Most of them have something to do with inflammation and many of them are autoimmune in nature. This means that my immune system is attacking my own organs and vital operating systems.
When I was young and was only diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, that inflammatory response hit me hard. My entire immune system was dedicated to ridding me of a previously perfectly healthy organ. Of course, my own immune system did enough damage to do just that.
After my first two abdominal surgeries, though, I began to have inflammation in other areas of the body - where can we attack next? Turns out I have warmongers for an immune system.
Nevertheless, they seemed to make their rounds, affecting several different areas of the body and progressing each disease further at different paces.
My medical chart has always been a bit of a conundrum to health professionals. The diseases I have been diagnosed with are often fast-moving illnesses with frightening progression.
Yet, each illness I have been diagnosed with seems to be progressing at a slower pace than normally seen.
So here is what I am wondering:
When my entire immune system was dedicated to one particular organ (the large intestine), the severity of my illness progressed quickly and without mercy. Now, however, it seems as though my immune system is spread so much throughout my body that the regular timeline of a disease progression does not apply. So instead of my Ankylosing Spondylitis moving quickly, for example, maybe the fact that my body is attacking several other organs is actually a blessing. My immune system is so busy trying to juggle all of these unwanted organs and systems, that it cannot put its full force into any one area. Of course, that is also the entire point of being on immunosuppressants.... but the surprising slow pace at which some of my illnesses are moving has me wondering if I am actually lucky to have so much malfunctioning (in a way).
Those pesky cells seem to change tactics every now and then. For a few months my Crohn's will be terribly flared and then calm down a little, only to be faced with a psoriasis flare that will seemingly come out of nowhere, then once that settles my Hashimoto's will go berserk and require medication adjustments, and once that's dealt with my AS will flare terribly and force me to use my wheelchair constantly for a while, and so on and so forth.
Yet, as long as my immune system is attempting to attack everything all at once, my body seems to find almost a balance -> everything feeling awful but not entirely unbearable; everything inflamed but not as quicky damaging.
Having multiple malfunctioning systems and multiple areas of pain and inflammation may actually be keeping these illnesses from progressing at a terrifying pace.
Strange.
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