduled the surgery for next week. He said I'll get a nerve block, and I'm perversely looking forward to the show. Hope he'll let me watch!

TueFeb24 - Slice & dice, w/Silver Popcorn Hat. See below. Nerve block was for post-op pain relief. Darn. No lookie-loos. The doc promised to avoid my tat, which was nearly covered with bruises. Also below. Pre-op x-ray, w/doctor's sketching. Operative Note.

'Nother funny story: when we moved here, in 2013, the place had brand-new wall-to-wall carpeting. Beautiful. But Anikó ripped up half of it, and had hardwood flooring installed. Then she bought enough lovely area rugs to cover the hardwood half. It never made sense to me... until yesterday. It was obviously a long-range plan to cripple my butt. 😉


ThuFeb26 - And now... "Ve haf vays of making you talk!" (Those who have undergone physical rehab will instantly recognize these simple movements as subtle, ingenious forms of torture. 😉)

Anikó is helping with the first few sessions of pendulum swings. She unsnaps the SlingShot 2 Immobilizer and slowly -- ouch, ouch, ouch -- lets my arm dangle free. I'm such a wuss. 💪

FriFeb27 - (A) After trying to sleep in a chair for 15 nights, sleeping in my own bed was really kewl. Like, awesome. 🛌😉 (B) When they intubated me on Tuesday, the inside of my upper lip was injured. Not a serious cut, but it's still healing very slowly, three days later. Annoying. 🫦

MonMar02 - (1) Cautionary Tale: this whole episode is the kind of stupidity that happens when your Myasthenia Gravis decides to interfere with your vision and balance at PRECISELY the wrong moment. (2) In the Operative Note, I found it enlightening to look up (a) torn brachialis, (b) deltoid tendon rupture, (c) modifier 22 [overtime pay😉], and (d) C-arm fluoroscopy.

WedMar04 - Changed wound dressing, found 32 metal staples (stitches)! [Warning: not for the squeamish.]

WedMar11 - Today, they took an x-ray of the plate and screws. Very stylish-looking, I thought... 😉 [You can still see some of the metal staples, especially in the upper right corner. They pulled 'em out of my skin with what looked like wire cutters and pliers, after the radiologist did her thing.] Also today, I received this image on a disc, from the day of the surgery (TueFeb24). I'm told it was produced using C-arm fluoroscopy, in the middle of the operation.

Labels: mg

 
» On 2/06/2026 03:00:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Rare Disease Day... is a global initiative to raise awareness and generate support for everyone who is on a rare medical journey. It is observed every year on February 28 (or February 29 in leap years—the rarest day of the year). More than 300 million people around the world live with a rare disease, including me (Myasthenia Gravis), and some of my friends (CIDP, WM, etc.)!

Show Your Stripes: The choice of a zebra as the official mascot for rare disease patients has its roots in an old adage: "When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras." This saying was coined in the late 1940s by Dr. Theodore Woodward, as a way of encouraging his medical students to diagnose common ailments, rather than rare ones. It's the Occam's Razor of healthcare. But now we know that 300 million people are actually zebras! It might not be obvious when you look at us, which is why we show our stripes to raise awareness. For those of us with rare diseases, misunderstanding symptoms is one reason why the average time to a correct diagnosis is an agonizing odyssey of SIX YEARS. Showing our stripes together on one day focuses attention on just how many people are touched by a rare disease. Whether you are diagnosed or love someone who is, this community is wider than you think. So save the date and stand in solidarity with the rare disease community on February 28. And don't forget to take photos and share them on social media, using the #RareDiseaseDay and #ShowYourStripes hashtags!


Monetize Your Illness! There's gold in them thar ills...

What Is A Rare Disease?
In medical terms, "rare" defines conditions affecting a small percentage of the population, with specific thresholds varying by region: in the U.S. (population 343,000,000), less than 200,000 people; in the EU, fewer than 1 in 2,000; and the WHO (World Health Organization) marks the baseline at under 65 per 100,000.
WHO: 1 out of every 1,538 people. (100,000/65)
US:  1 out of every 1,715 people. (343,000,000/200,000)
EU:  1 out of every 2,000 people.
These diseases, often genetic, are complex, difficult to diagnose, and typically lack effective treatments, impacting millions worldwide despite their individual rarity. Although they are individually rare, they're collectively common, with 1 in 17 people being affected by a rare disease at some point in their lifetimes. Over TEN THOUSAND identified rare diseases currently exist.

Labels: mg, rdd

 
» On 2/01/2026 12:01:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
If You Have MG, Stress Is NOT Your Friend. 

My First Autoimmune Episode (children's book forthcoming😉) was in 2006, at the age of 55. My boss was making it impossible for me to do my job, resulting in extreme amounts of stress. My skin responded with hives: big, itchy bumps all over my body.

At first, I didn't know what was going on. I thought it might be a heat rash. And during a two-year period, many different types of doctors tried to diagnose the condition, with no success. But I eventually figured out that I could get rid of the hives by reducing the amount of stress in my life, with hypnosis, meditation, etc.

After that, I stopped thinking about autoimmunity until mid-2022, when I decided to have my cataracts fixed. I didn't know about the possible danger of triggering Myasthenia Gravis posed by the surgery and/or anesthetic. After I developed double vision and a droopy eyelid, several doctors said, "Third-nerve palsy." Then I also started slurring my words, and the docs scared the crap out of me by saying, "TIAs - Transient Ischemic Attacks - warning signs of a full-blown stroke."

In late 2023, I began having urinary problems. Since I wasn't yet aware of the Myasthenia Gravis coursing through my body (misdiagnosed until mid-2025) and all the doctors said I was the right age for prostate issues, they stampeded me into another surgery. I didn't realize the extra pee was just another symptom of MG. So I suffered through an unnecessary UroLift, a procedure that also exacerbated my MG.

I've had two bouts with covid, in 2023 and 2024, and I recently discovered: "A U.K. study in the New England Journal of Medicine found people who fully recovered from mild covid infections experienced a cognitive deficit equal to a three-point drop in IQ." (Since I've had it twice, that's six points I'll never see again. And with MG's infamous "brain fog," my number has probably dropped into the single digits by now. 😉)

The three years (2022-2025) I spent in the dark were extremely stressful, as you can imagine. Not knowing that I had MG was hard on my mental health. But now, with an accurate diagnosis and even half-a**ed medications (thanks to Mestinon's diarrhea and Prednisone's moonface), the stress is slowly flowing out of my life. Along with a sh*tload of poop. 😉

Old Stress Joke: an Explosive Ordnance Disposal guy was asked about the stress involved in defusing bombs. He shrugged and said it wasn't stressful at all: "I'm either right, or suddenly it's not my problem anymore."

Above: Firesign-inspired/ChatWTF collaboration.

Labels: mg