Real Ale has quite a nasty cold at the moment and wants to know if he will recover more quickly if he stops taking his immunosuppresant for a few days. This question could also apply to people who have caught the flu and/or have other infections. He suspects it won’t make any difference because of the amount of time it takes to suppress the immune system in the first place. None the less he is tempted by the idea of a faster recovery. Does anybody have any thoughts on the idea and has anybody actually tried doing this?
Hi Real Ale – I have been advised by my consultant to do this as it may speed up recovery and personally I think it probably does. There is nothing so tiresome as a bad cold that doesn’t want to go away.
I suppose the consideration is how likely is it to make you flare and how bad is that flare likely to be? Something only you or your consultant can weigh up.
Annie
Hi Real Ale (Interesting username 🙂 )
Since my consultant advised me to take more control of my medication I have withdrawn cellcept at the first sign of a cold or flu. This seems to take recovery back to what I would consider to be ‘normal’ timescales. In fact at times the drugs just seem to get me down and taking a break for a couple of weeks or so gets my mindset back on track again (although I do stick to the steroids!). Prior to this bouts of cold and flu would just seem to mingle into each other and would usually lead to a flare up and the subsequent high steroid dose and all the problems it comes with. Less can be more I think sometimes.