Immune system after stem cell transplant

Every cold i get goes straight to my lungs and sits there forever. Also.since pneumonia before sct, my lungs tighten whenever i take a quick breath. This might be forever.

The cough and cold that has been doing the rounds here seems to knock out even fit people for two to four weeks. I had it over Christmas. Last November I went to a meeting of my local gardening club. A woman in the front row was obviously really suffering with cough and streaming nose. When it got to the break, she went out to the kitchen and started to make tea for everyone. How inconsiderate. I didn't have any. In fact I take my own mug to a couple of my hobby groups if I'm worried the crockery in the hall hasn't been washed properly. 

I'm also careful about handrails and anything else the public have touched. If eating out I use hand gel immediately before eating.

This may also be forever as I was told people over 65 sometimes never recover their full immunity.

Tessa

no, i wouldn’t have drunk her tea, but then i wouldn’t have before auto, always been easily turned!.

i have had no colds or flu, since last june, but have obviously overdone the convalescing ,, as now on a panic diet before going on hols next Friday! ... just did 5km on my exercise bike ,, feeling quite saintly tonight !!!

Yvonne

I'm 16 months post and I've got a wicked cold, cough, fever. I'm trying not to freak out. Maybe it's good I'm so tired - not enough energy to really freak out.

Hi Alissa,

I am definitely feeling for you. If you are like me, when I pick up infections, my mind goes off the rails too - I don’t know about AML, but frequent infections is a symptom of myeloma so my mind makes all sorts of connections.

I know what you mean re: being too tired to freak out. Sometimes there is something comforting in your brain being too knackered to even think! The best advice I can give is to rest up, take it easy, let your body do what it needs to in order to get over the illness, and I’m really hoping it is nothing more sinister.

All the best

Greg

Hi Alissa,

thats horrid, poor you, rest up, keep up the liquids and keep checking your temp too in case it needs more help from your team.....But this sounds like the rotten cold and cough that ‘notmal’ folk reckon lasts a good few weeks? 

Hope you feel better very soon 

hugs xxx

Hi All-I’ve been absent for a while.  Work is busy for me this time of year!  

I just wanted to give a belated thank you to everyone who took the time to write me back.  My mother’s cold turned out to be the RSV virus-common for a lot of people in the winter months.  She spiked a fever about a week and a half in and, of course it was after hours, so I took her to the local emergency room.  The docs were fantastic.  They did a chest x-ray and saw a pneumonia starting to form on her right lung.  Due to her history, they admitted her to the hospital for some good treatment, and she was home in three days.  We had a really late season for respiratory illness this winter.  My whole family had this bug in one way or another.  Thank goodness spring has arrived.

April 13th marked her one year anniversary!  She is very low key and didn’t want any type of celebration.  In fact, I had to remind her it had been a year on the nose.  She goes to Hopkins tomorrow for her one year visit. Her blood looked great in the hospital and she feels very well, but I’m the Nervous Nellie of the family and just want it to be over!  (For the record, I was nervous for her 6 month visit as well ).

Happy Spring!

Kris

Hi Kris,

thats all so good to hear! We still send daughter a card (this year she will be 8!) for her allo re-Birthday and always mentally thank her donor, Thomas, for putting up with a week of jabs and the back pain he said he had. They are still in touch with each other for birthdays and Christmas. 

Hugs xxx