Not literally, but that is how it feels. I have been working through a flu in the past few days, my first in a long time. I started to brew it on the weekend I think and when I woke on Monday I was feeling pretty crappy. And this morning I woke feeling “not very well” so I stayed in bed all day, slept and recharged, and I’m pleased to say that while I don’t sound a whole lot better, I do feel a little better.
The flu is something I fully expect to have many times over the coming months, as it is quite normal for someone in my position to have colds and infections consistently. In short what happens when you have an allergenic Transplant, as I have twice, they essentially wipe-out your immune-system and then replace it with another one – which in my case was my Dad’s stem cells. Unfortunately when they do that I don’t take on all my Dad’s immunity, instead I start from scratch, which means that my immune-system now is similar to an 8 month old baby. Except I am also on drugs that are reducing my ability to fight infections, thus the reasons for me getting sick easier and more often than an otherwise healthy person.
Simply I have to rebuild all the immune-system memory that you have all built up while growing up. All the colds, flus, infections, your body remembers those, things like chicken pox, which I did have as a child, I can now get again. You may remember my uncertain exposure to chicken pox over Christmas last year. The tough part about chicken pox the second time around is that they develop into Shingles for Patient’s like me, which brings me full circle in my message.
I went to my Doc today as since Monday I’ve had this foreign – because I’ve never felt it before – feeling in my side. It feels like I would imagine it feels to have a pipe in your side. When I am lying down, as I am now, there’s no serious pain, but when I move I get this pain from front to back, from my skin through my insides. Very strange and not something I’ve had before. The flu thing will hopefully clear up soon, and I am feeling better already, but this pain in my side isn’t going anywhere yet, so I asked my Doc for theories. And while she wasn’t making any bets, she did explain the process of shingles, and how the first phase is often nerve pain, which is very much like what I have now. And that is followed by a rash over the area where there is pain, which in my case better be followed my immediate treatment, she explained.
I’ve heard about shingles from some of my Transplant buddies, and they sound like something I don’t need first hand knowledge of, I’d settle for hearing stories about them if I had a choice. So tonight as I wind down I’ll do a little “anti-shingle” dance, and hope that this “pipe in my lung” is related to my flu or something other than shingles, and that it heals up soon. Either way, laying low is my plan for the next day or so, and as always should things develop, good or bad, you will hear from me.
Always…
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
