Thursday, October 16, 2008

signings and such

I did a signing this weekend for 2 days (ugh, crazy trying to fit everything in!!!) I have "google alert" with my name and I found this on a blog:

Art Festival

Not much to report except that Meghan McCarthy had a booth next to the library that said "award winning author" and the Internet reports that she is indeed now a semi-famous children's book author. She is now easily the most successful person I know who went to Clayville Elementary School.

I have no idea who wrote it but it cracked me up!

Okay, I'm sick today. DO NOT get a flu or pneumonia shot when you're on high doses of immune suppressants. I've been having fevers, chills, black outs, shortness of breath, chest pain... you name it. THIS SUCKS. I've been trying to go about things as normal but that only makes things worse.

See some of you at the SOI show? I'll be there. If I pass out and you know who I am then tell the EMT I'm on steroids. It's important that they know.

meghan

6 comments:

Christine Tripp said...

DO NOT get a flu or pneumonia shot when you're on high doses of immune suppressants.

OK, what quack would give you a flu shot with that sort of med histor?????
Get yourself some Echinacea and take them every day. It works on the immune system like wild fire (and no, doctors don't usually believe in it but they don't think Vitamins work either)

Anna Alter said...

Omg Meghan. Seriously, your doctor is crazy.

Ps. Echinacea is great, but only take it for a couple weeks or so at a time or it backfires. Astragalus is also a great herbal immune booster, that you can take for longer periods of time.

Anonymous said...

Oh you poor thing! But at least you had that odd blog post to make you laugh :0) That certainly was funny.

Feel better soon! The up side of having an overactive immune system is that we rarely get colds and flu. It's a terrible choice - feel generally awful most of the time but never get really sick, or feel pretty good some of the time and get hit hard with common maladies. As an artist who suffers the same choices I've been thinking about you often.

Meghan McCarthy said...

Name of the game here is that I DO NOT want to boost my immune system! If I do it'll just start up attacking my healthy tissue. That's the whole problem.

The doctor gave me the shots because if I get the flu or pneumonia for real or full blown then I'll end up in the hospital (because I'm on immune suppressants.) This is how my cousin with Lupus died!

Louisa, I'd heard that people with autoimmune diseases usually have super active immune systems -- never sick previously, etc. that sort of fits me - I was never sick as a kid. I guess I'm paying for it now!

Christine Tripp said...

Name of the game here is that I DO NOT want to boost my immune system! If I do it'll just start up attacking my healthy tissue. That's the whole problem.



Ooooh, sorry Meghan, didn't understand the disease. I should have read up on it first before opening my "over active" mouth and bashing the doctor. I guess it's a very fine line the medical system must walk, chosing between the lesser of the two evils.
So, over active immune system means the body is fighting everything, the bad AND the good, attacking itself in other words?

Anonymous said...

Yes. Lupus is an autoimmune connective tissue disease where the body attacks itself--healthy tissue--mostly causing inflammation, etc. In my case, though, I also have systemic nerve damage caused by inflammation of the blood vessels inside the nerves. So the more "healthy" my immune system is the sicker I will be. Sucks, right?

meghan