Gastronomically speaking, I don't have much of an appetite today. I'd just had a simple breakfast of wheat pandesal and lemongrass tea with a little bit of honey. I guess I'll go easy on solids today and consume more hot liquids, juices and distilled water (that's the water I drink whenever I'm sick because it has relatively fewer virulent pathogens compared to purified water). I'm thinking more tea with honey and at least a dozen cans of unsweetened pineapple juice. That'll surely increase my vitamin C intake and give my compromised immune system a much-needed lift.
Medications? I'm not one who pops a pill at the slightest discomfort. Rather, I give my immune system a chance to naturally fight any immunogen that might have gotten into my system. At least that's what I learned during my undergrad elective and my grad school coursework. Right now, I guess my IgE and IgM are hard at work. IgE is the antibody responsible for allergic reactions, while IgM is the antibody secreted by our immune system during initial exposure to an immunogen (substances or microorganisms that trigger an immune response). I don't want to go into the gory details as to how these two work, the above descriptions will suffice.
I guess I have to take my much-needed rest now, though I doubt it's gonna be restful given my constricted airways. I can hear wheezing sounds whenever I gulp in air. Before I sign off, however, let me leave you with pictures of IgE and IgM (pics from Wikipedia). :))
This is IgE:
And this is IgM, which occurs as a pentamer (consisting of five subunits):
