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Colds: Anybody get worse halfway through?

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
I have a weird pattern with colds - the worst day is usually the second day since onset of symptoms, then I gradually get better, then I have a big setback around the sixth or seventh day (now, whoopee) and am pretty much back to baseline by the tenth or eleventh day.

Anyone know why that would be? Is this some immune mechanism or am I maybe just pushing it as I start to improve and reaping the consequences? :ill:
 

Seven7

Seven
Messages
3,444
Location
USA
Sasha I have a different Pattern, I first day feel worse, second day I feel No CFS symptoms at all!! (same when I get my period) then 3rd day I never have a cold more than 1 or 2 days. I go back to where I was before the cold. I love colds when I get them!! That tells me you might want to look into your immune system balance.
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Hi lnester7 - I'm sure all our immune systems are shot. When I first got ME 25 years ago, I caught a cold about 6 months in. I had the full works - streaming nose, pounding ears, throat like sandpaper and I felt GREAT, for the first time since I'd got ME. Then the cold wore off and I was back where I started. After a couple of years I got another flu-like episode like the one that gave me ME and was confined to bed for seven years. During that time I didn't get any cold symptoms at all - I was just dead flat stable the whole time. Then I went into partial remission but had about 20 colds a year for ten years. Now a big relapse that has lasted five years and this new pattern with the colds. No clue what to make of it.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Hi lnester7 - I'm sure all our immune systems are shot. When I first got ME 25 years ago, I caught a cold about 6 months in. I had the full works - streaming nose, pounding ears, throat like sandpaper and I felt GREAT, for the first time since I'd got ME. Then the cold wore off and I was back where I started. After a couple of years I got another flu-like episode like the one that gave me ME and was confined to bed for seven years. During that time I didn't get any cold symptoms at all - I was just dead flat stable the whole time. Then I went into partial remission but had about 20 colds a year for ten years. Now a big relapse that has lasted five years and this new pattern with the colds. No clue what to make of it.

That sure sounds like a majorly messed up (imbalanced?) immune system.
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
That sure sounds like a majorly messed up (imbalanced?) immune system.
Hi SOC - isn't that what we've all got, though?

All my tests (what's available on the NHS, which is basic stuff) has always come up normal.
 

Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,431
Location
UK
I always find this subject interesting.

In the first ten years of my pre-ME illness............I had had a severe unidentified infection (suspected to be EBV) in 1972......... after three tetanus jabs................. which left me unable to understand or express speech..............I had endless colds , infections and bouts of pneumonia that always left me with PVFS. Then in 1981, after moving into a new timber framed home that had been treated with a combination of lindane, pentachlorophenel, dieldrin and possibly an OP, full-blown ME hit. (My neighbours who lived in identical houses also developed various chronic immune diseases, one dying. I have also recently been informed that a relative's husband who was responsible for the building of the houses and who daily handled the wooden frames, also died and the company have admitted that exposure to the chemicals did cause his death. )

From 1981, I haven't been able to develop a cold or run a proper fever. When......oh bliss!......I try to develop flu-proper.......although my temperature is pathetic I feel so much better and am like a 'normal' person who has the flu. I have little symapthy for peple who complain of being ill with flu anymore. They don't know how fortunate they are! It feels to me that my immune system, instead of attacking me, attacks the bug instead. When the flu eventually resolves, often a bout of pneumonia later, I feel so much more ill again.

The one time I have been very grateful for ME was when everyone around me was suffering from the Norvo virus......a very icky experience for all concerned..apart from me. I became a little queasy and could just about detect that I had the bug, but the mighty ME floored it. It didn't stand a chance.

I would love to know exactly what is wrong with our immune systems. Stories such as the above must present clues to immunologists.

C.G.
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Hi Countrygirl - sorry to hear what a tough time you've had. That really sounds awful.

Most of my "colds" in my ten years of remission had all the symptoms (bed-rest-needing fatigue, malaise, sore throat, etc.) except a runny nose. A consultant immunologist told me that the absence of runny nose meant that these weren't new infections but an old virus reactivating over and over. I told him I had usually a day before the next "cold" hit and he advised me to go to the gym on that day to build up my reserve of stamina! :eek:

Happily, feeling much better today (Day 9) and almost back to baseline.
 

Seven7

Seven
Messages
3,444
Location
USA
All the people I know that get the inmune pannel, we all have different Panels, and there the difference in Symptoms.
I have low Tcells, High B cells, Low NK cell. I know others that were ok NK cell but Low T cell......

For example I never run fevers, and I have a very low TNFRI and II so that makes sense. If you can pay a skype consultation with Elander or any of those Dr that offer the service, you can get the right tests ordered: Viral reactivations!, the Lymes, Cytokine, Lymphocyte Subpannels....
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
All the people I know that get the inmune pannel, we all have different Panels, and there the difference in Symptoms.
I have low Tcells, High B cells, Low NK cell. I know others that were ok NK cell but Low T cell......

For example I never run fevers, and I have a very low TNFRI and II so that makes sense. If you can pay a skype consultation with Elander or any of those Dr that offer the service, you can get the right tests ordered: Viral reactivations!, the Lymes, Cytokine, Lymphocyte Subpannels....
Might get these tests done at some point (they're about £1,500 all in) - depends if it will affect my treatment. I've been trying to persuade my NHS GP.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Hi SOC - isn't that what we've all got, though?
Indeed! We've all got some manner of messed up immune system, but maybe not all the same kind of mess. ;)

All my tests (what's available on the NHS, which is basic stuff) has always come up normal.
**sigh** Yeah, the tests my GP (in the US) can/will run all come up normal, too. It's so frustrating. Fortunately, I could see Dr Lerner and Dr Rey and get the specialized testing (and interpretation) that turned up immune dysfunction and multiple chronic infections. You folks in the UK have it really rough! :(
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
I have a weird pattern with colds - the worst day is usually the second day since onset of symptoms, then I gradually get better, then I have a big setback around the sixth or seventh day (now, whoopee) and am pretty much back to baseline by the tenth or eleventh day.

Anyone know why that would be? Is this some immune mechanism or am I maybe just pushing it as I start to improve and reaping the consequences? :ill:

Your pattern sounds immune, but just in case it might be something else, I'll pass on info from a brilliant GP I had years ago. She said that a lot of us reinfect ourselves with bathroom cups and toothbrushes. She suggested keeping your toothbrush in a glass of hydrogen peroxide or alcohol-based mouthwash when you're ill (if not all the time) so that you don't keep putting a germy toothbrush in your mouth. :ill: Seems to work for me, so I keep doing it.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
For example I never run fevers, and I have a very low TNFRI and II so that makes sense.

I have low TNF RI and low-normal TNF RII, too. How does that explain never running fevers? There's so much I don't understand about these immune tests. :confused:
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Your pattern sounds immune, but just in case it might be something else, I'll pass on info from a brilliant GP I had years ago. She said that a lot of us reinfect ourselves with bathroom cups and toothbrushes. She suggested keeping your toothbrush in a glass of hydrogen peroxide or alcohol-based mouthwash when you're ill (if not all the time) so that you don't keep putting a germy toothbrush in your mouth. :ill: Seems to work for me, so I keep doing it.

That's weird - I would have thought that you couldn't reinfect yourself with a cold you've already got and that your antibodies would already be all systems go on that particular bug but if it works for you, maybe it could work for me! I'll try that next time. I think I'm just about over the current cold but another one's bound to be along soon!
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
That's weird - I would have thought that you couldn't reinfect yourself with a cold you've already got and that your antibodies would already be all systems go on that particular bug but if it works for you, maybe it could work for me! I'll try that next time. I think I'm just about over the current cold but another one's bound to be along soon!

I would have thought so, too. Maybe we are just not making antibodies well? Or maybe it has to do with secondary bacterial infections in the mouth or throat...? I dunno. These days, I don't ever count on my immune system to be "all systems go", so I do these things just in case. :)