Thursday, December 08, 2005

Touchdown

      The cold finally landed after a few days of hovering around. I feel absolutely miserable. I'm fighting the cold with gallons of orange juice, Airborne, Advil, two different nasal spray, vitamin C chews, Theraflu, chicken and rice soup, hot Earl Grey tea, and so on. I still feel like someone attacked me and didn't have the decency to finish me off.
      My IBD and my general health move around each other in a sort of dance. In its simplest terms, my IBD is an immune system disorder. Inflammatory Bowel Disease causes my immune system to attack me, mostly the lining of my intestinal tract. I have a powerful immune system, and it reacts frantically to any and all invaders. Unfortunately it's not very bright and ever so often, it mistakes my gut cells as invaders. We control the IBD by giving me steroids. Steroids suppress my immune system. They also have some unfortunate side effects, like enlarging a person's heart and also giving me that lovely Charlie Brown face and body. The dance or interplay comes in that if the steroids suppress my immune system too much, then I'm prey to any and all germs that wander by. Not enough and my IBD rages.
      When I get sick, the doctors take me off the steroids, but they have to taper me off. It can cause real problems if you suddenly just stop the steroids. So slowly the doctors drop the dosage, but they also prescribe antibiotics to help battle whatever infection I'm fighting.
      They used to give me a lot of antibiotics, but over the past few years, I've been balking at that. There's some evidence that shows IBD might have an antibiotic connection. (The thought is that the antibiotics kill off certain organisms in our guts, some of which are supposed to be there. Eventually marker cells that tell your immune system what is and isn't an invader get killed off or reduced so that your body gets confused and starts attacking the intestine.) When I was younger, doctors prescribed bottles and bottle of antibiotics for me. It's interesting to note that my IBD wasn't as severe then. To achieve some sort of balance in my body, the doctors also prescribe probiotics to help restore the missing gut organisms. The medicine bottles line up like a pharmacy shelf on my bedroom dresser.
      I confess that I don't always take everything I'm supposed to; sometimes the side effects are worse than what the medicine is treating. And I've noticed that sometimes my doctors just prescribe stuff without really examining me. I don't like being dependent on medication, anyway, a trait that I got from my dad.
      Anyway, that's where I'm at now. Tapering off the steroids, fighting the infection with over the counter meds, and hoping that I won't have to have antibiotics. And now, God help me, I have to go to work. The only bright spot is that I fully intend to cough on any rude customers today.

15 comments:

Gloria Williams said...

Get well soon, Tech! It sounds like you're doing all that you can do to fight the cold. Keep it up.

I know so many people who are sick this time of year. I think God should see to it that everyone is healthy around Christmas! I'll mention it to Him. :)

Gloria Williams said...

Oh, Crystal, I was first to comment! :)

Michelle said...

Sorry Tech...I am only beginning to get over mine. It was a doozy. All the stuff you're doing sounds perfect.

I hope you feel well soon and nip this thing in the bud!

Mark said...

Keep the attack on your cold up, Tech. You will be surprised how quickly the cold goes away. Good job!

Anonymous said...

My son had a cold and gave it to his daddy instead of me. I thanked him. Oscar's imune system is lots better than mine and he is never sick for long. Anyway, Hope you are not down for long. I will be praying for you, to go along with all the drugs you are taking. Ok praying extra as you are there all the time.
love ya
Roen
PS we need some christmas blogs here!

CrystalDiggory said...

Hope you're feeling better soon. Sounds like you're taking all the right steps.

(There's always next time, Gloria!)

SBB said...

I hope you can sway Him to your way of thinking, Gloria. I know I'd appreciate it! Thanks for the well wishes.

SBB said...

Gloria, there's a contest?

SBB said...

I'm glad you're feeling better, Michelle. Gives me hope! :)

Thanks for the well wishes!

SBB said...

Thanks, FF, for the well wishes. I hope your foot gets better soon!

SBB said...

Susan, thanks for the prayers. I appreciate it.

SBB said...

Thanks for the well wishes, Mark. I hope the cold goes away soon. I've got a lot to do!

SBB said...

Roen, thanks for the prayers and well wishes. Oscar might think your son is too generous! I hope both of them get well quickly.

I'll see what I can do about Christmas blogs soon.

SBB said...

Thanks for the well wishes, Crystal. I really need a nurse to come and wipe my fevered brow. Sure wish I knew one like that. :)

(Wow. Two women fighting over me. Well, really fighting over the opportunity to comment first, but hey, I'll take what I can get.)

SBB said...

I wish I wasn't sick, too, Amber. What does olive leaf do? Is it a pill, extract, what?

I think a lot of our medicine today seems to have worse side effects than the cause. This is particularly true for cancer drugs. But medical science advances forward (I hope) and maybe someday we'll have access to medical care as good as that shown in Star Trek!