Health Vent

This is a post all about how much I hate my immune system right now. And yes, it all one big, smelly, heap of complaints. I apologize, it's just everything I'm struggling with dumped into one post, so I sound like a mega-complainer. If you have any suggestions on what could help, please share.

Growing up I rarely got sick. The only reasons I ever missed school were family vacations or gymnastics meets. So believe me when I say I am a hopeless wreck when I'm sick. I've been to the doctor more times in the past 2 years for sickness than I did in the 19 previous years growing up.

For month I've been struggling with my health. I get sick probably twice a month, it's ridiculous! It pretty much always a sore throat and a cold, which is bearable. But occasionally, it gets awful. I'm lying in bed today with strep throat for the second time this year. those of you with awful immune systems, I FEEL YOU. It's terrible. I never realized how lucky I was to have my great health until suddenly it stopped being so great. Here's a run down of my health struggles as of late:

->In terms of respiratory things, I'm always having problems. My throat is itchy/scratchy by the end of the day. And I can feel it if I pushed it too far, which sucks because then I know what's coming--I lose my voice. And once I lose my voice, I catch a cold. It's a never ending cycle, happens at least once a month. pretty sure my tonsils are the size of China by now. My nose is also consistently plugged. I can breathe out of it, but it's just got a lot of junk piled up or something, because it's never clear. My voice is more nasally than it was a year ago--because of my semi-plugged nose. Ugh, as if I needed another reason to hate the sound of my voice when it's recorded haha.

->Digestion stuff isn't so fantastic either. For this past month I actually haven't had as much abdominal pain as I had the month before. For a while I got horrible stomach cramps and pains in the morning and especially after I ate. I would go through cycles of nausea coupled with constipation and diarrhea weekly and it was miserable. Last month I was 90% sure I was pregnant because it was so bad. I couldn't think of anything else that would screw up my digestion so much! But, nope, no baby. My diet has not changed, which by the way is a rather healthy diet. We rarely eat out, and eat mostly home cooked meals. I am extremely grateful that whatever was going on for months seems to have subsided in the past few weeks. I haven't had any digestion problems since last month.

->General fatigue, dizziness, and random heavy breathing. It was at its worst during that month where my digestion blues peaked, which only added to my thoughts of pregnancy. But, unlike some of the other problems I was having, I think I fixed this one. I did some research and it sounded like my fatigue, aches, and breath shortness could be due to an iron deficiency. Which is much more common in women that I previous believed, by the way. After mentioning this to McKay, he totally agreed (he was even more confident in the "diagnosis" than I was). Instead of going out and buying some iron supplements I checked my prenatal vitamin and sure enough it's got a high dose of iron. I bought them probably at the start of the year and just never remembered to take them. Well now I have them in about 3 different places around the apartment, and I have them in the car, my backpack, and purse; I began taking them regularly. It's been about a month and a half since I began taking them and I really do feel a change, it's amazing. Not only am I less tired and achy, but I feel more motivated in general.

->Anxiety. It took me a while to catch onto this one. For years I've had irrational fears, usually I can box them up in my mind and push them aside, but in the past year it grew increasingly more difficult. McKay would find me crumpled on the floor in tears because he was 30 minutes later than expected and I thought he got hit by a car, I'd panic and cry at night from fear of dying of Carbon Monoxide poisoning, every time a new problem or sickness would emerge I would think it was some rare disease, the absolute worse was when we got home after a long day and I saw a spider on the closet door. I went into my first, full fledged, panic/anxiety attack. It was the scariest thing my body has ever done. I couldn't talk, my heart was going crazy, I was hyperventilating and felt like I was choking, I was crying, my arms started to tingle and then I lost all feeling in my hands and feet (it took half an hour for my leg feeling to return), I crumpled on the bathroom floor and McKay carried me to the bed where I passed out soon after because I was so tired. It was scary. Nothing that dramatic has ever happened before, neither has it happened since, but after that incident I finally accepted that I probably had some anxiety problems. Usually I'll start to panic about something but calm myself down quickly, my heart will start to thump for no reason, chew on my fingernails or pick at my lip, or I'll wake up several times a night--all signs of anxiety.

->Mold. This isn't a problem with my health, but it very well could be causing the problems. Our bathroom and cellar definitely have a lot of mold. I'll spare you the details, because I've droned on long enough about this to nearly everyone, but basically, mold can cause health problems.

All of these things could be connected, I don't know. Anxiety is known to cause stomach problems. Mold's most common effect is respiratory problems. Stress can cause nearly everything to go wrong, so it could be the reason for my immune system's sudden lack of care. And I sure have had a stressful semester.

Not everything is horrible though. I've made the changes I can, and I do see some improvements. I started taking my prenatal vitamin, I implemented breathing exercises, I trained myself to not worry so much about trivial things, we had a contractor install a fan in the bathroom, etc. Just smaller changes that have helped overall. But, my changes are limited. I live a healthy life, I know that. I eat well and I am definitely physically active. Some days are worse than others, but I can only take so much constant sickness without answers until I crack.

If you have any suggestions or know something I don't, please share them with me. I'm desperate for answers.