Life as a germ magnet. A healthy person strolls through daily life never giving a thought to living with a weak immune system. A person with superficial siderosis often finds out the hard way caution should be the word of the day. Every day we’re bombarded with invisible bugs. You think you’ve taken care to avoid those unseen dangers, but life as a germ magnet guarantees something nasty is bound to take hold.
Last winter was the perfect example. Our daughter’s family was fighting a particularly nasty flu. We had been avoiding their house, but we found ourselves answering a plea from one of the granddaughters.
Their commode was stopped up and their folks at work.
Gary walked in, plunged the offending toilet into submission, and walked straight to a sink in another room. He thoroughly washed his hands and arms. I stood ready with the hand sanitizer and slathered him down. We drove home and within three hours Gary was down, 103-degree fever, his own nasty case of the flu. I was unaffected even though I had also been in the bathroom cleaning up behind him.
We learned an important lesson that day. No matter how well you wash or sanitize, you will still have no defense from those invisible particles floating through the air.
Will This Never End?
Not only do you have to contend with this game of germ dodgeball but if you are unlucky enough to come down with something it hangs on forever. Gary fought a bout of pneumonia in September. The doctor put him on a course of antibiotics and threatened a hospital stay if he spiked a fever. A week passed, and he was still not much better. A return trip to the doctor, another course of antibiotics, and pneumonia turned into bronchitis. It took three weeks to recuperate and one more week to feel semi-normal again.
Say good-bye to “it’s just the sniffles.”
What Can I Do?
We try to avoid Gary interacting in close quarters with anyone who is sick now. A family member was in the hospital for a month so sometimes high-risk trips are unavoidable, but he is very careful always to wear a mask, wash his hands frequently and always use hand sanitizer. You can’t live in a bubble, but you can take precautions to live smart.
This was originally published December 2015 when Gary was still working and in a better state of health than now.
thanks for the information it is great, just wish that Dr’s in NZ would listen and act for us . I have been waiting for help for months and know I am getting worse. But have to be patient.
I would gratefully love to be on Ferripox like Dr Levy have stated should be done and the bleeding slowed down. But haven’t heard about any of it from neurologist in NZ. They seem to think that they don’t have to act, well a 42 year old patient died just before I was diagnosed at the same hospital.
That makes me feel great!!!