This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Just curious.... Were you sick with a cold when you had your first attack?

Sorry but I honestly can't remember. I notice everytime I am sick since diagnosis but can't remember if I was sick when I had my first attack. I didn't even know it was an attack until 2 years later. I have had a couple of attacks after bad colds since though.

my fiance was dx after developing optic nuritis but did have a bad sinus infection going on before/during the ON. she needed antibiotics to clear up the sinus infection.

I dont know about my very first symptoms. However, every time after that I can remember, the only trigger I have had for a relapse is a cold or flu. I wasnt diagnosed until 10 years later, not directly after a relapse, just changing neuros.

I have now changed my regimine to now take TamiFlu (an anti viral, I am already on an anti bacterial) as soon as I get a flu/cold.

I think its not uncommon to have a relapse after a cold / flu

yooper wrote:Just curious.... Were you sick with a cold when you had your first attack?

No, my doctor thought I had a pinched nerve in my back causing my leg to go numb and suggested I try chiropractic. A month later I had optic neuritis and they stuck my head in a magnet. About a week later I had my diagnosis. My undiagnosed "attack" prior to that (numbness in my shoulder that ran down my arm and which lasted about a month) was about 8 years earlier and I can't remember being sick but I had recently started college so I was under a bit of stress at the time.

NHE

No, not as far as I can remember. My first symptom was a numb thigh, not funnily enough in the leg which later became the most affected......Sarah

My daughter has suffered with upper respiratory problems her whole life. It's funny...everytime she ends a supplement treatment, she immeidately gets upper respiratory problems! That is how we know she still needs to continue with supplements for strep bacteria infection.

One thing she did notice too...she had a very sudden and severe weight loss just before her most severe relapse before being diagnosed. My boss' daughter experienced the same thing.

Wonder if this means anything at all.

for me i had bad headaches and stuff...after getting done with a nasty cold i had for like three weeks...it was after that i ended up having worse problems

chris

no, no cold associated with my first symptoms. nor any subsequent ones, at that.

however, 4.5 months before my first symptoms, I had contracted west nile virus and had a fever for the better part of a week. I suspect this is what triggered my immune system's wacky response.

carolsue

Not really, but sometimes extreme fatigue can be nearly flu-like........

Chris55, that's really interesting about the weight-loss, I have found the same thing happens me as a relapse comes on me, even if I'm eating normally, it's like my system is burning up the energy quicker.

I've also noticed that I tend to get purple colouring under my eyes coming up to a relapse. And very pale.

I am/was one of those annopying individuals that v rarely gets a cold. I wasn't ill at the onset of my first symptom. I was however newly pregnant at the onset of my second.
Muu

I wasnt sick on my first relapse and I'm not used to being sick before exacerbations. But all my relapses came in the winter month.
So I feel pretty safe for now and the upcomming summer month...

--Frank

I've always been the type to never get sick also. I was not sick when I had my first attack either. After the last two relapses I've had, both in the winter/spring months I have been sick with Sinus/ear infections. Both times the attack came after I was beginning to recover. I think there is a definite connection, but thats just me.

Brock

Frank wrote:But all my relapses came in the winter month.
So I feel pretty safe for now and the upcomming summer month...

Interesting, have you tried supplementing with vitamin D?

NHE

Last year I did, but only with 400 U.I., which is way to few.
But luckyly I didnt have a relaps the last year.

I'm going to supplement at least 1000 U.I per day in the autumn/winter month from now on.

--Frank