Allergic Half to Death and Bitching and Moaning About it Too. Excuse, Please.

The sleeping bit is usually because of either the *fever sickness,* or allergies.

Or both.

Or, toss in a good flareup of the rheumatoid arthritis too. Get 'em going all three at once? Yup. Sleepytime, round the clock.

I said, starting out, that I'm on vacation here not just from regular life but my health problems too. That's a lot of the purpose in staying here for so long. Once I realized my overall systemic allergic response was much lower here than in South Florida at this time of year, I knew I'd be stronger physically if I hung around breathing cleaner air for a while. A very good thing indeed.

Mentally and emotionally, too, it's been just wonderful. Many of you can understand from reading her blog that Livey is a truly good woman, and a gifted health care worker. And you also understand - being discerning people - that experiencing those qualities in person has a far greater impact than just reading about them. It's healing to me to be here.

When you have to do something requiring you to be as strong as you can, it's a good idea to pay real attention to building your strength. Work on it, mind and body and heart.

I have to do some potentially dreadful health work when I get home. Now they've finally ID'd the mycobacteria, it's time to slam it with more antibiotics. The permanent 2-antibiotic regime I'm on seems to be containing it okay, but it's not enough. My IgG tanked too, and I'm susceptible to new infections now in the worst way of my life. I was immunocompromised before. That's why the left foot, my skin, everywhere really, kept getting infected or reinfected the last several years.

That was BEFORE the IgG tanked. IgG is the immunoglobulin that actually produces the white blood cells that fight off infection. It tanked, and I ended up hospitalized with a lung infection. Apparently this is a classic response to low IgG, recurring upper and lower respiratory infections. Add on a bunch of allergic responses, with asthma and post-nasal drip and congestion and airway swelling and all that damn snot everywhere? The good old Great Breeding Grounds for germs?

So.

Not good.

When I get home, I'll be hospitalized for 24 hour observation as my ID doc administers 2 oral doses of whatever 3rd antibiotic her research tells her is the best one to try. This is because of my history of allergies to antibiotics. If I'm already inpatient, if I get another bad allergic reaction, they can keep me alive much easier.

If I am allergic to it? Or, if it simply doesn't work?

She estimated I'll need seven weeks inpatient, getting slammed with vancomycin or whatever IV antibiotics are best for the myco.

I've carried this infection in my arm for 3 years now. Am I pushing things, not getting the treatment immediately? Perhaps. But it's been hanging around for a long time, and I am on both Cipro and minocycline, so it's not as if I have no protection at all. Not to mention: past experience has taught me that trying to fight off infection while I'm in an extreme allergic state is much harder.

Well. Finally, the pollen here got to me. Livey too. We're both walking around with purple puffy eyes, fatigued beyond belief. Breathing that pollen is like breathing chloroform.

But I'm still far less allergic here than I would be in South Florida right now.

At the same time, my fevers have spiked badly, and the arthritis eating every piece of my connective tissue, head to toe, has gone bonkers. Bad pain days, bad ones.

Crashing a bit.

I'll sit it out. I'll be fine, get better soon as the pollen goes back down. Head slowly home, and do what I gotta do.

In the meantime...well, if you'll bear with me, I just had a need to gripe a bit. Break vacation mode and whine a little.

Because tonight I really wanted to go see Snowshoe Baseball, and I was just too sick. Too sick to drive the couple miles to the ballpark and sit on my scooter and watch the show.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I try SO hard to be patient with all this health stuff. Mostly I pull it off okay. I never forget how lucky I am to still be alive and still have the use of almost all my parts.

But when it stops me from doing things I really want to do? Stops me from having a little fun weeding, or trying out this new meatloaf recipe, or making bread and brownies for that sweet Old Mr. Half Ear, or taking pix of these great mushrooms sprouting up?

Or going to Snowshoe Baseball?

I HATE that.

Okay.

Thanks for listening to all that goop, everyone. Thank you, very much.

Now...now, I'm going back on vacation again. So - as they say -

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.