Persimmon
Senior Member
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@jonathanedwards has drawn attention to the apparent phenomena of some ME patients very rarely getting sick with the common cold, while others catch colds far more frequently than is normal.
My question is whether people with ME experience colds differently to healthy people.
Since contracting ME, my experience of colds involves:
(1) An unusual and protracted prodrome, during which I typically assume its just a fluctuation of regular ME symptoms (ie "I must have overdone it and so am experiencing worse than usual sore throat, low/grade fever and light headedness").
After maybe 5 days of this, I start to wonder if I've misinterpreted these symptoms, and whether a cold has started. There might be several days of not knowing which it is.
Eventually it becomes obvious I have a cold.
&
(2) Lingering symptoms.
My cold might "break" repeatedly, like multiple waves
(ie I go through the stage of sneezing, running nose and watering eyes; then it dries up; then the fluids flow again; then it dries up again...)
After that process, the whole thing dies down very gradually, with some symptoms (typically coughing and unusual sore throats) lingering for maybe 3-4 weeks.
From start to finish, the process never takes less than a few weeks, and might last for 2 months.
My question is whether people with ME experience colds differently to healthy people.
Since contracting ME, my experience of colds involves:
(1) An unusual and protracted prodrome, during which I typically assume its just a fluctuation of regular ME symptoms (ie "I must have overdone it and so am experiencing worse than usual sore throat, low/grade fever and light headedness").
After maybe 5 days of this, I start to wonder if I've misinterpreted these symptoms, and whether a cold has started. There might be several days of not knowing which it is.
Eventually it becomes obvious I have a cold.
&
(2) Lingering symptoms.
My cold might "break" repeatedly, like multiple waves
(ie I go through the stage of sneezing, running nose and watering eyes; then it dries up; then the fluids flow again; then it dries up again...)
After that process, the whole thing dies down very gradually, with some symptoms (typically coughing and unusual sore throats) lingering for maybe 3-4 weeks.
From start to finish, the process never takes less than a few weeks, and might last for 2 months.