A Lingering 'Cold'... Quite an Understatement
For most people, a cold is an annoyance... an inconvenience... a nagging little problem of needing tissues nearby and having some over-the-counter cold medications. For those struggling with other illnesses, like my own illness, a cold can be brutal.
My illness, Systemic Mastocytosis, causes overactive mast cells, all day, every day... an abundance of mast cells... and, since mast cells are at the center of immunology, this means I have an over-active immune system.
Because of these overactive mast cells attacking all sorts of things within my body which it should not, I often have symptoms of a typical cold even on a good day. I have too much histamine in my body. I have too much of every mediator produced by mast cells which causes all sorts of problems including some life threatening problems.
Now... add a virus or a cold to this already unhealthy body...
During a typical cold, my mast cells get even more over-active... moving into hyper-activity. This causes some absolutely miserable health... sometimes life threatening symptoms with sudden anaphylaxis... sometimes just miserable symptoms with gastro-intestinal problems keeping me in the bathroom sick as a dog. Sometimes with some symptoms like breathing difficulty, nausea, dizziness, stomach pain, etc. Then, add all those typical cold symptoms to all of this... ugggg.
Yesterday, I experienced lingering anaphyalxis requiring epinephrine and a bunch of emergency medications. Most of the day I felt as though I had the wind knocked out of me in a violent way... couldn't breath... that burning, painful feeling of getting the wind knocked out of you... narrowing vision... sparkling vision... loss of color in my vision... weak... Fun times.
Today, I am experiencing some miserable gastro-intestinal symptoms along with all the typical cold symptoms. Today has seen far too much time in the bathroom. This is getting past being old.
Throughout this entire 'cold', I've been experiencing other lingering effects such as unrelenting bone pain, sudden joint pain, stomach pain, nausea, and terrible spinal inflammation and pain. More fun.
At this point, I am on Day 11 of this lingering cold and, I must say, I am ready for this cold to move on....
It's time for a nap... and some relief.... for now, I can only control a nap so a nap it is....
My illness, Systemic Mastocytosis, causes overactive mast cells, all day, every day... an abundance of mast cells... and, since mast cells are at the center of immunology, this means I have an over-active immune system.
Because of these overactive mast cells attacking all sorts of things within my body which it should not, I often have symptoms of a typical cold even on a good day. I have too much histamine in my body. I have too much of every mediator produced by mast cells which causes all sorts of problems including some life threatening problems.
Now... add a virus or a cold to this already unhealthy body...
During a typical cold, my mast cells get even more over-active... moving into hyper-activity. This causes some absolutely miserable health... sometimes life threatening symptoms with sudden anaphylaxis... sometimes just miserable symptoms with gastro-intestinal problems keeping me in the bathroom sick as a dog. Sometimes with some symptoms like breathing difficulty, nausea, dizziness, stomach pain, etc. Then, add all those typical cold symptoms to all of this... ugggg.
Yesterday, I experienced lingering anaphyalxis requiring epinephrine and a bunch of emergency medications. Most of the day I felt as though I had the wind knocked out of me in a violent way... couldn't breath... that burning, painful feeling of getting the wind knocked out of you... narrowing vision... sparkling vision... loss of color in my vision... weak... Fun times.
Today, I am experiencing some miserable gastro-intestinal symptoms along with all the typical cold symptoms. Today has seen far too much time in the bathroom. This is getting past being old.
Throughout this entire 'cold', I've been experiencing other lingering effects such as unrelenting bone pain, sudden joint pain, stomach pain, nausea, and terrible spinal inflammation and pain. More fun.
At this point, I am on Day 11 of this lingering cold and, I must say, I am ready for this cold to move on....
It's time for a nap... and some relief.... for now, I can only control a nap so a nap it is....
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