Sick and Tired

That’s what I’ve been all weekend: sick and tired. Based on the number of hours I’ve spent sleeping or vegged out on the couch with a plethra of science fiction movies, it’s a good thing I did not go out of town this weekend. For one thing, I probably would have been pretty miserable and made all my friends equally miserable (not to mention also put them at risk for catching whatever it is I have this time around).

The coughing seems to have dissipated to the briefest of episodes, the deluge of sinus drainage has slowed and my throat is no longer raspy and irritated (no more sexy voice, sorry). So...the good news is that I’m better, right? This concludes my fourth time being sick this winter — it’d be five if we included the cold I had back in September.

As I was fighting illness #3, a sinus infection, my doctor shed some light on an illusion I’d been living under. I’ve been thinking all this time with RA (see previous post) that I’ve got this overly ambitious, if somewhat misguided, immune system that was constantly on the offensive against healthy tissue as well as unhealthy infections. Apparently — and this came as quite the shocker — my immune system is just too busy attacking perfectly healthy parts of my body to be bothered with keeping me safe against disease.

How much does that suck?

First of all, the fact that I had no idea this was the case — that I have a deficient immune system — makes me feel pretty stupid. Part of me feels like I should have known this but, really, how should I know my overactive immune system means I basically don’t have much of an immune system?

Secondly, I’m more than a little concerned about what this means for the future. This winter has been hard with me being sick so often — and taking so long to recover each time. I know part of it, as posted in the past, is that I really don’t take care of myself like I should. I allow myself to become stressed about things that are, quite often, not all that important to anyone but me, I don’t allow myself to rest enough (again with the stress) and, even when I do rest, I feel guilty for doing it. These are all my own short-comings and I really need to work on them.

In addition, I’m going to be looking into ways to boost my immune system (yeah — hopefully I don’t make it stronger so it can just attack the good stuff with increased vigor). My sister is a wealth of nutritional knowledge and I’m hoping she can do some research for me. I’d like to talk with my D.O. and the rheumatologist as well to see what I can do that doesn’t necessarily mean more drugs. Plus, as soon as I’m well again for a sustained length of time, I’ll go back to exercising which will also help with the stress reduction and general sense of well-being.