Its Not Just A Cold Anymore

I got a cold last Sunday. This is day 8. While I feel better mostly, I know better than to push myself. Hence I stayed home mostly for a week. I did not go to the gym. I did not contaminate my knitting group full of cancer people who would not welcome germs. I didn't take my 88 year old father to his doctor appointments. I skipped all July Fourth events. I didn't do much of anything beside catching up on my knitting and going on an emergency kleenex run when I ran out. (And getting stung by wasps when I inadvertently discovered the wasp nest six feet from our front door.)

I did all that on purpose. My goal is not to be sick for two weeks.

Last night we actually went out to dinner. It was nice. Then I went to bed at 9 pm (not that it was that early for me). But it was very nice to get out.

Tentative plans for today include going out to lunch with a friend. That's it. I am not going that far. I am not staying out for long.

Tomorrow I hope to go to the gym and meet a friend for coffee on the way home. I am feeling better and will slowly return to normal but will not push myself.

With a compromised immune system, I have to be very careful. (Think of when you were in chemo and told to be careful with exposure to germs.)

Unfortunately, I hope to look forward to another 30 years of this. But I'm still here.

A Request For All Those With A Cold

Please, a request to anyone with a cold who wants to go out and celebrate the holidays: Please DON'T!

I have a compromised immune system and met some friends for brunch last weekend. One of whom, the one sitting next to me, had a cold and said she had had it for a few days. 36 hours later I started feeling like I had a cold too.

Because she didn't want to stay home and take care of herself, now I have a cold and may or may not be able to celebrate the holidays with my family. Never mind all the other people she has exposed to her cold. She went to work every day except one that she took off. She went to all her family get together's including school sporting events where she was in big crowds.

Where I used to work, there was one guy who always came to school when he was sick. Finally I said something to my boss who said something to him. When one person has a cold for a few days, I have one for at least two weeks.

So, if you have a cold and want to join in the holiday celebrations, please give the biggest gift you can to others, just stay home and don't risk sharing your germs.

All of us chronically ill people with compromised immune systems thank you.

I thought it was under control

Obviously its not. Last spring after coping with multiple colds that would last for two weeks and getting them every 8 weeks, we cut my methotrexate dose down. Some of the colds turned into ear infections.  With the lower MTX dose my immune system would not be as suppressed and I was less likely to have as many colds.

I haven't had a cold since last February. Until today.

Last week I was feeling crappy so I hibernated for a day and didn't feel that bad, for a few days. I also skipped my weekly MTX injection.

This week I had my weekly injection on Wednesday night. Yesterday I was getting tired and I thought I had done too much. But I woke up at 3 am, sleeping on my right side, because my left ear hurt enough to wake me up. I then rolled on my back and decided that both ears hurt. Even with all the pain meds I am on, my ears hurt.

When I got up at 8, I called my doctor's office and got a 9 am appointment. There I learned that while it looked like I had two ear infections but there was also a virus going around with similar symptoms. But with my medical history, they need to be sure. (I hate that line.) Maybe I had the virus last week which got worse.

But I did think this was under control and I wasn't going to get as many colds any more. Since I haven't had a cold since the end of February, I guess it is better. But I hate having a cold. And being on antibiotics, again. Grrr.

Okay, I'm calling the doctor

I can't believe how crappy I fell still again. I spoke with my rheumatologist yesterday about some test results. She told me that based on the fact that there is lots of flu going around and I have been sick since Thursday, she thinks I should call my primary care and see if they think I should be tested for the flu or just go on Tamiflu. I refuse to go on another damn medication unless I really need it.

But honestly I can't continue to pretend I feel fine. I will go to the damn doctor. I feel awful. I didn't take a shower yesterday and am making myself take one before I go to the doctor. That may take me a bit.

I don't think I have a temperature. We had two thermometers here. I tried both yesterday and neither said I had a fever. But then one broke and the other one still says my temperature is 97.7. But when I go to Walgreens to pick up my other prescriptions that are waiting for me, I will get a new one and see what it says. I am sure the doctor will take my temperature too.

Yesterday I did get a lot done. I mean I watched three Lifetime movies, knitted, spackled the upstairs room we are about to paint, took care of a whole bunch of phone calls, and even made dinner (in the crockpot). Today I will be a lot less productive.

No I am not blogging about cancer related issues until I feel better and my brain starts working again.  I didn't watch the cancer movie on PBS last night because I was in bed. I might actually try to watch it today. When I do, I'll let you know what I think.

Once again, home with a cold

I never used to get colds. Now I get them, and much worse than before, all the time. A friend pointed out that this is the second for me this year. She might have missed one as well. That's being sick too often.

But my colds are just a side effect of RA treatment. Rheumatoid is an autoimmune disease which means your immune system attacks you. It is treated by suppressing your immune system, which makes you more susceptible dumbass colds.

Last weekend I went to visit my brother and he had a cold. I was really tired when I got home but wasn't sick. Tuesday I felt fine. My husband came home with a cold Tuesday night, slept 11 hours and felt fine on Wednesday morning. I felt fine on Wednesday so I had my methotrexate injection.

Thursday morning when I went to work, I felt iffy, which turned into really crappy by 11am and horrible by noon when I went home. My husband cooked dinner Thursday night. I pretended I felt better Friday and ran a couple errands but mostly stayed home, Yesterday I assumed I was better and ran another couple of errands and did some other stuff around the house.

This morning is another story. I can't talk. My brother told me I sound like the voice of something or other that I cant remember because I feel so crappy. I asked my husband not to make fun of my voice, again. He has fun with this with most colds. He also informed me that I should need to stay in bed today.

So now I am living on triaminc syrup, herbal tea, and chocolate ice cream until I get better. I have decided that chocolate ice cream has healing qualities.

I really just want to run away and join the circus be healthy so I can do things that are more fun that watching bad tv, knitting and sitting on the couch with the cat. Not that I don't like the cat, watching TV or knitting, but there are lots of other things I wouldn't mind doing instead.

What a long strange trip...

So I was out of town for a long weekend which is why I didn't blog. Other than being really tired from driving about 750 miles in the last four days - half today and half on Friday - and being exposed to my brother's evil cold, I am fine.

I spent 20 minutes on hold on my drive out on Friday with the hospital trying to cancel an unnecessary doctor appointment so my frustration level with the medical world is fine as well.

I did get to spend some quality time with my nieces and nephews which was a lot of fun. We also had an early celebration for my brother's birthday. And it snowed both days. How lovely. The grip of winter is all around us.

I am exhausted which means I will go to bed early and get lots of rest so I can return to the world tomorrow. And I might even write a real blog post as well.

Unless I get my brother's evil cold, in which case I will send him a lump of coal for his birthday, and end up staying in bed for a few days.

Did I say it was a bad week?

Last week I had an exceptionally bad week in several different ways. It was just your basic cluster of everything coming together to remind me of how life with my health can take its twists and turns. Here is a brief outline:

• Monday at work, where I am also the IT person, we had a complete hard drive failure on our data computer to the point that we had to get new hardware and start over from scratch. It just meant a longer and stressful day for me.
• Tuesday at work, I had to deal with the outside hardware people to fix the computer. And the alarm guy was there bleeding the sprinkler system or something that entailed of spraying water outside the building on a 15 degree day (I had to move my car) away from the spray. Later it snowed on top of the spray that turned to ice and I fell on my knee because I couldn't see the ice under the snow which jolted my body and made my knee and my back hurt for days.
• Wednesday my back and knee were very sore from my fall and cancelled my hair appointment and skipped the gym because I felt that bad but I made it through my full 6 hour work day.
• Thursday I felt okay and went to the gym. Then about 2pm I couldn't keep my eyes open and took a nap. I woke up and felt horrible couldn't talk, cancelled all my appointments except my pain doctor for Friday.
• Friday I felt a little better but stayed home except for my one appointment where I had a series of trigger point injections on my back (they still needles into the sore spots). 

So in one week I fell, had a 24 hour cold, exceptional work stress, lots of aches and pains, and had to spend a day off my feet because of my health. Did I say it was a bad week?

Its sort of a normal week for me. My health takes a dominant role in what I do. But I try.

This week is slightly better but I didn't sleep well last night so I couldn't wake up this morning. The cat insisted on sitting on my shoulder with his paws digging into my sore spots and woke me up at 230. I think I got back to sleep around 4 but had some very weird dreams.... I have to go into a conference in town this morning on the subway. I almost bailed but I really want to go to it. I may need a nap after but I hope to go to the gym.

Nothing like being 'healthy' to make me sit on my butt and watch bad TV to recover from normal life.

PS I do not count my fall on the snow covered ice as related to my ailments. It could have happened to anyone.

Why it cant just be a simple cold

I no longer just can have a simple cold. I have the immune system of I don't know what - a jelly bean? It is almost as bad as not having one. It is very suppressed because of my methotrexate for rheumatoid. Monday and Tuesday I mentioned feeling dizzy. Wednesday was Methotrexate day. Thursday afternoon all of a sudden I couldn't keep my eyes open.

I took a nap at 3. Woke up at 6 when my husband came home and cancelled almost all my obligations for today.

I asked a friend who was coming for tea at 11 not to come because I am sure she doesn't want my germs. I cancelled my nail appointment. I cancelled the plumber who was supposed to come today - and he was understandably upset. I will contact him and apologize and reschedule once I am better and can refigure out my schedule.

I did not cancel my back pain doctor appointment because I need to get in to see him so we can figure out what can be done for my back sooner rather than later. This will be my one excursion outside - I have until 2pm to motivate. I do need to get up and go eat something so I can take my next pills without felling nauseous on top of that. Maybe if I eat something and drink an Emergenc-E, I might feel better enough to take a shower.


Maybe some tylenol and mucinex too.

We were going to go out for a walk in our efforts to get healthier this weekend. This is now not going to happen. I am supposed to meet a friend for coffee on Sunday. That probably won't happen as well.

Monday I am supposed to go to work - that may or may not happen.

Why you ask? Because if I get a little cold it can quickly turn into something nasty. A year or so ago, my husband got a brief cold, and I ended up with a double ear infection and had to skip a planned vacation.

And while I am sick, I need to skip my methotrexate injection until I am better which means my RA can start to flare up.  I wish it was just a simple cold.