Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Sick and tired

Needless to say, when you have an autoimmune disease like Lupus, the last thing you want to do is come into contact with someone who has the flu or a cold for that matter. I know it may seem like I'm asking for a lot....but even the simple cold J gave me last week knocks the stuffing out of me.

It is frightening when he comes home from school with a sniffle. I start to dread what might lie ahead for me. Well the poor little guy came down with a doozie a week and a half a go and is just starting to mend now. He's lucky since he gets to take some antibiotics I don't have that luxury.

The first 5 days into this I was fine, I could concentrate on trying to make him feel comfortable and writing down what times he had what medicine and if he was able to eat anything. He was soooooo sick. Not talking, not wanting to play..and to know he was really sick..he wasn't talking! Anyone who knows J knows that is an almost impossible task...to keep him quiet....lol
So I knew he was really sick! Sore throat, headache, stuffed up nose and fever,, he just wanted to sleep..in between me giving him some ibuprofen to keep the fever at bay.

By day 9 it went into his ear,,that's when I called the Dr.s office, she was good enough to work me in that day. J came home with some (yummy banana) medicine and within a day the "ouch, ouch,ouch" every time he swallowed had subsided. On day 7, it happened...yep.. I got a sore throat, and I braced for the worse. My sinus became more solid than a can of dry wall left out to the air, I couldn't swallow without wincing. I dug out my nose spray, and a squirt bottle of throat spray, box of Kleenex (puffs plus)and settled in on the sofa keeping my fingers crossed that it wouldn't be as bad as J's had been.

Of course the Dr. looked at my throat and listened to my chest to make sure it wasn't settling in my lungs..and then gave me that sympathetic look...and announced that there wasn't' much sense in trying to write me a prescription..given my history. I nodded in agreement...she was right. I would have to bide my time and ride this out.

This is the worse part of Lupus, even this cold set me into a flair..a mild one thank goodness, but just the same it was there. The joint pain, the red cheeks. It hurts to be sick. Not only do I have to suffer through the cold, I have to watch my body react to the antibodies invading it as it tries to fight it off...trying to figure out just which antibodies it should attack and saying "oh the heck with it" and just attacking everything in my body instead.

Some times I just think it would be better to go around with a face mask on all the time and try to catch these viruses before they make their way into my body,, just waiting to wreck havock.

J is feeling better, today is day 12 and he wanted me to play "star wars leggo" on his game cube. Of course being the good nannie I am,, I played for 3 hours...squirting my nose and sucking on a cough drop. Tomorrow I'll send him back to school and I can have a couple of hours to myself so I can try to recover.

Hope everyone is well ~Sue

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