You, Me and Myasthenia Gravis: About Deborah Cavel-Greant

Deborah Cavel-Greant

Deborah Cavel-Greant began her writing career while she was in high school, when she wrote a teen column for the Arizona Republic, and worked as a copy writer and editor for a "Little" (literary) magazine.

Although she enjoyed writing she planned a career in medicine. However a childhood bout of paralytic polio affected her ability to cope with the physical demands of medicine. She continued writing and has enjoyed a long career in newspaper, magazine and public relations work.

She co-authored a textbook on marine ecology for the Museum of Northern British Columbia in the 1970s before an interest in alternative health led her to return to school to study herbal medicine. She practiced as an Herbalist for some years which heightened her already active interest in medicine.

In the mid-1980s she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, an illness which causes muscle weakness. When she sought information in the local library she found the only book available on MG was 20 years old and predicted a bleak future. Rather than throwing herself under a street car she went to the local university medical school and began reading recent articles on her condition.

Speaking with other MG patients she learned that none of them had information about their illness, and all were desperate to understand what was happening to their bodies. So she sat down with several years worth of medical journals and textbooks and compiled a guidebook which translated the information in the medical journals into plain English. This became the first edition of, "You, Me and Myasthenia Gravis", which was published in 1988 and quickly became very popular with patients and physicians alike.

In 1993 she updated the material and published the second edition of the book, this time with Donald Sanders, MD, head of the Duke University MG Clinic, as her medical editor. And after 12 years, by popular demand, she totally rewrote the book, and published the third edition, with Michael Nicolle, MD, of the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada as Medical Editor.

Shortly after the publication of the second edition of "You, Me and MG", Ms Cavel-Greant's diagnosis was revisited and changed to the rare inherited muscle disorder Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis. In 1995, having learned how to use the Internet as a consequence of her position of editor of an on-line travel magazine she placed a half-page of information about Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis on her personal website.

In March of 1997, as a result of first communicating with Ms Cavel-Greant, and then with each other, a group of 17 patients with periodic paralysis formed the HKPP Listserv to support and educate patients with periodic paralysis. That Listserv remains active and vital today, and is anchored by a website at: http://hkpp.org.

The group has served over 2000 patients and physicians, and continues to offer in-depth information which is continually updated and revised to reflect current knowledge and treatment standards.

Ms. Cavel-Greant is married and has two adult sons. The family lives in Canada.