The immune system is often taken for granted. I don’t. Mine sucks. There are many ways to get a immune system that doesn’t work: primary and secondary. Secondary is when the immune deficiency is caused by something else, like anti rejection pills. Primary is when it’s just cause … just cause it doesn’t work well. There are 4 immunoglobulins. My body doesn’t like producing 2 out of the 4.
I was born this way. I didn’t know it until I was in my late 30s. And it wasn’t even a recognized condition until the 1990s, so growing up even if someone had noticed my frequent bacterial infections — they wouldn’t have had a diagnosis to give me. Instead I was labeled a hypochondriac. I get replacement therapy for one of the 2 I’m deficient in. So yay for that. What I have is called CVID or common immunodeficiency.
If you have an invisible disability story, please share! You are not alone.
This is part of a personal essay series on life with invisible disabilities.
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