I like to read mystery novels sometimes, and I started that back in my childhood reading Nancy Drew books. As I became older, I realized that there are many unsolved mysteries in the world, and the medical field has more than its fair share of them. When I con­sider how medical research in the field of multiple myeloma alone has progressed recently, it seems obvious to me that the more researchers learn about immunity and hematology, the more likely it is that cures can be found for pre­vi­ously incurable diseases.

If you read my columns, you will know that I am keen on getting any available vaccinations to boost my immune system, and that I try to take sensible precautions to stay healthy.

Even so, every winter I seem to catch at least one viral in­fec­tion, which I attribute to being in crowds, around small children, or even touching hand rails when going up and down to catch trains at subway stations. Hand washing is always a must in my world.

But I recently had a mysterious rash that I had never ex­peri­enced before.

This spring we had a lot of pollen in the air that came from coniferous trees being stressed after a long winter. It was so thick that it covered windows and outdoor furniture with a yellow dust. I had a cough and runny nose that lasted for about two weeks that I attributed to an allergic reaction to this pollen and other little winged seeds falling from elm trees.

I also love to garden and was doing a lot of pruning and weeding to encourage my perennials to bloom. We have peonies, columbines, daffodils, poppies, roses, prairie crocuses, and flowering trees such as crabapples, lilacs, and hawthorne in our garden, and it is a pleasure to get outside after the long winter.

So when I noticed a rash on my right hand, I just assumed that it was from the garden, and that maybe I had touched a stinging nettle without realizing that. The rash was not itchy, though, as a nettle rash normally would be.

The rash actually spread and went up to my finger tips, plus it was also in a line on my hand. This indicated that it could be viral and was fol­low­ing a nerve. I remembered that I had two ‘non-live’ vaccinations against shingles this spring and wondered if this could be in a reaction to that. Shingles is a viral in­fec­tion that can spread along nerves.

But my feet were also unusually numb. They still become numb sometimes since I had a reaction to Velcade during the IV infusion of that drug in 2009. The recent bout of numbness occurred after we had been out to a symphony performance and I had been wearing dress shoes. When I looked at my feet afterwards, I noticed a rash also was appearing on my toes. There were red spots that were blistering. After that, spots on my elbows and tongue also appeared.

Could this be measles, I wondered. I have been vaccinated against that after my stem cell trans­plant, so that did not seem too likely.

It was my husband Dilip, a family doctor, who diagnosed this rash as being hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). This viral in­fec­tion is commonly found in children under the age of 5. It is usually not serious and lasts for 7 to 10 days. That is the path it took with me, and the in­fec­tion was gone by ten days. I wondered then if my runny nose and cough that I had attributed to being an allergic reaction could also have been connected to this in­fec­tion.

HFMD is usually caused by the coxsackievirus A16, or less commonly by the enterovirus 71. Gen­er­ally, adults develop immunity to this in­fec­tion, but in individuals with low immunity, the risk of devel­op­ing it after ex­posure is higher. Based on my recent ex­peri­ence, I think that I still have low im­muni­ties, dating back to all the cancer treat­ments I have taken, including those during the time of my stem cell trans­plant in 2010.

Luckily, my dear grandchildren, who are all under the age of four, did not have any rash or blisters. I washed all of our toys at home with a disinfectant solu­tion and avoided touching the children for a while. The virus is usually contagious during the first week of the in­fec­tion, and I did not want it to spread further.

I don’t know how I contracted HFMD, but it possibly could have been from taking the kids to play­grounds. It can actually be infectious even in people who do not show outward signs of it.

I didn’t receive treat­ment for the HFMD other than an antihistamine to relieve my symp­toms. I also slathered on my favorite peppermint foot cream to moisturize up the dry, flaky skin that devel­oped after the rash and blisters cleared up on my feet.

There was no harm done, and sometimes I think that this is how I am building up normal immunities again, by having in­fec­tions one after the other.

───────────────── ♦ ─────────────────

The quotation for this month is from John Glenn (1921 - 2016), a United States Marine Corps aviator, engi­neer, astronaut, and U.S. Senator from Ohio, who said: "If we could do something that enhances the body's immune system here on Earth, it would be a tremendous step forward in the fight against disease and cancer and other things."