When you are immune compromised like me, weird ass things happen on a fairly regular basis. This past week I have had a horribly sore throat and painful sores on my lips and tongue. I thought I had strep. I went to my gp three times. He kept telling me I was “fine.” I wasn’t fine. I couldn’t swallow or eat. At one point, I swallowed a cold drink and my entire esophagus freaked out and went into a spasm.
I did some reading about it and looked at various websites. As usual, when you are a veteran soldier of the immune system wars, you learn to ask questions and look in strange places for answers. You learn to think outside all of the boxes. After all, this disease process that is me, does not fit in any sort of box, it is more of an amorphous blob of ever-changing goo.
I found out that Sjogren’s syndrome (which causes your mucus membranes to dry out) can cause mouth sores. I know I have a secondary case of this but thought it would be odd that I would be in a flare. I have been on prednisone for weeks and that generally keeps all autoimmune flare stuff at bay.
Then I started looking at pictures. GROSS. I don’t gross out easily but I really don’t like seeing something online that is so over the top it looks inhuman. But, I was onto something. Thrush. I had been down this road before from long courses of antibiotics. It turns out that long courses of steroids do the same thing.
Thrush is the stuff babies get in their mouths and diaper areas. It is a fungal infection. It causes a white coating on the tongue and white blisters on the lips and all down the throat. In my case, the blisters are all the way down my esophagus. Cool, huh?
So, on my third trip to the doctor, I got the right meds. In a few days I may be free of the fungus from the dark lagoon. In the meantime, my mouth looks like one of the disgusting pictures on the internet.
I offered to lick my family with my nasty tongue and they all ran away. I have no idea why.
This is ridiculous!