Prior to leaving for my quick trip to California, I had seen an allergist who discovered the list of things I was allergic to was suprisingly lengthy (specifically they wanted to know how did I function daily when I should be balled up and sick?) Numerous blood tests and breathing tests and chest X-Rays later and there seems to be an underlying problem in that my IgG's (which subclass I'm not sure as they drew more blood yesterday for further comprehensive tests) are low, and even after recieving a Pneumonia Vaccine (which 90% of the time brings those levels back up) and being retested, my levels still came back low.
I'm being told 1 of 2 possible things; I either have some sort of chronic infection (in which case we need to find out where and why) or an autoimmunity deficiency.
What's caused all of this? That's what even MORE testing over the next few weeks hopes to reveal - but in my limited research I've found it could be linked to any number of things, including joint, muscle and tissue diseases (such as RA or other forms of degenrative arthritis).
Quote:
The finding of a decreased level of one of the IgG subclasses can never provide a definite diagnosis, but should rather be considered as an indication of a disturbance of the immune system, requiring further diagnostic investigation.
There was a lot of other less pleasant info I clicked on and almost immediately clicked off of after reading the symptoms and treatement options... So for now I'm done researching and am just gonna let the doctors do what they gotta do!Quote:
Low levels of IgG occur in macroglobulinemia. In this disease, the high levels of IgM antibodies stop the growth of cells that make IgG. Other conditions that can cause low levels of IgG include some types of leukemia and a type of kidney damage (nephrotic syndrome). In rare cases, some people are born with a lack of IgG antibodies. These people are more likely to develop infections.
Cross your toes folks, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by some of this.
