Allergies to bronchitis?

[Purple Banana]

Good point, BG- I was talking to a respiratory therapist the other day, and she said that we've seen an average of 5% of patients coming into JHH with TB- it was 4.2% last year, and 4.0% the year before that.

Although we are a large city hospital, we don't see many immigrants, but since people in Baltimore tend to live very close to each other in somewhat unsanitary conditions, infection rates are probably sky rocketing- I got a TB titer the other day from one of the ED docs, and it's been 24 hours- no redness or vesicle, so at least I'm in the clear from that!

[birdgirl73]

Hey, PB, what'd the doctor say? Are you on antibiotics? Feeling better?

I was reading some information online about allergies and their connection to a hyper-alert immune system. This year has been such a miserable allergy season for me. I happened across some information that said sometimes when people's intestinal flora are out of balance, that'll aggravate allergy problems. So I'm going to experiment with a type of pro-biotic yogurt and also a pro-biotic supplement for a week or two and see if that helps. Seems like a strangely incongruous connection between the two, but it said that when the immune system is in overdrive, it'll sometimes attack beneficial bacteria in both the gut and the sinuses/nasal passages. I'm willing to try anything!

[Purple Banana]

Yep, it was bacterial bronchitis- beginning stages, so no fever yet. One of the pulmonologists came down and saw me. I got my Z Pack and some more cough syrup, thank god... And my 'guy' visited me at work, so I felt much better

EDIT: That's really interesting- let me know how that goes, I'm very curious!