My First Cold in 7 years - possible sign of recovery......

Though I never thought I would say this: Congratulations on your cold. It would seem to be a potentially positive sign. I can't remember the last time I got a cold. I read many of your posts and I'm happy that you continue to improve.

I don't mean to be a total downer, Garzie, but when I got a cold three years ago, I thought the same thing - that it must be a good sign for my overall healing. It was a doozy, but I recovered from the acute symptoms just fine, in a normal timeframe. Within a few weeks, however, I ended up bedridden with POTS and myositis, riddled with neuropathy, and even temporarily paralyzed. The cytokine storm that followed the cold was out of control! I didn't get out of bed - like genuinely needed help getting to the bathroom, and didn't go outside or see my downstairs-only dog - for five months. I discovered that my immune system knew how to fight a cold, but it didn't know when to back off!

I'm not saying you should expect this, of course! I think that part of why my "long-cold" was so severe was that I took a lot of immune-boosters, thinking I was helping my feeble immune system. (I had been thinking of my immune system as weak, rather than dysregulated, which are very different things.) Echinacea, elderberry, olive leaf, etc. I think this was a mistake, as it bolstered the cytokines that helped me get over my cold but then didn't know when to quit! My system needed immune-modulators, and recovered when I stopped the boosters and started the modulators. Just in case you have a similar response (I have CFS/ME, too) I would suggest quercetin, reishi, curcumin, and other cytokine regulators as soon as the acute symptoms pass. My LLMD also suggested transfer factor, CytoQuel, and liposomal glutathione. I didn't take those, but thought I'd pass along the ideas.

May you enjoy some nice tea, cozy in bed, and feel better very soon!

I had posted 3 or so weeks back about myself catching another cold or something.

The symptoms were more of a flu. Actually they were text book covid but I tested neg - go figure. My girlfriend who’s fully vaxed got sick for maybe 3 days and not nearly as bad. Still confused..

I ran a fever for 5 ish days. First time I’ve ran a steady fever since pre 2019. I will say that during the increase in cytokines affected my mental - I had to remind myself that my increase in symptoms were because of an increase in cytokines and not because I regressed.

I do feel my body also went to war with more than something acute during this time. I mean it’s not a stretch to think if the immune system is able to target things again that it would just let everything else exist besides this one thing. Something just felt lighter. I remember I used to have trouble imagining what improvements would look like, but now I’m really starting to believe in full remission being around the corner. (This was a build up pre acute illness, but I feel it fits in the puzzle)

Keep us updated!

Girlie said...
I have heard this before

But not sure it applies to me.

I’ve never had many colds or flu - all my life and even now.

I’d say I’m very close to remission now

Ever had your NK cell levels tested by chance? Could suggest a high level of innate immunity - but that would contradict what lead you to this forum I’d imagine. Really wish there was more funding to get all this data.

“ Ever had your NK cell levels tested by chance? Could suggest a high level of innate immunity - but that would contradict what lead you to this forum I’d imagine. Really wish there was more funding to get all this data.“

No haven’t had them tested.

I don’t think it’s necessarily low immune function that leads to chronic Lyme.
I think not treating acute Lyme - leads to chronic Lyme…,I believe even a person with decent immune function can get chronic Lyme if early infection isn’t addressed.

Girlie - is there much documentation of chronic illness from Lyme pre 1960’s though?

I know it’s been found before that but then why does it seem be much more of a problem nowadays if indeed immune function is comparable/adequate 100 years ago etc..

Maybe my perspective is flawed but it seems these microbes were either less of a problem before and became more virulent or our bodies are no longer able to handle them as well.

Girlie said...

The veterinarian that my friend takes her dog to said he didn’t see a lot of dogs with tick bites years ago but now he does - it’s more common.
Global warming? I don’t know.

Hmm. Interesting. Thanks for the perspective! Glad you’ve made so much progress.

On topic, I have often heard the "I don't get sick" claim from Lyme sufferers. I would count myself as one of those people. I do wonder if a part of it can't be explained as Lyme sufferers become less active, and aren't around people as much as they once were. Personally, I went 4 years from my tick bite without getting sick. I finally got sick in late 2019. I had the works....nausea, vomiting, chills, fever. This was after several months of high dose Disulfiram in which I made decent progress. Did the progress from Disulfiram make it possible for me to get acutely ill? I'm not sure but it's an interesting topic. I haven't been acutely sick since then. But then again, I haven't been doing very well since around spring 2020 so I haven't been around a bunch of people.

thank you all for the contributions and thoughts

its interesting how widespread this phenomenon seems to be

Sara - i do take your point that it could go either way - i am certainly not counting my chickens - but all my markers of health and functioning have been slowly improving over the past 18months - and more rapidly in the last 3 months - so i hope the trajectory continues. as a matter of interest what immune stimulators were you taking at the time of your post cold flare ?

i am sure less exposure is part of the picture - after all if you don't leave the house for years and limited people come in - then your exposure risk is of course lower - i still don't think it fully explains it though - for the last few years my partner would get a cold and i would get nothing - or a transitory v slight sore throat.

on the general incidence of ticks etc - for certain lyme disease and ticks have been around for millions of years. the picture we now know of the prevalence of these infections in the wild - in ticks and in birds, migrating birds, mammals, small rodents etc is shocking and humans especially in pre-industrial times will have been exposed routinely in their day to day activities.

i would guess something is happening to human health at the population level that is increasing our susceptibility dramatically. probably things like pollution, disruptive chemicals, processed food in the diet, possibly medications, cleaning chemicals (has been an explosion in these over the last 50 years ).
You don't have to look far for the signs of decreases in health and vitality in the west in particular
for example 1 in 10 Americans now have type 2 diabetes and more than 1in 3 have pre-diabetes
( not picking on the USA - its just the easiest western country to find data on)
Any population with those kind of figures is going to be a long way from optimum human health in terms of ability to fight of stealth infections.

ref the observations of tick incidence in different regions - i don't doubt it. i think its well known that the local range and incidence of various arthropods is changing all the time due to climate change - so we should expect this to apply to ticks as well.

cold much the same today - manageable / not terrible - will still get my walk in - but have not been able to do a weights workout for around 1 week - productivity at around 2/3rds my normal output

Post Edited (Garzie) : 11/12/2021 12:38:31 PM (GMT-7)