Battling an Autoimmune Disease? Try to Stay Well!

If you are familiar with my articles; you most likely know that I have an autoimmune disease called Sarcoidosis, You can see two of my previous articles here and here.

So far this fall and winter have been very rough on me. I did get my flu shot and two years ago I got the pneumonia vaccine. I found out too late that there are several strains of pneumonia and the vaccine does not cover them all. Fortunately, I did not have the flu but instead a three month journey with asthmatic bronchitis and pneumonia. After visiting my primary care doctor who is also a pulmonologist at least eight times in the last three months and receiving B-12 shots and antibiotic injections at each visit, I was given three different rounds of antibiotics, each time something different hoping to nip this in the bud. Because I have sarcoidosis in my lymph glands, my ears always hurt and itch inside like crazy. When I would go I'd tell Doc that my ears hurt from my swollen glands and we hoped they would clear up with the antibiotics and the standard ear drops like they usually do. Doc gave me a different ear drop, but they made my ear hurt worse and I stopped using them. With him out of town, I suffered as silently as I could and continued taking the meds he prescribed.

Over the Christmas holidays while my doctor was on vacation, my ears started going from annoying to downright painful. I still fought it and continued with the antibiotics. On New Year's Eve I was in a lot of pain and my sister kept saying to go to the ear doctor. I relinquished and made an appointment on Monday for that Thursday (praying that they had a cancellation and would call me to come in) but no such luck. So I waited till Thursday and brought along the pharmacy info sheets with all the meds I had been on since Halloween. I brought the two different ear drops with me and when she looked in my ears, she knew something big was wrong.

So the wonderful lady ear doctor stuck a vacuum cleaner nozzle in each ear and sucked this nasty stuff out of my ears. Immediately, I could hear, but it really hurt a lot. She gave me another antibiotic, different ear drops, a nasal spray and pain pills. I am allergic to penicillin and codeine so it was a trip prescribing something that would not kill me.

After three days, I could not stop throwing up and could not figure out why. Once the ears stopped hurting enough to eliminate the pain pills, I narrowed it down to the new antibiotic. I called her and she prescribed a different antibiotic which I am doing well with and will see her again next Thursday.

If you have an auto-immune disease such as; Type 1 Diabetes, Rhumatoid Arthritis, Celiac Disease, Sjogren's syndrome, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Multiple Sclerosis or any number of similar diseases. For a more complete list look here keep track of your symptoms. My suggestion is to keep a special health journal, this way what bothers you and may seem like no big deal, could be something bigger. It took thirteen years to discover that I had sarcoidosis and it was purely accidental. Take care of yourself and like me; never take no for an answer.

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