Colds driving me crazy!

[bette1]

I am one year post transplant.  I don't get sick that often, but the way the colds happen drive me crazy.  My daughter came home with a sore throat, and felt fine the next day.  My hubby coughed for a day and he was fine.  I am on day three of the cold with a sore throat, cough, and headache. 

Does this happen to others?  It's a little difficult in my house because I have a school aged child who can't help but bring things in the house.

[coravh]

I've used a diffuser and it helps. One of those thing with water and a tea candle underneath. I use essential oils of lavendar (antibacterial, fungal, and viral) and eucalyptus (anti bacterial). It smells nice and helps cut back on the germs in the house. Just don't use the lavender around pregnant women as it can cause contractions.

After my 2nd year post I used to get a lot of colds, but realized I was slipping a bit using my hand sanitizer. I upped using it and the colds got less. I know with school aged kids you are a bit stuck, but this might help a bit oo.

Cora

[RightSide]

I wish all I got were viral colds.

I'm 5 months post-transplant, and for the past 5 weeks I've been battling a bacterial sinus infection.  The culture said it was a strain of Pseudomonas aeroginosa that is resistant to all common oral antibiotics except Levaquin--and even that one isn't working all that well.

And when I brought this up with my transplant team, they said, "Oh, yes, everybody gets infections."

For relief of symptoms from colds and sinus infections, nothing works better than saline nasal irrigation.  I use the Sinus Rinse products, available at many drugstores and supermarkets.

I used to use an electromechanical irrigator, until new research found that bacteria were contaminating the inner tubing, which of course stays wet between irrigations.

[C904]

Here is what I used to see all the time on the job and it also applied to myself.  If you seem to be stuffed up all the time and it progresses to colds or sinus infections you may have developed allergies recently.  I have had allergies all my life and when I was not treating them properly I was constantly getting colds that developed into sinus infections.  I had about a two year stint where I was in a phase of treating my allergies naturally with products from the health food store and I was constantly stuffed up and every time I would get over a sinus infection another one would pop up a month or two later.  This was all before I was aware my kidney function had deteriorated and I had a regular functioning immune system at the time.  My regular doc just happened to ask what my allergist thought about all the colds and sinus infections and I told him I had not gone to her for about two years and he had me get in to see her right away and since I have gone back on meds for the allergies I have not had a single cold or sinus infection. 

What happens if you have allergies is the nasal canals get inflamed and the mucus that seems to never go away acts like a cesspool for germs.  My allergist spotted this in about two seconds and the meds she put me on help immensely.  In my old job I would go out to patients homes who had breathing problems and some of them would complain about being stuffed up all the time and they can't figure out why.  I would ask them if they had allergies and they usually replied they never have had any allergies, I would suggest to them to ask their doc about it and to casually mention allergies.  Many times I would see them a few months later and they would tell me the story of how their whole life they never had allergies and now they have them. 

I know many of us fall into another category being on drugs that lower our immune system and for most of us it is just simply we have a hard time avoiding colds and infections, but if anyone reading this seems to be stuffed up all the time ask your doc about it and maybe there is a different solution.