No spleen, and Flu's.

[PopeAK49]

I find it funny that only 4 years ago i had my spleen and gall bladder removed, due to my disorder passed on from family traits called Hereditary spherocytosis(http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=3724).My doctors asked me to take penicillin. So I did but I grew an alergic reaction to them, and had to start taking these giant horse pills. I stopped taking them and took nothing since then. I had some flu's and cold's but they passed very quickly without doing harm to me. I looked up information on my disorder and was surprised from what I read even though I knew much of the symptoms after my close death encounter of my bone marrow shuting down at the age of 12. Heh now I'm spleen free like my father and grandfather.

The information I looked up showed that my immune system was more weaker because i have no spleen, and if you have no spleen you are more prone to blood infections. Well then why didn't I need antibiotics of some sort during my flu's and cold's?

Now for swine flu. If I get swine flu and I have no spleen will I be more likely to die? I got answers saying things like "Yes if you don't have a spleen your immune system iS weaker, and your chances of survival go down." So wtf if I can pass several colds and flu like a normal person then why should I be worried? Maybe my immune system is freakishly strong because i maintain a healthy diet. But whatever the answer I just want is if I can survive swine flu if I get it. I think hand sanitizer is my best bet.

Even though this is not some doctors office forum place, maybe someone here is good at knowing diseases and the human body.

O and if anyone has a disorder that is related to mine. Please share.

[SnaFuBAR]

I could ask my ex fiance if you'd like. She's a med student down in Mexico, and in the thick of it all, people dying in her hospital. She'd know more than anyone on these boards, I can tell you that much.

[PopeAK49]

That would be awesome if you can.

[Heathen]

thats pretty interesting actually.

[sdavis117]

I thought the Swine Flu killed in a similar (but less lethal) way as the Bird Flu (because the Swine Flu is part Bird Flu). And if there is one thing I know about the Bird Flu, it is that the Bird Flu used your immune system to drown you. So if the Swine Flu is like the Bird Flu, then having a weaker immune system should increase your chances of survival.

But this is just coming from me, the person who learned these things from MSNBC, Nat Geo, and overhearing conversations at the local watering hole.

[mR_r0b0to]

afaik, the pig flu is very different from seasonal flu, and is much more serious (duh)


p.s. you don't use antibiotics against any kind of influenza or cold, since they're viral.

[Cortexian]

There's less of you to kill, so it will obviously kill you faster!

Logic contradicting medicine since <some date>.

[Kornman00]

Thats faulty logic in itself. Just because there is less of one thing doesn't mean another part of their nature doesn't compenstate. Look at people with blindsight, their hearing abilities are generally better than someone with all five sense. The same biological event can happen at much smaller levels where a certain protien sequence could be occuring which blocks a virus from attaching itself. Survive and adapt. The flu does it, and so do we. It just happens that mexico has some pretty bad health standards (Don't drink the water!) from other parts of the modern world

[PopeAK49]

afaik, the pig flu is very different from seasonal flu, and is much more serious (duh)


p.s. you don't use antibiotics against any kind of influenza or cold, since they're viral.

The antibiotic was not used to fight the flu or cold but used to clean my blood system from harmful bacteria as a spleen would do.