<p>OP, I hope you get well soon. I went to school in central NYS and the poor weather there contributed to slow recovery from colds, bronchitis etc, as did the general poor nutrition, lack of proper exercise, and study habits of busy students. I was in Hanover a few weeks ago, and I know it is already cold, and the heating season has begun. The winter heating, with homes closed up tight helps breed the things that make us sick. As others have said, eat well, sleep, exercise when you can, and be very clean. Wash clothing after you have been in a room of sneezing, coughing people. Wash your hands a lot. I think I got sick after finals every winter during undergrad. For grad school I went to Atlanta, and this was an improvement,( except for the allergies.)</p>
<p>Some people get cold induced asthma like conditions requiring inhalers or advair, and will get these attacks together with their winter viruses etc. The inhalers etc. come with a set of problems of their own due to the steroids, so talk to your doctor about their use.</p>
<p>My own D had “walking” pneumonia a few years ago, and had to spend two weeks in the house. So take good care of yourself so that you get better and stay well.</p>
<p>I struggled like that in boarding school and college with constant illnesses. Finally a doctor told me he just didn’t think I could handle the constant exposure to germs that living in dorms was giving me. I moved into an apartment by myself and my health was <em>much</em> better! I had to make an effort not to get lonely - stay involved in ECs, invite friends over, etc, but for me, at that time of life, my immune system just couldn’t handle the communal living.</p>
<p>by the way, here is my “sick” thread from last year… didn’t think i’d be revisiting it so soon, or ever. it’s very similar, down to being told that everything is “just a virus,” the promethazine to stop my vomiting, the repeated antibiotics, and the albuterol sulfate inhaler to make me breathe. this time has been even worse than last year in terms of pure physical health, but i’ve been significantly more assertive in demanding treatment, so that’s progress.</p>
<p>another fun fact: in the last two weeks, i’ve lost literally ten pounds. not that i mind being 5’6 and 110 lbs for the first time since junior summer, but it seems a bit drastic.</p>
<p>m.d. says allergies or immune deficiency. she printed an article about cvid that read like a compendium of everything i’ve experienced, down to it being more common in northern europeans (i’m swedish) and usually peaking around 18-25 years (i’ll be 19 november 29). i have low potassium (will drink more orange juice) and high blood pressure (135/75 to my normal 110/60; will stop using the albuterol inhaler), and blood tests show something wrong with my liver, unclear what. i’m still coughing a lot, and the weight loss is worrying.</p>
<p>i’ve had five tubes of blood drawn and am being tested for a variety of antibodies, complete blood count, etc. updates will be forthcoming as lab results come in.</p>
<p>i’ve no intention of taking the term off. i love my classes, all three are requirements for my majors/minor that i would need to retake if i left now, and until i got sick, i had straight a’s for the term that i hope to maintain. i’ve worked with my dean and professors to extend deadlines; i’ll take incompletes and work over winter break if necessary, but i hope i won’t need to. </p>
<p>i also don’t want to transfer. i’ve found my niche academically and extracurricularly, my social situation is improving (slowly but definitively), there’s a lot of funding available for the sorts of internships i want to do, and i’m working on an extracurricular project that looks like it’s going to be a pretty big deal.</p>
<p>yeah, the doctor seems legit; very competent, as far as i can tell.</p>
<p>i wrote this long post-highschool retrospective that has some more information (on both health & college life in general) in my personal journal if anyone wants to read; i don’t feel comfortable linking it publicly to my cc account (the friends i have who read it don’t know that i’m on cc), but you guys have been an amazing community for me in the last few years, ever since high school… so if anyone wants to know more, let me know and i’ll pm the link.</p>
<p>sorry i forgot to post the latest updates – my bloodwork came back, and apparently i have an abnormally high level of immunoglobulin e, which is apparently a signifier of “allergic disease.” allergies do run in my family, though different ones from whatever i have (mainly pollen allergies, which i’ve never shown signs of), so i’ve never been tested. </p>
<p>it’s not clear yet what it is i’m allergic to, but i’ve been referred to an allergy/immunology specialist at the local hospital. he’s all booked into january(!!), but my doctor is trying to get me an appointment sooner, and i’ve been prescribed a few things to help me deal with the symptoms in the meantime. i’ll let you guys know what happens…</p>
<p>I’m really sorry that you’ve been having these problems.</p>
<p>Could you be allergic to north-woodsy pollen or similar stuff, which you would not have been exposed to in DC? I’ve never been allergic, but when we went on vacation in the forest in Washington State, where I had never been before, I was apparently quite allergic to something, as was one of my sons.</p>
<p>It’s also interesting that your complaints have occurred both years in the fall. Were you OK last spring?</p>
<p>i don’t think it’s pollen, because i’m never sick in the late spring or summer, but i basically have a cold (sinus troubles, congested airways, coughing up phlegm, a kind of pathetic sniffling, feeling of pressure inside my head, general exhaustion…) from september to april every year. it’s especially bad in the fall and winter. this was the case in high school, too, though it’s gotten significantly worse since i started college (lots of concurrent infections, not sure whether related to allergies or not). my guess would be mold, dust, or something along those lines, but it’s hard to say without having been tested.</p>
<p>Even your regular doc could order some allergy bloodwork to help ID some of the things you think you may be allergic to. You can try to mniimize your exposure to them & see how that helps.</p>
<p>Some find that using a saline nasal wash really helps. Your regular doc can also prescribe a nasal steroid that helps many folks, but it takes some time to be effective (weeks).</p>
<p>In the meantime, over-the-counter Claritin and Zyrtec are very helpful to many of us.</p>
<p>You can also try reading up on allergies. Here’s a good place to start:</p>
<p>i finally got an appointment at the allergy clinic at dhmc last week, and my test results came back today. the results were unexpected, to say the least.</p>
<p>all allergy tests came back negative.
the sinus ct scan was normal. however, my pneumococcal antibodies were much lower than they should be.</p>
<p>the doctor recommended that i get a “pneumovax” (pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine) and that i get another blood test eight weeks later to see if my antibody levels have improved.</p>
<p>after some cursory googling of pneumococcal antibodies, it seems as if this is what she’s looking for:
<p>that would explain why my earlier immunoglobulin tests didn’t look abnormal, since i don’t think they tested for all possible subclasses. obviously i don’t know yet whether this is what it is, but the post-vaccination blood test should make that clear. i’m off campus for break now and won’t be back in hanover to get the pneumovax shot until january, so i won’t know until late february or early march… which is a bit frustrating.</p>
<p>i’m back in new york now but still not quite done with fall term, as i received an illness-related extensions on a paper for one class and will probably have to take an incomplete in another and finish the final paper over break (the good news is that i’ll almost certainly get an a in the one class i did finish :)). i’ve come down with another round of bronchitis and am feeling pretty lousy, but it’s good to be home.</p>
<p>i’ll let you know when i get the results, but it’ll be a while…</p>
<p>You might want to consider not diagnosing yourself via the internet. Unless you’ve specifically asked your doctor why he wants you to get the immunization and the specific reason why he wants to check your antibody level in a few weeks, it’s best not to assume.
It’s nice that you’re home now and can relax in your familiar environment. Have a wonderful holiday–enjoy the company of family and friends. Try your best to not focus so much on sicknesses/internet medical searches and refocus yourself to the positive things going on in your life.</p>
<p>It is not uncommon to have a higher imm. E --it’s very common as the immune system of many people are busy fighting allergies of one kind or another. This is not rare.</p>
<p>Have you considered counseling? Isn’t it possible that the psyche can also affect one’s physical well being? It seems as though whenever a test comes back negative, you try to look for a reason why it didn’t come back positive. I’m probably way off base but it’s my personal opinion that it does seem like you’re almost looking for attention and hoping that the results come back showing a disorder of some kind. I do hope you start to feel better and I hope that all of your tests continue to show no serious health issues.</p>
<p>“hoping that the results come back showing a disorder of some kind.”</p>
<p>If true, there’s nothing wrong with that IMHO. To endlessly suffer symptoms without an explanation is extremely frustrating and discouraging. It’s natural to hope that the doctors figure out what the heck is wrong. A diagnosis gives a patient a measure of control: this is how your disease is likely to progress over time, these are the treatment options, etc. That’s a lot more manageable than the OP’s current situation.</p>
<p>Hanna, I agree with you. I just wasn’t sure how to tactfully word what I was trying to convey. I’ve gone back and read her sickness thread from last year in addition to this thread. So much testing and each time, negative results. The symptoms sound like those similar to what many college students deal with while living in dorms–constant colds and congestion, sinus problems (dorm heating/dust/mold/etc.), and tiredness (workload while fighting off colds. The difference seems be most students plug along while this OP seems to surf the web looking for some dire diagnosis. I honestly hope all is well and wish only good things for her.</p>
<p>“(sinus troubles, congested airways, coughing up phlegm, a kind of pathetic sniffling, feeling of pressure inside my head, general exhaustion…) from september to april every year.”
For years, starting in HS and through college and adult life, I suffered from EXACTLY these same conditions- which describe sinus infections to a “T”. And for those of you who have never suffered from chronic sinus infections, believe me they are not a “state of mind” or due to “depression”. Sinus infections are an illness that is often hard to diagnose. They can leave you exhausted and physically debilitated .[ I also had no allergies] I finally got over them when I was started on Biaxin 15 years ago, which also coincidently cleared up my adult acne in a flash. So I had my dermatologist prescribe a low dose [250 mg] of Biaxin for me to take over the next year. The result? I have NEVER since had a sinus infection. It took a long time for the antibiotics to kill all the bugs in my sinuses, but that’s what it took to finally break the pattern of getting a sinus infection every fall when the weather changed. Now I know I will get chastised by DR’s out there for taking antibiotics for such a long time- how that leads to the build up of immunities in bacteria to antibiotics, but it worked for me. I STRONGLY suggest you have your ENT or immunologist put you on a course of Zithromyocin for a couple of months to see if that will knock out those bugs.</p>