I have a long history of always getting sick when I sleep with my hair remotely wet.
The worst, was one time when I was 12, I had gone swimming with my cousins, didn’t have a private place to change into dry clothes, no towels, so I slipped a long tee shirt over my wet bathing suit. It was getting late, so we drove off. The air was cool, and I fell asleep. Someone opened the window and left it open for the half-hour ride home. When I stepped out of the car, I couldn’t talk, and I got really sick. The doctor told me I had Chronic Bronchitis due to Streptococcus. I thought I was going to get Pneumonia, seriously! Now, I do understand that Bronchitis and Pneumonia are caused by bacteria, but are they always caused by bacteria? How is chilling of the body, especially the head related to immunosuppression? I’ve done research and found NOTHING.
When I was in middle school, I had a stupid habit of sleeping with my hair wet, and I mean straight out of the shower wet. It had something to do with my hair being curly and feeling more manageable when wet… whatever, it was a stupid idea because with every time I did that, I would get sicker. Keep in mind, that I wasn’t already sick when I did this, so it’s not like it was only making a preexisting cold worse. Eventually, I had to stop because I would get really sick anytime I did this, even if it was warm weather. So I would go to sleep just fine, with my hair wet, and wake up with shortness of breath, chest and
upper back pain when inhaling, plugged nose (with no mucus), and as if I had a thick mucous deep down my throat that wouldn’t let me breathe efficiently. The worst symptom, and the reason why I stopped was that I felt a peculiar headache-like pain in the the occipital section (lower back of my head), followed by tonsillitis, pain and difficulty swallowing, and sometimes even earaches a day later. Now, each time I did this wasn’t one time after another, so it wasn’t like the same bacterial infection just getting worse. I do have a LONG history of really bad earaches (ear infections since I was an infant) and I know it’s linked to my tonsils. My tonsils are in SUCH bad shape. I never got them taken out, although doctors tried several time to talk me into it when I was younger. I guess I never got around to it??
My tonsils look TORN. They’re asymmetrical and have missing pieces with craters. Sometimes, I get tonsil stones too. Nasty things. The back of my throat ALWAYS has bright pink bumps. I’m a first semester student nurse, and I can’t seem to find the link between all these. I don’t know if I’m being paranoid, but one of my patients recently passed away… and it all started out with neck cancer. I don’t know what the heck I should do, whether I should get my tonsils taken out because they seem to be a host for bacteria, instead of a protection against it. I get Strep throat during the winter almost every year, my tonsils get really nasty with exudate, and my Dr. warned that this bacteria is usually recurrent this way. Yes, I do get antibiotics for it, and I do finish the treatment. If I get my tonsils taken out, I don’t want to get a stupid infection in the incision site or have trouble healing though. I’m kind of scared to do so.
Does Chronic Bronchitis imply that it is ONLY caused by infectious microbiota? Is it always present? I guess it’s hard to understand when I’ve always had it. PLEASE HELPPP.
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