Hi Everyone

Hope everyone's preparations for Christmas are going well!

I wondered what the general feeling was about knowingly exposing oneself to all the infections that seem to be about at the moment. My doctor always says to avoid seeing the grandchildren if they are unwell and today I decided not to go to their Christmas play as there are lots of children with different viruses at the moment.

Am I being paranoid about this?

Thanks in anticipation

Sue

Hi Sue.

No I don't think you are being paranoid at all. When I was first diagnosed I would of thought so, but the more I am learning about this disease and the way it affects our bodies with us having such a low immune systems I believe we have to take precautions to protect ourselves.

You take care.

Anne x

i worried about all germs when i first went on mtx and thought that if i dont go to any one or place if a germ is one the go, then i would never meet up with my friends or family so gave up on that and lived to tell the tale, however this year i am now getting over a horrible cold and had to get amoxil and i dont know how i got it,only thing i can think of is people never cover up when they sneeze or cough now so bad mannered and thats the older generation.

Sue

I was diagnosed with RA in January 2009 and take Methotrexate. I work and socialise. I have just caught my first cold since my diagnosis. This was after sitting in a room for 8 hours in a meeting with two people who were coughing and sneezing for England. O.K. it is a rotten cold and I have had to stop my Methorexate for this week, but to go nearly three years without anything major shows that you can have a life and have RA.

Like everyone else I take sensible precautions. I use antibacterial gel when out and make sure I do not breath directly in someone else's path who seems to be coughing or sneezing. I also pre-reccy (not sure if that is spelt correctly) anyone I am visiting. Just a casual question on how their health is a few days before goes a long way to avoiding the various illnesses people always have. I am also very vocal in telling everyone I have a low immune system and, generally they keep their distance if needs be.

Take care

Jackie
xx

To be honest, in terms of coughs, colds, viruses, general bugs and ailments I have never been better since starting with RA. I rarely catch colds and have managed through all the usual stuff with four children who continually passed these things around between themselves and anyone else they could possibly manage to infect! My worst plight was a dose of chicken pox from baby daughter!

That said, RA doesn't actually lower our immune system ... we have an over active immune system and hence the reason we attack ourselves! It kind of goes into overdrive attacking the synovium inside our joints. In order to control the over activity that is RA, we take drugs to suppress and control the action of the immune system. This in turn leaves us 'compromised' to some extent but for most people no more so than the next person spluttering and sneezing in the Morrison's checkout queue!! An exception might be those of us on Rituximab who have had the 'B' cells depleted; although these do regenerate quite quickly as part of blood cell renewal processes there will be a time when we are less able to fight infection.

Lyn x

Hi Lyn

Many thanks for your very enlightening post, most helpful as ever

Hope all goes well for you on the rtx, love and best wishes Julia xx