Having a compromised immune system sucks (rant, feel free to add your own)

[NightWatcher]

I've been blasted with high dose steroids and now almost a year of weekly methotrexate pills and my immune system is now nonexistent, in the hopes that my body will stop attacking itself. So now it can't attack anything. There are several things that immunocompromised people need to do. Not on the list is adopt a stray dog to add to your household of one inside dog, one inside cat, and three outside cats, none of which get regular checkups. So I've had a fun case of itch and athletes foot, the root fungus is linked to a certain ringworm.....that is often carried by dogs and cats and can be transmitted through cat litter.

So now that I am continually uncomfortable, I'm now a jerk for bringing up that the fucking petting zoo our house has become might be contributing to my problems. The hilarious thing is my wife has asked that I start taking natural immune system supplements. The purpose of me taking the pills is so that I can achieve the level of a nonexistent immune system that I have now.

Argh

[MuseRider]

1. Methotrexate was horrible for me.

I ended up grey and hollow looking and my RA did not respond anyway.

So sorry, it sucks and my RA is very mild, I am lucky. I think that if I had had to stay on the Methotrexate I would have gotten really sick. I caught everything around me.

I hope it all somehow gets resolved for you.

[NightWatcher]

2. I tried Azathioprine first and that was horrible

I'd throw up within an hour of taking it and puke for a couple days straight. The year of Methotrexate has mee feeling a little hollowed out (great term). Also because of that I cant drink which is how I used to mellow out. Damn this Lupus and polymyositis.

I hope you feel better too.

[Warpy]

3. Yes, that one was horrible for me, too

I gloved and masked to deal with the cat litter and that seems to have worked, I didn't have any opportunistic cat bugs.

I was on the tablets twice a day and went around feeling like I was going to heave but rarely doing so. If I needed to go food shopping, I had to skip 2 doses to be able to do it, especially in places like Costco with their sample ladies at the ends of all the food aisles. I was delighted when my BUN got worse instead of improving and I could go off the shit.

Horrible stuff.

Methotrexate eventually made my GI system rebel, just like Plaquenil did. I'm pretty much out of drugs except my daily Prednisone.

I don't know what's worse sometimes, the diseases or their drugs.

[MuseRider]

5. Plaquenil, I had forgotten that one.

That is the one that screwed up your vision isn't it? I had that little chart I was supposed to look at every day with eye exams every 6 months. Maybe that was a different one but at least I knew I would not get malaria in Kansas, lol.

For me the drugs were worse but I am one of the very lucky RA people, very very lucky indeed.

[Warpy]

6. No. my retinas didn't change

My corneas screwed up and so did the lenses. Plaquenil deposts crap on the retina in some unlucky people.

Because of that and a couple of congenital eye problems, I had to see surgeons and they looked directly at the retinas to see if anything had changed.

[MuseRider]

7. That had to be no fun

and expensive. Lordy, I have been very fortunate so far. *fingers crossed hoping I can continue to cross them without more drugs*

[MuseRider]

4. So odd, I was terrified of taking

Azathioprine but I lasted several years on it with no problems Funny how that is.

I went through all of them until I hit the Humira type drugs. I think I was taking Azathioprine when I got pneumonia. I was so sick and they took me off of it. For some reason after the pneumonia went away I had no RA symptoms. In fact I went about 8 years without any flares. Now my doc has said judging by the little joint damage I show that I could probably live until 130 years old before it would be worth doing something else. I am now simply taking a NSAID every day with a back up of Prednisone if I start to flare before I have to play a concert.

My maternal grandfather and his sister both had it so badly that they died from complications, my aunt from the steroids and my gf from heart and lung problems. My paternal great aunt had it as well and took gold shots for years. I was terrified when I was diagnosed with it.

Fingers crossed I can stay this way.

I hope something similar helps you too (not necessarily something like pneumonia but something else ). Lupus is hard, polymyositis I am not all that familiar with but it sounds like a difficult thing to deal with as well.