How did it come to this?

"For someone of your age survival rates from Leukemia are pretty good" said my doctor, as I sat listening, not really understanding what was going on. It was February 2004 and I had been called into my doctors urgently following a blood test.

The previous summer I had noticed some changes that were quite scarey. I always seemed to have a cold, I was always tired and when off work I would sleep all night and then sleep in the middle of the day, I had no energy and my normally laid back personality became more aggressive and snappy. My first blood test showed me to be iron deficient anaemic. Nothing a simple course of tablets couldnt sort out.

The date of my follow up test was one month later. The short walk from the station to the doctors surgery left me breathless - obviously no real change. Little did I know how much of an effect this test would have on the rest of my life. The fact nobody would give me the results should have a warning sign.

Eventually an urgent phone call from my doctor gave the bad news. My WBC, platelet and neutraphil counts were extremely low and I required urently an appointment with an haemotologist as Leukemia was expected. The day arrived less than a week later and I was subjected to the horror of a painful bone marrow biopsy. Thankfully Leukemia was ruled out and ITP and autoimmune neutropenia was the diagnosis.

So how was the CVID found? In the summer of 2009, I took the brave step of making a dentists appointment due to horrible toothache. Due to the risk of bleeding caused by ITP, the dentist refused to do any work unless I went private. Nice. I spoke to my haemotologist who reviewed my case and was shocked to discover a massive drop in my antibody counts over the past five years. This certainly explained the consistant lack of energy and continual infections. I was refferred to an immunologist for further investigation.

After a whole battery of tests which included numerous vaccinations (all of which failed) and an extensive investigation of my familys health history the CVID diagnosis was confirmed. How and where it came from I dont know as gentic transfer has been pretty much ruled out. The next step is to work out how I want to have the replacement antibodies..............