The Dual Diagnosis Diaries: 💜 Where My Dual Diagnosis Story Began

Living with Crohn’s Disease and Myasthenia Gravis—where honesty, resilience, advocacy, and real life meet.

Before The Dual Diagnosis Diaries became a blog, it was my life.

It was years of appointments, unexplained symptoms, treatments, setbacks, lessons, and quiet victories. It was learning how to advocate for myself while navigating two autoimmune diseases—and still choosing to live, lead, laugh, and occasionally negotiate with the two unpredictable roommates occupying my body.

This is where my dual diagnosis story began.

💜 When Crohn’s Changed Everything

I thought Crohn’s Disease would be the hardest diagnosis I would ever have to process.

In 2003, at 26 years old, autoimmune disease was not part of the future I imagined for myself. I was focused on building my career, living my life, and making plans.

Instead, I found myself sitting in doctors’ offices—being poked, prodded, tested, and scanned—trying to understand why my body seemed to be quietly turning against me.

There is a strange kind of relief that comes with finally receiving a diagnosis after living with unexplained symptoms.

Relief that you were not imagining it.

Relief that someone finally believed you.

Relief that what was happening to your body finally had a name.

But that relief was quickly followed by another realization:

This has a name—but it is not going away.

I had been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease.

I did not know then that Crohn’s would be only the first chapter of my autoimmune story.

🦋 Learning to Live With Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s reshaped my life in ways I could not have understood at 26.

It meant chronic pain.

It meant fatigue that sleep could not fix.

It meant medications, procedures, flare-ups, hospital visits, and constant uncertainty.

It also meant developing an impressive ability to locate the nearest bathroom almost anywhere. Some people notice the décor when they enter a building. I notice the restroom sign, how far away it is, and whether anything—or anyone—is blocking my path.

Priorities. 😂

Crohn’s Disease is a form of inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. It causes chronic inflammation in the digestive tract and can affect any part of it, from the mouth to the anus. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, persistent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, weight loss, fever, and severe fatigue.

But Crohn’s is more than a list of symptoms.

It is the mental calculation before leaving home.

It is wondering whether your body will cooperate with your plans.

It is smiling through pain because life did not pause when your symptoms began.

Over the years, I learned to advocate for myself. I learned to read laboratory results, ask better questions, and push for answers when something did not feel right.

I also committed myself to spreading awareness because awareness can create understanding—and understanding can create change.

For nearly two decades, Crohn’s was the autoimmune battle I thought I had been assigned.

Apparently, my body reviewed the lease and decided Crohn’s needed a roommate.

🫁 When Breathing Became a Battle

Years later, I entered another season of medical uncertainty.

I experienced difficulty breathing, weakness in my neck and shoulders, vocal cord paralysis, and diaphragm paralysis. Some of the symptoms overlapped with conditions I already had, but deep down, I knew something else was wrong.

There are few things more frightening than struggling to breathe while no one can explain why.

It is exhausting when your body becomes unfamiliar again—when the rules you thought you understood suddenly stop applying.

Part of the delay in receiving answers was medical complexity. Another part was feeling unheard, dismissed, or treated as though I was overreacting.

But I continued advocating for myself.

Eventually, I found a medical team that listened.

In August 2025, following specialized testing, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis.

I remember thinking:

Wasn’t Crohn’s enough?

Apparently, the answer was no.

💜 What Myasthenia Gravis Feels Like

Myasthenia Gravis, or MG, is a rare autoimmune neuromuscular disease that causes weakness in skeletal muscles—the muscles we ordinarily control voluntarily.

It can affect the muscles involved in moving my arms and legs, holding up my head, speaking, swallowing, smiling, and breathing.

The simplest way I can describe it is this:

Imagine walking around with invisible weights attached to your body.

Imagine how your legs might feel after doing 100 squats—shaky, heavy, and unreliable.

Now imagine feeling that way without doing a single squat.

Some days, my head feels too heavy for my neck.

Some days, smiling or speaking becomes exhausting.

Some days, opening a bag of chips feels like strength training—which is especially disrespectful because I was only trying to have a snack.

Some days, I become short of breath while doing very little or even sitting still.

MG can weaken the muscles needed for breathing, making respiratory symptoms much more than an inconvenience. They can become dangerous.

Because MG is often invisible, people may not recognize what is happening beneath the surface. That is why phrases such as “You don’t look sick,” even when well-intentioned, can feel dismissive.

You cannot always see what someone’s body is fighting.

MG is sometimes called the “snowflake disease” because it can affect each person differently. Symptoms may also fluctuate from one day—or one hour—to the next.

Stress can worsen my symptoms. Heat can worsen them. Physical activity can worsen them.

Occasionally, it feels as though MG is offended by life in general.

It is humbling.

It is unpredictable.

It is relentless.

It can also be expensive.

Treatments. Infusions. Medications. Specialists. Medical equipment. Bills.

When your body becomes inconsistent, your ability to work and earn an income may become inconsistent too. That reality can affect you physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially.

💉 Treatment, Progress, and Uncertainty

Treatment introduced another kind of uncertainty.

I began receiving Rystiggo for MG. Like many chronic illness treatments, determining whether it was helping was not always as simple as feeling dramatically better.

Was my breathing improving? Sometimes.

Was I still exhausted? Yes.

Did my head still feel too heavy for my neck on some days? Absolutely.

There were times when I did not necessarily feel better—but I did not feel worse.

With autoimmune disease, stability can be a victory.

Progress does not always arrive dramatically.

Sometimes it looks like completing a task that was impossible the week before.

Sometimes it looks like breathing a little easier.

Sometimes it looks like making it through the day without declining.

Sometimes, you do not realize how much a treatment has been helping until it is delayed, interrupted, or temporarily unavailable.

Chronic illness teaches you to recognize victories that other people may never notice.

🫶🏽 The Emotional Reality of a Dual Diagnosis

Living with two autoimmune diseases changes you.

When my symptoms flare, I sometimes become quiet. I pull back. I isolate.

It is not because I do not care.

It is not because I am angry.

It is because my body may be using every available ounce of energy simply to function.

Grace matters more than people realize.

Patience matters more than people realize.

Understanding matters more than people realize.

Living with Crohn’s Disease and Myasthenia Gravis has reshaped me physically, emotionally, and mentally—but it has also strengthened my voice.

I am not sharing my story for pity.

I am sharing it for understanding.

For awareness.

For advocacy.

For the person silently struggling and wondering whether anyone else understands.

🌿 More Than a Story About Illness

The Dual Diagnosis Diaries is more than a collection of medical experiences.

It is a story about survival.

It is about learning my body—and then having to learn it all over again.

It is about fighting systems while my body is fighting itself.

It is about navigating symptoms that others cannot always see.

It is about accepting that strength does not always mean pushing harder. Sometimes strength looks like resting, asking for help, canceling plans, or admitting that today is difficult.

This journey is not always easy.

It is not always visible.

But it is real.

And so are we.

🎵 Music Playing…

“The Climb” — Miley Cyrus

Because this journey is not only about reaching a destination. It is about continuing through uncertainty, recognizing progress in all its forms, and understanding that every step forward—even the smallest one—still counts.

💭 Reflection Corner

Chronic illness has taught me that progress is not always loud and resilience is not always graceful.

Sometimes resilience looks like advocacy.

Sometimes it looks like rest.

Sometimes it looks like finding something to laugh about while Crohn’s and MG argue over which one gets to disrupt the day.

And sometimes resilience is simply saying:

This is hard, but I am still here.

If you live with chronic illness, what is one quiet victory you wish other people understood?

If you love someone living with chronic illness, remember that patience, compassion, and believing their experience can mean more than you realize.

Thank you for spending time with my story today. Whether you are living with chronic illness, supporting someone who is, or simply learning, I am grateful you are here.

Until the next diary entry, remember: you are never alone on this journey. 💜

With honesty, hope, and a little humor,

Kia Lorice
Founder • Author • Advocate • Future Wellness Coach
The Dual Diagnosis Diaries
thedualdiagnosisdiaries.com