Colds

[jensen_lynne]

Does your cold take longer to go away from lupus! Do you get it a lot more?

[Tonk]

The short answer to your question is yes.

I seldom used to get colds indeed, if I got one in a period of a year, I counted it as a bad year.

Since having SLE, I get many every year and they can take up to three weeks to clear up, rather than just a couple of days like they used to.

The problem is that there are many bugs and bug carriers in the environment. My grandchildren often pop in to see us and they often have colds or coughs. They are of school age and schools are notorious for being germ factories.

We travel on buses and we often see people coughing and sneezing into their hands and they then grab the hand rails.

As a retired psychiatric nurse, I know I keep my hands very clean but, other people do not and it is very easy to touch something which has bugs on it and then perhaps, touch one's face or lips and thus infect one's self.

It is a nightmare to be honest but, it is one of the many crosses we have to bear with Lupus.

[MandaM in reply to Tonk]

Yes I think we do get lots of colds and other bugs. I work in the NHS seeing newborns, their little siblings and parents. It's a constant stream of stinking colds (excuse the pun!) Siblings just having had diahorea, vomitting not 48 hrs clear, having chicken pox etc. Mum's just bring them along to appointments, never mind me, immune supressed and insufficient vitamin D levels to boot. In this society with poor hygeine practices, everywhere you touch has others unwashed hand germs on, China & Japan have the right idea with the wearing of face masks out in public when poorly. Colds do seem to last about 3 weeks or so. I used to work on a ward and never got poorly but now with the babies and children I get everything and I've noticed the other people in the team pick up colds too, alot!

[rlupus]

yes i have had a cold for ages and told its the immune system not working right,

[jensen_lynne in reply to rlupus]

I get colds all the time too, it sucks, I wish no one had lupus