Sick Yet Again!

Hello Lupus friends!

In the world of lupus, one begins to understand what a "compromised" immune system means rather quickly even in people classified as having mild disease.  The disease and treatment medications can weaken our immune system making us more susceptible to illnesses stemming from the common cold,  and influenza, increasing the chances of getting yeast infections, urinary tract infections, upper respiratory tract infections, sinus infections, and more prone to herpes viral eruptions and reactivation of the chicken pox virus in the form of shingles.1,2, 3 

We are and have been in the season of flu and colds, and it has most definitely hit my home in full force.  The gnarly, unwelcome and much detested upper respiratory viral infection, invading not just my town but all of America, reared its ugly head in my eldest son four weeks ago.  Knowing he has an awesome immune system, I was hoping he would get better like he always does in a day or so.  Wrong!  This was the first sign that I was definitely in trouble because he got worse, but eventually got better about 6 days later.  In the mean time, my middle child started to get sick two days after her big brother.  She always gets sick for a couple of days, but this really hit her hard.  She missed an entire week of school which was also a red flag.  However, it was when my youngest son started the coughing fit, congestion, a nose that fit more of a description of a faucet that I knew I was in trouble.  He started getting sick about 5 days after his sister, and he went from bad to worse in a matter of a few hours.  All in all we took him to the pediatrician twice before they diagnosed him with RSV.

Now, for those of you who are not familiar with RSV it stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus which is a dangerous virus in infants and young children that infects the lungs and breathing passages requiring hospitalizations in many babies, especially premature babies, and may result in death.  While my son was wheezing and keeping me up all night making sure he kept breathing, we were very fortunate not to have to hospitalize him.  Unfortunately for me, it meant weeks of illness not only for my children but myself. 

According to my doctor and that of many sources, adults don't get RSV per say.  An adults immune system is strong enough to fight it off or only get a minor cold from it.  Of course, I laugh in the face of science because this momma has gotten so very sick.  I not only got what the children had, but I got excessive fatigue, and an exceptionally sore throat making the day-to-day operations of a household near impossible.  A "normal" adult would get over something of this nature in 5 to 7 days, but no, not me!  LOL  We are over two weeks and counting.  Valentine's Day had me in the doctor's office getting a steroid shot, strong course of antibiotics as I had incurred a sinus infection and double ear infections which finally cleared up the majority of the mess in a little over two weeks.  Unfortunately, two days after feeling near "normal" for me, I woke up this morning with a cough that felt like an infection was trying to get into my lungs, sore throat, runny nose, fever, and horrible overall fatigue and aches. 

I will survive this, but I wanted everyone out there who does not have this enigmatic disease to try and understand that a common cold can put someone with lupus down for several weeks.  I've been sick now for going on three weeks, and I'm not even sure if I'll have to go back to the doctor for more medicine.  It will probably take me a full week or more to get back to my "normal" after this new ailment which could be a relapse or who knows what else the kids brought home:) Oh the sharing!!!  LOL  The most important advice to date is to wash hands repeatedly throughout the day.  However, I have some people in my family who would consider me obsessive compulsive about washing my hands, but I still have gotten exceptionally ill.  So, do your best about cleaning and washing hands, and then don't worry about the rest.  Illness is apart of everyone's life, but with lupus you just have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best along with rolling with the punches so to speak!

Never let life's hardships disturb you... 
no one can avoid problems, not even
saints or sages.
Nichiren Daishonen

All the best to my lupus friends!


References:

1.  Hidalgo-Tenorio C et al.  Urinary tract infections and lupus erythematosus.  Ann Rheum Dis.  2004 April;63(4):431-437.
2.  Mayo Clinic.  Lupus.  Accessed on February 26, 2013 at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lupus/DS00115
3.  Lupus Foundation of America.  Infections and immunizations.  Accessed on February 26, 2013 at www.lupus.org

Time for laughing!

Life never seems to slow down or get less hectic.  The dance lessons, swim lessons, school lessons never seem to end, and sometimes you just want to tell the world to halt cause you want to get off!  While there is the time to just plug through endless doctor's appointments and lessons, it is always important to sneak in one of life's lessons every once in awhile.  Smiling, laughing and letting loose never did hurt anyone!  

My life lesson I learned today is never let a child play with quarters around the shredding machine.  Now, I know some of you are shrieking in horror at the thought of any child around a shredding machine.  So, let me preface this by saying that our shredding machine is ALWAYS unplugged with our outlets plugged with kid safe devices.  The chance of my 2 year old unplugging the outlet are zero to none because it's difficult for my lupus free husband to get out.  Having cleared that up, it was quite the surprise this morning when I plugged in the shredder and started to shred receipts, and the noise of various metals crunching compelled me to quickly shut the machine off.  Upon further investigation, the source of the anomaly was a crunched up quarter that would have been useful in a variety of ways considering that most families these days are prone to shake the couches for various types of lost coinage.  

Now, a person could: 

A) yell, scream, shout and do the angry dance all the while lining up the kids in the proverbial "line" to intricately question them as to "Who Dun It" with every mother around knowing the answer will always be "I don't know" OR

B) start laughing so hard that every cell in your being rejoices for the momentary release of mounting tension that's been building for months and with joyful tears in your eyes rejoice that life has not forgotten you and tell yourself that this was the best spent quarter that you've had in a very long time

So, which one did I choose?  Well, I chose option B because these moments are precious, and it's better to laugh it off than increase my blood pressure and do more bodily harm than the lupus is already doing!  

My wish for you today, my friends, is to laugh off the stressful moments even though it IS difficult at times.  I know I will always remember these events fondly even when my children are grown and have flown the coop.  I wish for lupus sufferers, caregivers and friends the best belly laugh today that will leave tears streaming down your faces!

Happy thoughts sent your way!