When Stubbornness Pays Off

I knew from childhood that there was something different in my health from other kids. It seems as if I was born just before various issues were diagnosed and studied. As a child, I was always getting sick with respiratory infections, just one after another. Late fall and winter were the worst: I would spend months in bed.

Pushing through

These weren't my only problems, but the respiratory illnesses were the worst. I wish I just had a dollar for every doctor's appointment I have had in life. I loved learning & I got my bachelor's degree & then grad school because I wanted to teach in post-secondary education. My health was never great, but I learned that although I might be ill, no one ever seemed to catch anything from me so I pushed on, no matter how I felt. However, my body just really could not be pushed anymore after my second daughter's birth.

Answers, at last!

Finally, an immunologist opened a practice & with much testing, I was finally diagnosed with gamma globulemia, a condition in which my body did not produce enough antibodies to keep me healthy. Since that diagnosis, things have changed. I got a MRSA pneumonia in 2016. After I battled through that, I was told that the new term is CVID, Common Variable Immune Deficiency. I am on weekly IV infusions of gamma globulin & have done really well.

My new normal

I try to limit my exposure to crowds of people. I can't visit people in hospitals or nursing homes & I can't go to gyms anymore. However, life is good. I did have to give up my career, but I have a wonderful family. Unfortunately, my oldest daughter inherited my genetic abnormality for CVID, but she was able to start gamma globulin treatment much earlier than I was. I am glad that my stubbornness made me continue to seek the answers to my illnesses.