Okay, facts on my Illness for the curious.
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Life
Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID)
Most of us are no strangers to infections. Just about everybody has had colds and coughs and infected cuts, the flu or chicken pox. Some people have had first-hand experience with infections that are even more seriouspneumonia and meningitis.
Usually, we expect to recover quickly from an infection. We count on our bodys immune defenses (sometimes with the help of antibiotics) to get rid of any germs that cause infection, and to protect us against new germs in the future.
Some people, however, are born with an immune defense system that is faulty. They are missing some or, in the worst cases, almost all of the bodys immune defense weapons. Such people are said to have a primary immunodeficiency (PI).
A PI disease results whenever one or more essential parts of the immune system is missing or not working properly at birth because of a genetic defect. Since the immune system is tremendously complex, hundreds of things can go wrong during development and sometimes the backup systems cannot compensate for the defects.
The most common problem in PI disease is an increased susceptibility to infection. For people with PI, infections may be common, severe, lasting, or hard to cure.
Even healthy youngsters may get frequent colds, coughs, and earaches. For example, many infants and young children with normal immunity have one to three ear infections per year. Children with PI, however, can get one infection after another. Or they get two or three infections at a time. Weakened by infection, the child may fail to gain weight or fall behind in growth and development.
Despite the usual antibiotics, the infections of PI often drag on and on, or they keep coming backthat is, they become chronic. One common problem is chronic sinusitis (infection and inflammation of the sinuses, air passages in bones of the cheeks, forehead, and jaw). Another common problem is chronic bronchitis (infection and inflammation of the airways leading to the lungs).
Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) is the name given to a group of disorders characterized by low levels of gammaglobulins and too few IgA antibodies. People with CVID may have normal numbers of B cells, but their B cells dont function properly. Their T cells also show a variety of defects.
About a quarter of the people with CVID develop immune system illnesses, including anemia and rheumatoid arthritis. They also have an increased risk of cancer.
Disorders of the digestive tract are common. In addition to diarrhea caused by Giardia parasites, people with CVID are prone to inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis, or even colon cancer. Many have an enlarged spleen and swollen lymph glands, and some develop lymph system cancer (lymphoma).
Tests helpful in diagnosing CVID include measures of IgG and IgA levels in the blood and measures of antibody responses to immunizations.
Although antibiotics will help to control infections, the cornerstone of treatment is gammaglobulin therapy. Gammaglobulins will raise antibody levels and fend off infections, allowing many persons with CVID to enjoy a normal lifestyle.
Okay, so I have had this all my life. I was blessed to work since I was twelve, never unemployed or collecting benefits. At 35 years old I had to let go and take social security disability. During the Spring and Summer, my allergies are too severe for me to spend a lot of time out of the house...my allergies are just too much for my crippled immune system to keep up with. I spend most of the 6 months recovering from one infection or another. Staying indoors just allows me to manage the infections without being admitted to the hospital for long periods of time. So my friends have to come to me. Some fall by the wayside during this time of year and that is fine. They were never friends in the first place. Then fall comes and I am a wild child till spring again. I try to live it up as much as possible. I am sick year around and almost all the time; but if you are born this way and know no other way you really dont know what you are missing. No need to feel sorry for me. I am energetic and I appreciate each day of life. CVID is not contagious. And most infections that I get are infections that a normal immune systems would kill off before a person even had any symptoms.
I am hyper aware of my own mortality so the biggest insult I can receive is someone wasteing my time. I love to laugh and find life absurd enough to laugh a lot.
