Healing in the Blood
I was a sickly child. Having frequent infections, on constant antibiotics, and I was eventually sent to Houston for evaluation. Their diagnosis entertained agammaglobulinemia or Bruton's disease. Very simply put the disorder was characterized by very low or absent antibody levels. Antibodies are complex proteins in the blood that help protect the body from illness. Their hope was that I had the transient form of the disorder and would eventually "grow" out of it at or around adolescence. After years of monthly gamma globulin (antibody) shots, my own antibodies eventually returned to normal levels and now I have a robust immune system. Nevertheless, in spite of my transient disease, I survived those early years of illness which later guided my path to into medicine. Within our blood there are many ways the body protects and heals itself from billions of potential invading organisms and insults. It i...