Welcome to Primary Immunodeficiency!

This blog comes as a result of me having a very interesting first half of the year. For a bit of background, I'm a 47 year old male living in southern New Mexico.

And I had pneumonia four times this year.

In this blog, I'm going to talk about what I have and what my treatment is like.

So me and pneumonia.

It started in February. In November I was diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel in both wrists and the decision was made to operate. The first operation was in February, and though painful, it was endurable. The stitches stay in for two weeks and you're out of work until they're removed, which happened on a Wednesday. I went back to work Thursday, worked Friday, and on Monday I had pneumonia.

Out of work for a week. Chest x-rays. Bloodwork. Antibiotics.

Next week: worked half-time or less. Very tired and weak, but feeling progressively stronger. The following week had me back working full-time, but still tired and weak. Follow-up x-ray and bloodwork shows me being back to health.

Pneumonia number two was in April. This time it was the week before my second carpal tunnel operation. Fortunately it cleared before the operation and it went along as scheduled. Same routine: out of work for a week, then out of work for two weeks because of the operation. At least this time the recovery overlapped.

My doctor said to go to a lung specialist. I make the appointment, but since I'm a new patient, it's a month away and set for early May. The day roles around and we meet with the guy and are thoroughly unimpressed. He looks at my x-rays by holding them up to the light and claims he doesn't see any evidence of pneumonia in the February x-rays. This disagrees with the two radiologists who thought I had pneumonia, not to mention the bloodwork that showed definite bacterial infection. My wife and I are decidedly not impressed with this guy: he says I had bad bronchitis and that bronchial plugs were responsible for my illness and caused the fever.

Well, that was on a Friday and we scheduled a lung function test for the following Monday. At which point I was sick and running a fever. I still show up for the test, though I explain to the technician that I am ill, and she thinks that's a good thing because we'll see how bad my lungs are when I'm ill. She also tells me that the doctor is not in the office today.

Well, that sucks. I go back to my doctor, he's pretty sure that it's pneumonia again based on characteristics and listening to my lungs. But this time we don't do an x-ray as I've already had EIGHT chest x-rays at this point, so he just puts me on antibiotics and tells me to take the week off and to call my lung doctor.

I call my lung doctor, and I'm told that he is out of the office. FOR TWO WEEKS. It would have been nice for him to tell us that when we were there the previous Friday! I ask to see one of his partners as there are three pneumonologists in that practice and I'm told that I can't because one is covering the hospital that week and the other is unavailable. Grrr....


Well, once again, it's take the week off, go back to work the following week at half-time, etc.


I get better, until three weeks later and....


Pneumonia number four!


When I made the appointment to see the lung doctor, I also made an appointment to see an immunologist as there was obviously something seriously wrong with me. My wife started researching recurrent pneumonia and found some interesting stuff, and later in June I got in to see the immunologist.

Initially we weren't impressed as he was pursuing the angle of allergies. You see, a lot of immunologists are also allergists. And like the lung doctor wanting to blame everything on asthma, he had a bit of a hobbyhorse to ride. But he was more responsive than the lung doctor was, and he ordered the test that my wife wanted run: an IgP panel, which shows your gamma globulin levels.

Gamma globulin is vital to the proper function of your immune system. Mine were in the gutter, far below the minimum levels.


Obviously I had a problem.