Two-peak colds: ME thing or normal thing?

S

Sasha

Fine, thank you
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I started a bad cold a few days ago. They tend to start out mild, get worse until it's awful, then they improve a bit, and then they get markedly worse again for a few days before they fade out by around Day 10.

It's so long since I've been healthy that I can't remember if this is a normal pattern for a healthy person but I don't think it is.

Does anyone else have this?

Do we know what it means? Does it offer any kind of clue to what is wrong with us?
 
rosie26

rosie26

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Most of my ordinary colds start out awful, stay awful for a couple of days or more, then slowly ease up until better. If I am unlucky the cold may go to my chest. I must say though, I have had lots of 'other' more awful strains the years between 2009-11. I have not had a cold for the last 2 years - so, I think next year it will be all on again.

Hope you feel better soon Sasha.
 
B

Battery Muncher

Senior Member
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620
Interesting question. I have also forgotten what it is like to have a 'normal' cold.

I have similar experiences to you, though. I also find I have multiple 'peaks' during my cold. Often I finish a 3 day course of paracetemol feeling back to normal, only for symptoms to increase again. Sometimes I have 3 or 4 peaks over several weeks.

One difference I have is that my colds never become 'awful'. They are usually quite mild (with one exception, where I developed laryngitis and viral conjunctivits as well), and I sometimes feel better, in some respects, than I do normally.

In fact, I'm not sure whether I actually catch colds, or simply exacerbation of ME flu-like symptoms.
 
S

Sasha

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An immunologist once told me that if your nose doesn't run, it's not a new infection and is likely to be reactivation of an old virus. I don't know if that's widely accepted. This was about ten years ago.
 
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