Sometimes it could be a lower immune systems or it could be circulation changes. It could also be loss of sleep or severe exhaustion. I unfortunately have dealt, and continue to deal with all of theses issues. I seem to get sick very easily and have been more vulnerable to infection and complications. I also get severe exhaustion and have an inability to do a lot of things that I could before I got sick.
The worst part of the whole thing is the issues and illnesses we develop from the treatments for our chronic illness. Just over a month or so ago I spent three nights and four days in the ICU. I couldn't breathe and nothing was working. I spent a long time in the Emergency Room, where they were tried a lot of different things to try to help me breath and nothing was working. The doctors ended up bringing up the idea of intubating me, and we got close to doing that. I actually got to a point that I was exhausted, felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk, and just wanted relief, so I begged the doctor to intubate me so that I had some relief. I just wanted to be comfortable. They ended up putting me on a Precedex drip, a medication they use for patients who are on a ventilator to keep them sedated. I was on that drip for about three days, so I was in and out of consciousness. It was a terrifying few days. The doctors finally diagnosed me with something called Vocal Cord Dysfunction. This is when your vocal cords spasm and create the feeling of not being able to breathe. My oxygen saturation was fine the whole time, but that didn't matter to me. All I knew was that I couldn't breathe. After seeing and ENT, he confirmed the diagnosis and told me that this is most common in young, female athletes. It can be helped with speech therapy but is permanent. We have figured out that the damage to my vocal cords came from the cervical spinal blocks I had to treat my CRPS.
I am a basketball coach right now, so in games and in practices you tend to yell so the girls can hear you. I have a permanently raspy voice right now and it will probably stay that way until the season is done in the spring.
As if we didn't have enough issues with having a chronic illness, we also have to deal with issues and complications that come from our chronic illness or the treatments for our chronic illness.