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I never saw it coming.  And I never really felt it until it flared.

The episode likely began as an inhaled fungal pathogen (likely Coccidioidesimmitis, but it could have been C.posadasii) that flared up into something much bigger.  The doctor tells me that I likely breathed it in while roaming the desert trails, maybe sometime in early September.

The pathogens are usually dormant in the long dry spells of the year but when the rains come they can then develop into a mold with long filaments that break off into  airborne spores. Once inhaled they typically resolve into mild flu-like symptoms that in Arizona we usually call Valley Fever.  But as it did in my particular case, over a period of some weeks or even a couple of months, it can become a full-blown inflammation of the lungs; in short, a less-than-fun bout of pneumonia.

As my doctor further explained it to me, if you’re generally in good health the illness can stay sub-acute or below the radar until it might suddenly flash into the more serious infection.  The good news is that with rest, oral antibiotics, simple analgesics, and fluids, most types of bacterial  pneumonia can be cleared within two to four weeks.  Building up to a full strength might require a couple more weeks.

I don’t know when the musings began.  Perhaps it was a moment early in the pneumonic stage as I was visiting the Land of Fever 104.  But at one point I began to wonder how such a very small pathogen – one that I couldn’t see, feel, hear, or touch – could have such a huge impact on my body?  And maybe because I was in a feverish state several different times early in the course of my pneumonia, I also began to wonder . . . What insights might emerge from understanding how a case of Valley Fever that lapsed into a more serious case of pneumonia might be like climate change. (more…)