Her doctor said that she had the flu. It took years to find the strange disease.

Diane Bates was lying on the floor of her bathroom in the middle of the afternoon – weak, disoriented and fearful that she would die before someone found her.

Bates was battling what had been said to him as a bad case of influenza for weeks. She hoped that a bath could make her feel better, but she had felt wobbly before fainting out of the tub.

Alone in her Seattle home in the United States, she managed to crawl up to her room, pick up her cell phone and dial 911.

The paramedics sprinted to a nearby hospital, where the doctors determined that she was severely dehydrated; at 90/60, her blood pressure was worrying. Tests have shown that the problem was not the flu, but a bad case of pneumonia that had invaded his right lung.

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The unusual cause of pneumonia was a surprise. It has also turned out to be a key clue that, a few years later, would reveal the underlying reason for the severe breathing problems that had haunted Bates for more than a decade.

"I have never heard of it," said 58-year-old Bates, a technical writer for Google who lives in Silicon Valley in the United States.

Many doctors are not aware of the disorder, said Charles Feng, the California allergist who made the diagnosis.

"The important thing is to recognize the correlation between all these symptoms." Often, he added, "people are starting to see all these different doctors, and no one understands it."

In early February 2012, after spending several weeks fighting fever, pain and exhaustion, Bates saw his internist, who diagnosed the flu and advised rest and fluids.

Her fever disappeared, but Bates said the weakness remained, as did nasal congestion – a common problem after years of chronic sinusitis, which she developed in her forties with asthma. Bates was soon struggling with a new problem: soaking the night sweats.

Bates said his doctor had told him that night sweats were not related to the flu and marked the advent of menopause.

"I would have days when I would really feel bad, and days when I would feel better," she remembers apathy and tiredness. The night sweats were particularly troublesome. "I woke up from a deep sleep, completely soaking the sheets."

She returned to her internist in March. "It's the flu, she can hang on for a moment, do not worry," she recalls the doctor about her prolonged discomfort.

Bates, who was at the time an independent contractor working from home, said that she spent her day working by taking naps.

The previous months had been difficult. In early December, Bates sprained his ankle. She decided that the injury was not serious enough to deserve a doctor's visit and started taking ibuprofen to reduce swelling and pain. It seemed to work.

But her collapse in April made her understand how much she was used to feeling sick.

"I remember being loaded into the ambulance and I thought maybe it was the last thing I was going to see," recalls Bates, who spent five days in the hospital.

She was surprised to learn that her pneumonia was not caused by the usual viruses or bacteria, but that she was classified as eosinophilic pneumonia, a form of lung infection caused by an increase in eosinophils, a type of white blood cell.

Medications, including aspirin and other NSAIDs – nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen – may cause an increase in eosinophils for reasons that are not well understood.

A pulmonologist who saw Bates at the hospital warned that she was essentially allergic to NSAIDs and should never take them again.

"It was hard," said Bates, as he left acetaminophen as the only over-the-counter pain reliever that she could take. Unlike NSAIDs, acetaminophen does not reduce inflammation and is not generally considered effective in the treatment of sinus infections.

Her asthma, which was sometimes difficult to control, remained a major concern. Bates estimates that three or four times a year she would end up in the emergency room unable to breathe.

Two years after his pneumonia, Bates moved to Northern California in the United States. She hoped the new climate would be better for her health.

Instead, his problems got worse.

In December 2015 Bates was sent back to Feng. His specialist ear, nose and throat had recommended endoscopic surgery to relieve his repeated sinus infections and remove nasal polyps.

But he first wanted to make sure that Bates did not have any underlying allergies, such as tree pollen or grasses, which could compromise the effectiveness of l & # 39; transaction.

The allergist has made a balance sheet. To Bates' surprise, she was allergic to nothing except mites. When she mentioned her allergy to NSAIDs in Feng, her interest was stung.

His story had a familiar ring. Feng recently completed his residency at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, United States, during which he took care of several dozens of patients with a similar profile: recurrent sinus infections, asthma, and high numbers of eosinophils .

After learning that Bates had developed asthma and sinus problems in her forties and that she had become congested after drinking alcohol, he realized that "qu & # She had all the symptoms.

Feng strongly suspected that Bates was suffering from a poorly known disease called Samter's triad – also known as a respiratory illness exacerbated by aspirin, or AERD.

The DEA, which affects about nine percent of adults with asthma, is a chronic disease characterized by NSAID sensitivity, which can be fatal. Some sufferers lose their sense of smell. Most do not respond to traditional sinusitis treatments, which they usually develop in middle age.

"The immune system becomes hyperactive," said Feng, "but no one really knows what causes it."

Some people undergo sinus surgery to remove nasal polyps, which then grow back because the underlying problem remains unresolved.

A treatment, developed in recent years, consists of administering aspirin in doses increasingly important under medical supervision.

Called desensitization to aspirin, the outpatient procedure usually takes two or three days and can relieve the symptoms of AERD, reducing the frequency of sinus infections and improving asthma control and the quality of life of the patient.

Scripps Research Institute, Boston Brigham and Women's Hospital in the United States are known for their AERD treatment programs. (Desensitization is also often used to treat environmental allergies.)

But this treatment also requires that patients take a daily dose of aspirin. Some people can not tolerate it because aspirin causes gastrointestinal bleeding.

Bates said she was caught off guard when Feng offered treatment, fearing that it was potentially dangerous.

But after undergoing sinus surgery in April 2016, she changed her mind.

"I felt so much better," she said, and she feared the improvement would be temporary if she did not tackle the root cause.

Bates said that she also spoke with a friend who had successfully undergone desensitization for another condition, which soothed her fears.

After his insurer approved the treatment, Bates scheduled it for December 2016.

She first received a baby aspirin, which caused no reaction. This was followed an hour or two later by two baby aspirin, which triggered an asthma attack that Feng quickly controlled.

Over the next two days, Feng started increasing the dose until Bates was able to tolerate two 325 milligram aspirin tablets without adverse reaction. She continues to take this dose every day.

Bates said the desensitization treatment marked a turning point in his health.

In the past 15 months, she said, she has not made any emergency visits due to asthma and has suffered from a single sinus where she has recovered more quickly than before.

"I definitely have a better quality of life now," she said. "I feel good."

She finds it ironic that she did not arrive at the hospital with life-threatening pneumonia, she may never have learned the disorder that triggered it – and for a decade Had made it so miserable.

Even though the experience was "terrifying, I am rather happy to have received it and to have been diagnosed," she said.

– The Washington Post