The diagnosis of an illness is always a painful moment. In a way, it is a moment of closure, the end of a cycle in one's life. But it is also the realization that a new cycle is about to start. Something imposed upon you, true. Something you'd rather not have to face, also true. Yet it is there, no matter how hard you close your eyes, how hard you try to keep on living as you used to. It's just there. So, you are faced with the inevitable need to cope, to adjust.

In your struggle to survive, you look for ways, strategies, weapons, means, and tools. And you test them - this one is best for this situation, that one is useless. And the more you find, test and file them in your head under "How to cope." right next to "Meds" and between "Fears." and "Dreams.", under no alphabetical sequence, in a secret order only you know and understand, the safer you feel. All these strategies are really one big skill: the ability to Change!

You must be willing and ready to Change ALL THE TIME. You must let go of who you were in the past and of whom you thought, you'd become in the future. You must look at yourself and see someone who is striving to be ready for anything, for everything! This is only possible if you look at Change not as a threat but as a means to overcome internal and external barriers. It is not an easy path. It's a process that will take time, probably a long time. And although your instinct tells you to desperately hang on to everything you consider the basis of who you were (and I know Myasthenia Gravis is not a part of that!), you must fight back with the one way you'd rather not use - CHANGE!

Finally, and on a personal note, I feel we are faced with the moment of diagnosis many times; it's a moment we go back to, sometimes to understand what happened, sometimes to find the safety-net of our past self, but today instead of feeling lost and of hearing a never-ending echo of "I don't knows", I can keep my head up and say I can always try to change. Change the way I approach the problem, change the way I react to an unexpected difficulty, just change according to the situation so that I can cope in a more efficient way.

Fight fire with fire, isn't it what people say?
Well then, if Change is forced upon you, why not use Change to cope?
A paradox perhaps, and yet.