I know i am not a baby and quite strong. I haven’t had cold or flu for about 8 years. I managed to get virused last week from a builder at the house (yes he had a rotten one).
I just cant seem to get better. I feel better then my temp goes up and I feel like death again.
I want to do things, so i know its not flu, but i have rotten cough, sore throat and sneezing, and it just isn’t settling down. When the temp hits me, then i have had it.
Is there anything i can take to support me through this. I am gargling with salt water and the sore throat is much better but i still feel like i have been hit by a lorry.
I hate to tell you this but the current cold that is doing the rounds is a real b***er that seems to last for weeks for everybody - MS or no MS. I started with it 2 weeks before Christmas just as a snuffle but it hit me with a vengeance on Christmas Eve with a full blown chesty cough etc that hung on for another 4 weeks At 1 stage we thought that it was becoming pleurisy.
Like you, I have not had a bad cold for a long time - even with Tysabri that affects the white blood cells. My OH tends to pick up every cold that is going round normally but I don’t. Normally I am “disgustingly healthy apart - apart from the MS of course” but I was knocked for 6 this time. Looking at the other non-MS sites I follow, I certainly wasn’t the only one in the UK this year.
And wouldn’t you know it. As I was typing up these posts I had the radio on listening to the news and they just had an item on with a researcher from London University who linked susceptibility to colds and flu to low Vit D and calling for EVERYBODY in the UK to take supplements to avoid and fight the infections.
I’ve had a cold for about three weeks. It’s not a bad cold, it just feels like I’m having the symptoms slowly over a prolonged period with the sore throat being the main underlying theme. My temperature control is all over the place.
Gargling always makes me want to be sick, especially if my throat is painfully sore. When I have a bad sore throat I use an anaesthetic spray called Ultra Chloraseptic. Three squirts numb my throat for a while. Other than that, ask your local pharmacist for advice. They’ll have a range of products for the various symptoms. If you have a cough, don’t fall for the “dry or chesty” categories. The cough is productive or not productive. I mention this because a few years ago my husband had a cough which felt “chesty”, because it felt like the problem was in his chest, but there was no phlegm so it was a “dry” cough. There’s some question about whether cough medicine does anything useful, so it’s not something I use much. If I have a tickly cough I suck Ricola cough sweets. They’re herbal rather than medicated, so I can use as many as I need.
When I was a child our GP told my mother, “A cold lasts seven days if you treat it, and it lasts a week if you don’t treat it.” That may be true for “normal” people, but it goes out of the window if your immune system is compromised.
There was a TV programme the other evening, “Save Money. Good Health” which included an item (presented by a doctor) stating that all cough-medicines are a complete waste of time and money.
Sufferers should simply drink hot water with lemon juice and honey in it (I assume “to-taste” as no specific measurements were suggested), and this would be every bit as effective and far less expensive.
Yeh my temperature control is all over the place, one minute 37.5, then drops to 35.5, or 36. 6 then back upto 37.8 lol… I said to my husband i think its loosening up now but i was blowing my nose so much last night my nose was bleeding.
I am just resting but feel like all my MS symptoms have gone viral lol… I know a lot of people sick with it, was annoyed really as the builder came with it, and should have warned us.
Thanks for your support Boblatina and cheerful dragon. xxx
On a similar theme, some years ago I read an article by a doctor saying pretty much the same thing. Expectorants don’t get to the right part of the airways. Suppressants often work by making you too drowsy to cough.
I’ve heard of honey and lemon as a cough remedy. Anything that moistens the throat should help with a tickly cough. Not sure about productive coughs.
Well I had the cold and it only lasted a week. Lucky I thought. But then it hit my legs a week later, suddenly they just stopped working. I ended up in A&E to find I had a temperature and a virus plus my lymphocytes were decimated. After going home, early the next morning I went to the loo with my OHs help and still managed to hit the floor. The paramedics picked me up. Days have gone by, the virus seems to be gone, but my legs still don’t work. So paramedics were called out again when I fell over once more this week.
I suspect the cold virus took a beating from my immune system and the damned WBCs just carried on fighting everything in my system whether it was an intruder (i.e. the virus) or not (myelin)!
No good hun. Weirdly my temp seems to go up at lunchtime bizarre. I am fed up of feeling bad, i even wet myself again today, literally was stood by sink for a drink and just started to go the toilet i had no idea it was going to happen, and it was really embarressing for me thankfully no one was there. Its happened a few times since i got sick.
I don’t know if this will make any of you feel any better but both myself (who has MS) and my husband (who hasn’t) have had the dreaded cold. I had it first and couldn’t decide if my aches and pains were MS or the cold. In true married couple style I shared the cold with my hubbie. I now know that all those aches and pains weren’t MS they were connected with the cold. My husband has been in really difficulty as a result of the cold - loads of pain in his joints - both arms and legs in fact he said he now understood a bit how I felt when my MS pain hits! 3-4 weeks after the cold first hit I still have a cough and a nose that , trying not to be crude, needs a tap!
Try hot lemonade we took it when we were children and I still swear by it for raised temperature,take plenty of rest .it would appear to be that keeping your core Temperature stable is vital when u have m s .apart from this live in a bubble it’s appears to be only way to escape the bugs…lol
I think u have got to be weary if yo are on certain medication.I’m on cholesterol tablets an have been advicednot to eat or drink grapefruit to something g tells me that there is something about pineapple…
to be honest Jane that sounds more like flu especially if he has pains in his joints, arms and legs.
I am so tired of it, i have things i want to do lol… but cant face it so just resting all day fed up. I think this cold has decided its giving me 8 years worth lol.
Still i have found a remedy for sleep, and it works. To stop tickly cough at night slaver under you feet with vick and wear socks, its worked two nights now. Bliss.
My GP and two consultants and my previous acupuncturist insist that I invest constantly in Manuka honey, at least 14+ grade if available and eat two kiwis a day (yak) so I have been doing this since advised last March. I swear this is what has kept me away from a constant onslaught of viruses and hospital overnighters. Don’t know if it is any good for anyone else but they are all convinced it assits the immune system, doesn’t stop you getting things but it is supposed to provide a constant boost just in case.
I agree with the above posts, I think some medicines react badly to some fruit, must be the enzyme link and how it transports through the body but I can’t take my painkillers and have really citrus type fruit or all merry heck breaks loose! If I have citrus or grapefruit or anything like that, I have it at lunch time well away from pill time a bit later on.
I am just emerging from a state of catatonia brought on by the delights of a cold with a hacking cough spiced up by a rampant immune system. I sympathise with all of you on this thread. It’s no consolation but it is reassuring that we are never alone with our tribulations.
The good news is that I generally recover from these bouts in time, but the bad news is that this has happened every year for the past five years. I eat healthily, take supplements including a high dose of Vitamin D3, and receive the annual flu jab. That combination works a treat, then.
Like Sue, I did end up in A&E when this first happened, as the symptoms were so distressing. I couldn’t move and my body temperature fluctuated like a swingometer on election night. The trip to A&E was fruitless although the staff were very sympathetic. The junior doctor listened to what I had to say and then concluded sagely that the whole incident was probably neurological. It’s as well that I am phlegmatic with a sense of humour. As I know now what to expect it can be managed with help from my lovely family.
I just hope that I do recover in days rather than weeks. I also hope that all of you get over your colds and flu as soon as MS allows.
Thank goodness for the iPlayer; it has kept me sane.
At 1 stage we thought that it was becoming pleurisy.