As I was lying here in the haze of my second week of sinus congestion, cold medicine and antibiotics for whatever is clogging the left side of my head, I found myself talking out loud….”Whoever came up with Kleenex was a genius. I wonder if Kleenex is really made by the Kleenex company or if someone else makes it and just calls it Kleenex because I basically call every nose tissue Kleenex no matter who makes it!” Then I realized that I was talking to myself again.
It’s been a rough two weeks people. Well, about ten days really. This sinus thing just crept up on me and WHAMMO the entire left side of my nose, eye and head feels like I have been punched by that Pacquiao guy that everyone keeps talking about. He’s a professional boxer if you weren’t sure. So anyways, my point of this conversation is that even when people have chronic illnesses like Chronic Lyme Disease they also get simple everyday things like the rest of you – a sinus infection. Not everything in our lives is related to our Lyme.
Whenever we show up with a medical complaint everything always gets blamed on our Lyme and that can get VERY risky. If a provider blows off looking into a pain you may be having in your back as simple arthritic bone pain from your disease he/she could miss a ruptured disc, a tumor or even a sign of cancer. If you don’t pay close attention to exactly how your headaches behave and attend to them immediately, the way you should, then you could be missing a bacterial meningitis instead of just a normal Lyme Brain day. What I’m saying is you have to be a very good judge of: “What is a Chronic Lyme symptom for you and what is just a simple head cold?” The providers also have a responsibility to treat you like any other person who walks in off the street and not be blinded by your chronic illness. It’s unsafe and unprofessional.
Sometimes the decision of how sick we really are needs to be taken out of our hands because we are not the best judge. The doctor or the hospital is the authority on cases like chest pain, severe seizures that are either the first time for the patient/last too long/happen too often/are abnormal for that patient/or cannot be stopped, unconscious patients, really high fevers, etc. There are many other times when an ambulance should be called to check on your loved one or you should take them to the hospital or doctor’s office to be seen for something that turns out to have nothing to do with their Chronic Lyme Disease.
Just because we have a chronic illness that we will always carry with us, doesn’t mean that we don’t get other “stuff” too. As a matter of fact with our lowered immune systems we are more susceptible to it! So, next time you sneeze or cough, start by thinking allergies? Head cold? Sinuses? Who have I been exposed to? Maybe I should try some over the counter cold medicine (check interactions with your other meds) before you start panicking about your Lyme flaring up. It may just be a simple cold that will be gone in two weeks.
At least I am hoping mine will. I can’t take much more of this. I am off to go talk in my sleep some more and have strange dreams from this cold medicine. Goodnight. Thanks for checking in.
**Disclaimer: Bear in mind, this is my opinion. I am not providing you with healthcare information as a healthcare provider and this is only my opinion in this personal blog. Do not hesitate to seek immediate medical care if you feel it is necessary for any health condition that happens to you or your child, be that from an office, hospital, MD or LLMD.