Posts Tagged ‘osteltamivir’

Some not-so great news

May 12th, 2010

My last post was an honest and authentic expression of my thoughts and feelings about my current state of being.  I wasn’t hiding anything.  But there is something else going on.

This morning I awoke with a runny nose and some congestion.  This could be a minor bacterial infection, which would not likely be a problem to snuff out.  But, given that my mucus is clear, bacterial infection seems unlikely.  Viral infection is more consistent with that sign.  It could be one of a number of common viruses that cause runny nose.  For some of these, anti-viral treatments are available.  For many, the viruses don’t even have names, but they don’t cause dangerous infections either.  I’m hoping for one of these, of course.  It could be the flu, and (despite rapidly increasing resistance) that is treatable with osteltamivir.  But it could be something much more dangerous:  the seemingly innocuous, simple, common cold.

While the common cold causes the mildest of infection in immunocompetent people, in me, it could be a disaster.  Permanent scarring of the lungs is one outcome; death is another.  As no treatment for the common cold exists (though a number of experimental therapies are soon to help out), recovery relies on one’s immune system entirely.  Chicken soup may soothe, but it doesn’t cure.

Viral infections are defeated by lymphocytes.  The two main groupings of lymphocytes are T-cells and B-cells.  T-cells circulate in our blood, looking for proteins that are not self.  When one is found, the T-cell starts dividing, and some of those T-cells seek out B-cells.  The T-cells notify B-cells of the presumptive invader, and through one of the most amazing biological processes ever elucidated, germ-specific antibodies are produced.  Those antibodies ultimately cause cells infected with viruses to die (among other things).

So T-cells initiate (and later suppress) immune response.  B-cells primarily give rise to antibodies. The problem for me is that I don’t have very many of either of these cells.  Unlike neutrophils (white blood cells that primarily fight bacterial infection) and platelets, many developmental intermediates come between stem cell and mature lymphocyte, and it can take up to nine months for mature lymphocytes to appear after transplantation.  I do have a few lymphocytes from before the transplant, but it’s not clear that they will be of much use.

At this point, I just have to wait.  If matters get worse, I’ll get a nose swab tomorrow.  That might reveal a treatable virus or an untreatable virus.  Maybe I don’t have a virus.  I just don’t know right now, but in addition to being energetic and happy, I’m starting to get pretty scared.

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Posted in biology, emotions, illness journaling | Comments (2)