Cold and flu season

How does everyone cope with winters and cold / flu everywhere?

My daughter is at nursery and it’s impossible to isolate from germs. She has had the flu for a week and I have been on Mummy Nurse duty. However today I have woken up with it. I have had my flu / COVID vaccines but am at a loss as to how to deal with my immune system.

I don’t know how to explain it to people either. Saying oh my symptoms are worse/longer seems like I’m being dramatic. I do recall having ‘long’ COVID and I was basically asleep for two weeks (before my diagnosis) and people could not understand it.

Just don’t know how to deal with it and protect myself as best I can. Any tips welcome.

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I sympathise, labouring as I am with another chest infection following on from a cold. Honestly, I don’t think there’s much to be done beyond the work of supporting our own immune defences, 70% of which originates from our gut (says Tim Spector) by keeping our gut microbiome strong with good food, lots of fruit, veg and fibre and fermented foods and no UPF crap if we can manage it. Not that it seems to have done me much good just now, but you can’t win them all and risk management is all we can do. As for other people’s reactions, well sod ‘em, basically. Easier said than done, I know.

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Hello @April2023
I would just add, try to get out in the fresh air more, silly me stayed cooped up indoors wfh and then long-term off-sick for the past 2 years due to recurring respiratory infections. My bad!
Gws,
JP

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Thank you both. I hope you both feel better soon.

I do try and get out for about an hour a day - the ice and weather has put me off massively for the past few days but I will try tomorrow as people will be at home. I highly doubt if I fell over at the moment I would be able to get up!

Thank you, diet is still something I’m looking into as my belly has always been very sensitive. I love food, but it doesn’t love me! Hoping by introducing little and often bits I get there.

I think if I lock myself away (which is impossible anyway at the moment) my mental health will take the hit. If I go out I will get some kind of flu! It seems like a no win situation. I will get there, swings and roundabouts.

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I allow myself to have some codeine to manage my MS pain when a cold or flu makes it worse. The rest of the time it’s just para and ibu.

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A boring practical reply. My wife and her daughter had Covid this October and slightly to my surprise I escaped it by frequent washing of hands , washing down door handles etc and keeping my distance plus avoiding wiping my eyes or eating food with unwashed hands. I know that keeping your distance would be impossible with a nursery age child but a face mask might help when you are near your daughter ? Similarly when in any busy places - you might feel somewhat self conscious but better safe than sorry.

As for explaining to other people and slightly along the lines of @alison100 , just be totally factual- explain you have MS and any infections can cause damaging inflammation in your brain ( or if you want to be really, really dramatic but still totally factual and true - infections can cause your immune system to attack and cause long term damage to your brain ).

A couple of years ago, Covid laid me low for weeks and it took months and months to recover.

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Vitamin D basically! I started taking it because my neuro recommended it just because of MS, and he suggested a high dose of about 8000ui per day and that as long as I didn’t go over 10,000 it should be risk free. I started taking 4000 about five years ago and I honestly have not had a cold since then. My partner and I both got Covid quite early on, I had a cough for about 24 hours but he was in bed for almost 2 weeks and had to call an ambulance at one point. Even though I’m touching wood while I say it, because I don’t want to tempt fate, I genuinely think vitamin D kept me free of all the snuffles and sniffles everybody else seems to be walking around with. It’s more of a side benefit though, because the neuro suggested I take it for ms.

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Yep - back to the face mask in busy places, shops, public transport, even the office when the coughs/sneezes start. I’ve even worn a face mask when training (the smaller kids are convinced I’m a Ninja). That and hand washing/hand sanitizer, Dettol sprays to clean door handles and surfaces around the house, I even use Dettol spray in the car (especially if I’ve given someone a lift anywhere).

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Interesting! I also started on Vitamin D some years ago. 4000iu and come to think of it I have had very few if any of the usual colds. I wonder if it’s because of the Vit D or because I tend to avoid busy airless places . Either way, I can’t really remember what is like to have a stuffed up nose, sore throat and cough.

The last similar thing was about two and a half years ago with Covid but that was quite different and something I don’t want to repeat ! ( i had all my Covid jabs but with my wife was on a guided wildlife tour around Scotland- several days in a mini van with someone who was coughing but said they had tested negative. The day we got back home they sent a text to say they were now testing positive . As expected both my wife and I went down with the bug and for a couple of days my right leg- the one most affected by MS- packed up completely and I had to use a small folding mobility scooter just to get to the toilet. My general view is definitely that Covid is best avoided at all costs!)

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