Finally! A Cure for the Common Cold?!
December 1, 2012 § 16 Comments
So, here I am, drugged up to he eyeballs on immuno-supressant drugs (AKA prednisolone and methotrexate) and I get a cold.
Immediately I am panicked: Visions of it turning into pneumonia and me spending Christmas in hospital.
I slept for around 20 hours on day 1. Day 2 I slept for about 12 hours. Day 3 I’m better.
What on earth!
My partner, who kindly gave me the cold in the first place, is still, nearly two weeks later, coughing and spluttering with the thing. And yet, here I am, no cold, having fought it off, god knows how, because my blood tests (which I have to get regularly while on methotrexate) show, for example, my leucocytes (which fight off disease) are low.
So there you go, a cure for the common cold, immuno-suppresants..
Lol have you had flu jab and pneumonia jab? I have
I must say I don’t get that many colds either at all and my white blood cells are practically non-existant cos of the azathioprine! Weird!
I had the flu jab but not the pneumonia one (probably should have). That is weird you’re not getting colds..
Im still astonished I got over this one so quickly and feel so sorry for Steve as he sniffles his way through the day.
Keep safe! XX
You too
Hope your partner’s better soon!
My chronic headaches were much better when I was on arsenic- usually used for subtle and slow first degree murder- LOL
Medication effects are very odd !! 
I daren’t ask…what were you taking arsenic for?!!
The leukemia
It’s one of two things for acute promyelocytic leukemia…. makes the chromosomes switch back to how they’re supposed to be (# 15 and 17 traded arms…). LOL. nothing like getting something seen on forensic shows in order to LIVE !!
THats amazing?! I wonder what the mechanism for that is? THe things we do to buck death – arsenic?!!
It actually works on a chromosome level !! The doc I had said one guy thought he was trying to kill him with arsenic and called the cops- doc had to go up to the hospital and explain the situation
Ha! REally!! Thats funny
Im interested in the biochemistry of medicine – just not the medicine (if you know what I mean) Id love to see the mechanics of the action, i might try and find it online.
Yeah, I never got to that part of how it worked- but it’s amazing. The Chinese have been using arsenic for a LONG time. Now it’s a relatively mainstream treatment for APL. Before that and ATRA (basically jacked up Vitamin A), the lifespan for someone with this type of leukemia (APL, or AML- subtype M3) was (and still is if untreated) one month.
a month! God almighty you must have been horrified when you were told you had that. Whats the prognosis with treatment?
That’s kind of the sad part about people not getting it caught in time – it’s %90 curable when treated aggressively as quickly as possible… but many people are DIAGNOSED at autopsy
There are no ‘classic’ symptoms that scream ‘I’m dying’….usually a brief, but rapidly critical illness, and either a brain bleed or massive infection that causes death.
You’ve been very lucky then Jill (well apart from actually getting it in the first place of course!)
Yep. If it hadn’t been for the annual diabetes blood work, I’d probably be toast.
You’ve been very lucky then Jill (well apart from actually getting it in the first place of course!)