Broken

"I’m no longer a young man, but more significantly, I live with a compromised immune system. After my kidney damage back and the six surgeries that followed, I’ve had to accept that I will never be a fully healthy person for the rest of my life." 

~Paul Tripp, Wednesday Words, March 25, 2020

 

I, too, live with a broken immune system ... in multiple ways. 

"Primary immunodeficiencies (PI) are a group of more than 400 rare, chronic disorders in which part of the body’s immune system is missing or functions improperly."  Due to primary immunodeficiency, my immune system cannot fight off even the common cold. (And does not respond to certain vaccines.)  One can no more reverse PI through diet than one can change their eye color through diet. 

And so I have a monthly 4.5 hour IV infusion with a home nurse.  The biologic I infuse provides me with other people's immunity and is processed from plasma that people donate (sell) at plasma centers (not the Red Cross).  It has a 3 week half-life, so insurance approves it every 4 weeks ... and I will need it for life. 

Autoimmune diseases arise from when "immune cells make a mistake and attack the very cells that they are meant to protect." I am on two strong medications to slow down my immune system. Those medications further place me in the immune compromised camp. 

It's ironic that these two immune problems have opposite problems. One can't fight. And the other fights when it doesn't need to.  The treatments are opposite also.  The infusion is to boost my immunity.  In order to treat my (as of yet undiagnosed) autoimmune disease, I am taking two strong immune suppressant medications. 

Just like Paul Tripp, I’ve had to accept that I will never be a fully healthy person for the rest of my life.  This world is broken. My body is broken. My immune system is broken. But one day my body will be restored! 

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

                                                                                        ~ Revelation 21.4