Using incredible powers of hindsight (!), I remember that I was down with a horrible cold just three months ago – hideous coughing, utter exhaustion, lost my voice, had to get a prescription for cough syrup with codeine in order to sleep, etc. Now, getting sick twice in a few months is probably no biggie for most people – happens to them all the time. But it doesn’t for me. I RARELY catch what’s going around. I’ve always joked that it’s because of my superhuman immune system: when I was a child, I was on a regimen of frequent and regular gamma globulin injections because I was ALWAYS sick, due to some sort of immune system problem (I never paid attention to what my mom and the pediatrician were talking about, so I have no idea what it was). I’ve always assumed that the reason I never get sick NOW is because of the gamma globulin shots THEN.
On the flip side, I’m also wondering about the occurrence in general of these last couple of colds.
According to the National Marrow Donor Program, “NHL is a cancer of the lymphocytes. Lymphocytes make antibodies, proteins that attach to foreign cells and mark them to be attacked. Lymphocytes also direct the rest of the immune system to attack the foreign cells and help in the attack.” Following that line of logic, if the lymphocytes are compromised because of NHL, then they can’t really do their job of telling the immune system to attack the foreign invader (i.e., this crappy cold). Perhaps that’s why this cold and the one in January are so intense and prolonged: NHL is affecting the ability of my lymphocytes to produce antibodies, and my immune system just ain’t gettin’ the message to fight off the cold.
I guess this cancer thing pretty much shoots the crap out of my lifelong theory of having a superhuman immune system!
