I'm sick, and it's not the lupus

It's the time of year for colds, flus, covid, and every other virus known to man. Stores are sold out of cold meds, you covet boxes of tissue paper and tylenol, and sage or lysol (whatever your go-to is) your entire house. Then it happens, a friend or relative sneezes around you! You excuse it as allergies until they or someone you know, tells you that person is sick. For us autoimmunies, the panic sets in. Did we hug them? Share an appetizer at a restaurant? Touch their car? Use their bathroom? Are we going to get it??????

Now some people may read this or hear someone go through this and think how silly it is, how much of an over-reaction... but it isn't for us. I have even had people ask me wouldn't I get over stuff faster than a "normal person" since my immunity is in over-drive. The fact is, autoimmunies are on meds to stop our immune system from working because our immune system is out to kill us. With these meds, we catch every little germ that comes near us, food poisoning is worse than normal, colds and viruses take longer for us to get over. Yes, we become a bigger mess than usual!

Last week I caught the cold/flu/virus of the day.... whatever horrible thing it was. It felt like my whole body started shutting down in a number of ways. Cold meds really didn't help, sleep didn't seem to help (although I know it does). I just kept getting worse and adding on symptoms. The dr told me to come off my autoimmune meds to try to let my immune system come back up and fight, so I did. Two days later, still just as sick, the sores start coming up on my fingertips and my skin felt tighter due to not taking those meds that my body needs. It was a lose-lose situation. I decided I would go back on my meds, treat the symptoms, and start my herbal teas, tinctures, and such to battle the virus. Those have helped me through this mess, and I will continue them as I am still battling the remains of it. I can then be assured that I will go into flare and be miserable from that until my body and meds get back on track.

My point here is not to complain, but to try to give a day in the life of an autoimmunie. Yes, colds/flu/viruses are horrible on anyone... no one wants to get sick. BUT for us, it is a whole different ball game. We can't just think that we'll grab some soup and cold meds and it'll pass. People get angry or annoyed when you try to explain to them how important it is for us to not be exposed at all to viruses, etc. but it is the absolute truth. We need sick people to not come around us and make us sick. We need people to wash their hands before handling our food or drinks. We need people to think of our immune system as you do a baby's, and not because we want to be treated like one but because that is the state our system is in thanks to the medicines that otherwise help us function.

Maybe one day science will get all this figured out and autoimmunies can finally say "I'm sick," and mean it in the same way as "normal" people. Until then...