My nephrologist and a rheumatologist both told me that once you get one autoimmune disease, then your body is more apt to wig out and produce more AI diseases. Certainly true in my case - I was diagnosed with IgA Nephropathy at age 23 (chronic kidney disease), which is an autoimmune disorder that attacks your kidneys. I guess my body bored of playing around with kidneys and moved on to other organs to eat in the form of WG. I guess at least my body is a creative sort.....didn't just sit around and want only kidneys. My body is a go-getter - a go-getter of organ systems!
Actually, there is a pretty good theory behind why people get IgA Nephropathy. Your tonsils are designed to hold ALOT of infection, and they keep recycling it throughout your body if you tend to get sick all the time as I did as a child. I would get strep throat, bronchitis, tonsillitis, and sinus infections all year long. I was in a household with adult smokers, so I'm sure that didn't help. My family was very, very poor and we didn't have any health insurance, so we hardly ever got trips to the doctor. No one ever thought, "Hey, maybe we should take her tonsils out so she'll stop getting so sick!" It wasn't until I had health insurance on myself in my early 20s did I finally get so sick that the IgA Nephropathy was found through a kidney biopsy did the nephrologist and ENT put 2-and-2 together and had me get a tonsillectomy. I believe that 23 years of infections running through my system from those DISGUSTING tonsils they pulled out really wrecked my immune system to the point it's scarred for life. The ENT said there was so much pus that came out of my tonsils, well, let's just say ewwwwwwwwwwww.
So, I believe if a child is sick all the time and their tonsils are constantly swollen and full of goo, have them taken out. You'll probably save them from a lifetime of autoimmune diseases.
Teri from Texas
Diagnosed w/WG March 2015
"Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me." - Psalm 30:2
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