Day 4 of NyQuil. I look as bad as I feel, but at least I slept well.
These past few weeks have been nothing short of adventurous.
First, I hit a milestone birthday – the big 4-0! – and the celebration was just a big. It started with a trip to NYC at the end of October for World Psoriasis Day and the Leo NY Skin event. Sure, I wasn’t 40 yet, but that didn’t stop the fun, especially when my best friend and bad influence accompanied me. We had a blast and still managed to stay out of trouble – well, a little trouble is always good.
Then came Thanksgiving. Even with a big family and members on each side of the recent presidential election, we were able to avoid any family drama. And I am truly thankful for that!
I took it easy for Black Friday shopping and just hit a few stores during non-peak times. I enjoyed the leisurely stroll down the aisles with no fighting crowds or insane parents looking for the perfect toy. I followed this up with a 7 mile walk, movies, and lunch.
I was flying high, then crash landed with some sort of bug that lasted 10 days. To put this into context: In a matter of four weeks, I went from walking a half marathon in NYC with very little psoriatic arthritis pain to having every joint in my body on fire from this stupid cold. So frustrating!
Just a few days before catching this cold, I was at the dermatologist getting a nasty staph infection drained (typical for me, so nothing out of the ordinary there) and started antibiotics. I also found out that I was a few weeks overdue for my biologic injection, so I really was doing well to have zero pain!
With the staph infection, I wasn’t expecting to get my biologic injection because the medication suppresses my immune system, which makes fighting the infection even more difficult. However, my doctor didn’t want me to wait to get the injection. I’ve weathered these staph infections just fine in the past with no additional complications. I was told to call him immediately if I got a fever, chills, or any indication that things have gone south.
To make a long story short, the infection is gone, but I caught some cold bug along the way. It was that bug that threw me for a loop, not the initial staph infection. Go figure. And to top it off, I was already on antibiotics.
NyQuil was my BFF for many of those nights. I'm a lightweight when it comes to medicine and anything with alcohol. I knew rest was the best thing for me, and I didn’t want my cough or pain of psoriatic arthritis to keep me awake, so NyQuil was my drug of choice.
Sure, I was miserable with this cold, but like the bad patient I am, I just waited it out and never went to see the doctor. Not sure this was the best choice, but I didn’t think I was that bad and felt that "tomorrow would be better." Even today – a full 10 days since the start of the cold – I’m struggling to get back to 100%. I’d say I’m hovering around 75%, so I have made progress.
And that, my friends, is how an immune suppressed patient can go from being at the top of her game to the lowest point in quite a few months. Never take for granted the good days.
