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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 4/5/2009 8:46 PM (GMT 0)
I know having Colitis means the immune system has gone wrong. But is this the case for the rest of our lives? I mean even when we  are in remission does this mean our immune system is still low, and that we are still more susceptible to other illness - coughs, colds etc?? Or is this just the case when in a flare up?
Posted 4/5/2009 8:53 PM (GMT 0)
Neither. My immune system is pretty rock solid. It has all this extra time to do stuff it isn't suppose to do, lol. I don't get sick, I don't get nor even fear colds or the flu. If the UC starts to affect other areas such as rest and exercise and those things, then you can run the body down and become more susceptible to illness. We tend to pay more attention to things we eat and do so that puts us a step ahead of everyone else, even though we may run to the toilet every 5 seconds.
Posted 4/6/2009 1:57 AM (GMT 0)
I've been flaring the entire time I've had this disease and I have to say I rarely get colds and there's only been 2 times in the last 18 yrs of having this DD that I've had the stomach flu so that's pretty darn good I'd say. And that's with having two kids going to school (you know how they bring colds and flus home easily and often).

:)
Posted 4/6/2009 4:52 AM (GMT 0)
Actually, from what I understand our immune systems are a little TOO enthusiastic. Also, from my experience (I'm a college student and work in a dining hall so I'm exposed to sick people breathing on me all the darn time) I usually don't get sick more often than my friends-I just get whatever virulent cold happens to be going on. Also, my housemate was sick for like two months straight and I managed not to get sick from him.

I wouldn't worry about illness unless you're on an immunosuppressant like pred.
Posted 4/6/2009 4:59 AM (GMT 0)
I worked with preschool age children while I was on immunosuppressants and then Remicade. I've had one cold in the past four years and one sinus infection. No other infections of any sort. My immune system laughs at that stuff, then decides which of my body systems to attack today.
Posted 4/6/2009 5:01 AM (GMT 0)
Malkavian - get a better job! I'm in college too myself (as a matter of fact studying for a psychology exam at the moment) *shouldn't be on here* lol
you need to move away from what is getting your immune system excited, so go ahead and find a better job.

Querty - do not worry about it, our main issue is an immune system that's so healthy it has our colons in a choke hold - unless you're on medicine that will weaken your immune system then you have nothing to worry about. Let's just say that when you're in remission then you are as good as new, healthy as a horse!

- Cheers
Posted 4/6/2009 8:20 AM (GMT 0)
I see! I got it all wrong then - that makes much more sense. At the moment I do have a low white blood cell count AND am on Pred so that may cause a bit of a problem, but I'm glad it should be pretty much ok once thats not the case. Thankyou for your replies :-)
Posted 4/6/2009 9:46 AM (GMT 0)
I'll have to say my immune system is pretty darn good too,I can't remmeber the last time I had a cold cough or anything viral,and I've had all the big guns in terms of the immune suppressants over the past two years
IV steriods,IVcyclosporin,pred,azathiopine,My GI explained it like this when your on immune supressants,you are not more likely to pick up coughs colds than anyone else,but you are more prone to what he called opertunistic infections,ie if you do get a cold in would be more likely to turn to somthing bronhcial,or pneumonia,so you have to watch out and get a course of antibiotics if things don't get better quickly,also,when on steriods infections and stuff can hide in the body,untill they are much more serious hence reporting fevers and such.
Posted 4/6/2009 12:25 PM (GMT 0)
You know what's really odd? Ever since I've been on 6mp I hardly ever get sick anymore. I get maybe a yearly cold and it can get a bit hairy (fever of 102 etc) but I never get sick with anything else. Before starting on 6mp I would get bronchititis a lot as well as other infections. I think, at least for me, 6mp stabilized my immune system a bit if that makes any sense.
Posted 4/6/2009 12:49 PM (GMT 0)
I've been at my new job for about 8 1/2 months, and being there I've been sicker than in the past. My immune system seems to be the same since before I got this disease. This past year, I had the flu bug 3 times. There was a weird cold bug going around and I only got a small part of it. I do wonder with getting this flu bug if my medicine has started pulling my immune system down since I've been on humira for almost 2 years. Oh well, I'm totally thankful for the medicine, so I gotta deal with it then. ;)
Posted 4/6/2009 2:58 PM (GMT 0)
Its interesting,what you say Red,as I suppose a high fever is one of the body'sbest immune responses,I'm always telling my partner not to freak out when the kids get fever,it just shows a healthy immune system,thats responding to the alien attack
I don't know about the remicade,as I haven't been there but I guess constant exposure to some bug hanging around,is going to bring your immunity down if you don't have a long enough gap to recover properly.
Posted 4/6/2009 4:48 PM (GMT 0)
Isn't the immune system attacking the colon just a theory?
Posted 4/6/2009 4:55 PM (GMT 0)
Yes it's a theory but then again why would immune suppressing medication work if it wasn't?
Posted 4/6/2009 5:05 PM (GMT 0)
True
Posted 4/6/2009 5:19 PM (GMT 0)
All causes are still just a theory when it comes to UC.

I personally believe that even though the symptoms are relatively the same (especially when it comes to the inflammation seen during a colonsocopy), UC isn't really just one disease, but rather a collection of diseases, each with its own cause (faulty immune response, bacterial imbalance, etc). That's why some treatments work for some (Remicade, probiotics, fecal transplant) but not for others.
Posted 4/6/2009 7:14 PM (GMT 0)
Scorpion-This is the best paying job I can find right now, and no one is going to hire me for a month or two til I graduate. I used to have a job with less exposure to people, but my boss threatened to fire me for being sick so I quit and got this one.
Posted 4/6/2009 7:56 PM (GMT 0)
http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/620353/main.html

:)

Posted 4/6/2009 8:04 PM (GMT 0)
pb4....what comments and is the point of your link? It's a good link...to just list it isn't as helpful as a comment attached.

q
Posted 4/6/2009 8:11 PM (GMT 0)
Posted the link in the wrong post.

:)
Posted 4/6/2009 8:13 PM (GMT 0)
     It is my understanding the UC patients have OVER active immune systems.  That is why we take immunosuppressant drugs.  Correct me if I am wrong.  I stopped getting flu vaccines because every darn year I did get the vaccine I came down with the flu!  For the past few years, no flu vaccine, no flu.
Posted 4/7/2009 2:01 AM (GMT 0)
Im with Dr.-A and some other posts here- I seem to get far fewr colds, flu etc when my UC is active, thanks to hyper-immunity.
Posted 4/7/2009 2:08 AM (GMT 0)
I am a teacher and exposed to all my germy second graders. I don't get sick very often but I do notice that when i get sick it lingers for a long time b/c of the 6mp. I have been on pred. since January and have only felt sick formt he side effects but nothing big yet. I do know though that when I do get sick it will usually linger for a week or two at least.
Posted 4/7/2009 2:24 AM (GMT 0)

Red_34 said...
Yes it's a theory but then again why would immune suppressing medication work if it wasn't?

Thing is inflammation is an immune system response to infection, doesn't mean you body is trying to attack itself. Your throat turns red and sore, and swells a bit in response to a cold virus, but the body clearly isn't attacking itself in that case. So it apparently still works in some respects, but seems to want to attack the colon for us for no reason, or is it trying to attack something in the colon we don't know about? Million dollar question.
Posted 4/7/2009 4:33 AM (GMT 0)
I'm on pred at the moment, and have had a cold for the past week. I've never had colds for this long before, usually I'd get them for a few days and then they'd go away again, so I'm guessing it's the pred. Wish I could just hurry up & get better though.
Posted 4/7/2009 3:14 PM (GMT 0)

elt27 said...
I'm on pred at the moment, and have had a cold for the past week. I've never had colds for this long before, usually I'd get them for a few days and then they'd go away again, so I'm guessing it's the pred. Wish I could just hurry up & get better though.

Me too! It's just lingering on and on. As if we havn't got enough to worry about..!

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