One of the biggest issues I’ve had throughout my life has been infections. As a child I was prone to ear infections, had my share of eye infections and the standard chicken pox. These issues mostly went away when I was teen, only reappearing when the fibro became strong six years ago. At first I was only experiencing chaffing issues that started during my morning power walks. Luckily the issues stay minor until late last spring when I had a minor infection that cleared up quickly with a prescription, followed by summer when I picked up an intense infection that wouldn’t clear up easily.

Last summer’s infection grew and became itchy and painful, spreading across my left arm, but I was able to treat it and clear it up within a couple of weeks. The doctors believed I picked it when I stopped at a bench on a public park. I had a wound that hadn’t closed up yet and the doctors believe it got into the infection when I was sitting on the bench. That infection made it feel like my body was falling apart. At least it and every other infection I had seemed to clear up with treatment. The problem is, the infections kept on reappearing, which according to my doctors “they are most likely due to the fibro”.

The minor infection would sometimes reappear, but it was that bad arm infection that showed back up again. They showed up after experiencing chemical burns from a chemical that I’m highly allergic to. At first the chemical burns were puffy and itchy, but at first were healing. Soon them became infected, most recently they started breaking out with the same infection as last summer. This time I have cream on hand to treat the infection, but this means the infection was never fully cleared up. None of them ever cleared up

Based on what my doctors have told me and the research I’ve done, the issue is with the immune system. A side effect of the fibro is a weakened/compromised immune system. It’s why I’m almost guaranteed to get sick if I’m around another sick person, and why I’m prone to getting food poisoning from food that doesn’t make others sick. Because it’s an immune system issue, I may never be able to fully rid myself of the infections. The prescriptions are enough to make the infections dormant, but it only takes one trigger to reactive them.

I have hopes that an improved diet with probiotics will help. I used to take probiotics regularly, but stopped when I my IBS started to improve and become easier to manage. Probiotics help the stomach regulate its healthy bacteria, which over time can help improve one’s immune response. My diet has also been very mixed, sometimes very healthy other times pizza delivery. I’m not sure if these changes will actually help, but it won’t hurt to try and should at least help my digestion.