Cold / Flu

Hi

No I’ve been lucky. I’ve always been a cold malingerer but since treatment I seem to shake most things off in 24 hours. I don’t think I’ve ever had flu. I’ve had Covid twice since treatment end. Once I was just shaky for a day and the other time with no symptoms.  

It’s the same for me. I finished treatment almost 3 years ago and don’t tend to get many colds, but I had a light cold in November that I’m still trying to recover from. The catarrh has moved to my sinuses so that my nose has been blocked and it’s been difficult sleeping. I’m now back to where I was during treatment - sleeping on a wedge so that my face is elevated and having to do lots of steaming to try and stop that tickle at the back of my throat. 

A pharmacist recommended a saline spray which has helped a lot although I’m still having difficulty sleeping. He suggested trying a steroid nasal spray if the saline spray wasn’t enough - which I'm now about to try. Hopefully that will solve it. Next time I’ll start using the saline spray straight away which might mean that it doesn’t get as bad as it has. Fingers crossed.

Catherine

Hi.  I had my first cold since finishing treatment in Feb 2024 just recently.  Whatever is going around at the moment - and I know it is a cold, not Covid or flu - is a right bitch!  I felt so ill and am still trying to shake it off 2 weeks later.  It seems to come, then go and then come back aging in a relentless cycle.  In one of the few days when my nose had dried up I had a routine ENT and when speaking to my consultant he told me that the hospital was under so much strain with everyone going down with the cold - that was before the press got hold of "super flu"...

I think this cycle is possibly me getting re-infected with another cold due to being pretty low after the previous one, especially as I've been in hospital for clinical and work appointments a lot recently.

The most uncomfortable problem I experienced was with taking Cold and Flu treatment to dry my nose up.  This also dried up wat little saliva I had left!

Hope you feel better soon.

Hi there.

I finished my Radiotherapy in January of this year, and by April I had recovered sufficiently to return to part time work and I felt really well and improving weekly.

Then in May I took my young grandson on a camping trip, caught a cold (and probably over did it for that stage if my recovery) and that cold coupled with over exertion caused me to have my first real set back and like you I felt like I was back to square one, especially with my eating (swallowing) which became difficult again.

I contacted my McMillam nurses quite worried that things had gone wrong, and they reassured me that this sometimes happens to us when we catch a cold virus or similar, but they made me an appointment to see my consultant and I was seen within a week.

Camera up the nose, inspection of the throat and confirmation that all was still good, the virus and overexertion was to blame and things should get better again soon. Two weeks later things began to improve again and a couple of weeks later I was back to (my new) normal. And quite relieved too.

It also taught me that we are now susceptible to relapses caused by common colds and the likes and I probably will not be so worried or panicky next time this happens.

Contact your team and hopefully it will be the same for you.

Best wishes

MickyC

Thanks Everyone for all of the Reassurance