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When the average person gets ill – catches a cold, a sickness bug, virus etc. – it can feel rubbish enough. Having to take a day or two off work, cancel plans with friends or family and put up with a messy house is all part and parcel of being ill. Everyone gets ill from time to time, even those with the best immune system.
But what is it like for those of us who already live with a chronic illness?
When someone already lives with a health condition such as hypothyroidism, which causes symptoms such as heavy fatigue, muscle pain, insomnia, etc. catching a cold, virus or bug can not only introduce new symptoms, such as sickness, diarrhoea, fever and chills for example, but it can generally worsen preexisting ones, too.
For many of us living with a chronic health condition, our bodies aren’t as strong as an average person’s and they already struggle to function as they should – hence the medical condition/s we have, so they often take the blow of a cold, virus or stomach bug harder than a healthier person.
This can be especially true for those of us with a not-so-good immune system, such as those with an autoimmune health condition, like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, autoimmune thyroid disease.
With Hashimoto’s, your immune system has already mistaken an organ, the thyroid gland, for an invader and is obsessed with trying to destroy it, so I guess you could say it’s preoccupied. Therefore, when we come down with a cold, bug or virus, which we often seem to catch fairly easily, we tend to come down with it worse than healthier friends or work colleagues and take much longer to recover from it. Our body is already struggling and somewhat fragile, and catching an illness is just too much for it.
When I say we often come down worse with the illness, I mean that symptoms tend to be rather severe compared to other people’s experiences.
My chronic health condition called hypothyroidism, something I will live with for the rest of my life, already gives me some degree of fatigue, muscle weakness, pain and sleeping difficulty among other symptoms, but it’s as if these get amplified when I contract an illness. I may get sickness added on top or a bad cough and sore throat, but I feel extra hypothyroid and my body slows down until it comes to a halt. I become bed-bound and need assistance moving around. And I may be like this for a solid week, just from a cold that other people may be able to work through and carry on as normal with.
Whereas a regular person may need just a day or two at home to recover, I tend to need at least double the time and I can still be reeling from the effects of it weeks later. My body doesn’t “bounce back.” It’s another issue my already not-so-great body and immune system have to deal with.
If you hired someone to fit you a new kitchen and they were doing a rubbish job, instead getting confused and flustered and deciding to knock your bathroom down instead, would you give them another job? Would you book them to also fit you a fireplace? That’s the best analogy I can give about my immune system.
The cold, virus or bug I catch is just like the fireplace. It’s another job my immune system, which is already doing a bad job, is given to do. And so what do you expect to happen? My body responds in a poor way.
I just want others to be aware that for those of us who live with a health condition, when we get ill, it’s on top of the other health stuff we already have and it’s different to a healthy person’s experience. It’s more intense, it’s more draining, it’s frustrating and we can’t help it.
Do you experience this too? Let me know in the comments below.
If you found this article beneficial, please take a moment to share it so we can help others get better with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's, whilst also raising awareness.
Rachel Hill is the highly ranked and multi-award winning thyroid patient advocate, writer, speaker and author behind The Invisible Hypothyroidism. Her thyroid advocacy work includes writing articles, authoring books, producing her Thyroid Family email newsletters and speaking on podcasts, as well as being a founding board member for the American College of Thyroidology. She is well-recognised as a crucial contributor to the thyroid community and has a large social media presence. Her books include “Be Your Own Thyroid Advocate” and “You, Me and Hypothyroidism”.
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Yep – hayfever into sinusitis layered with a cold and then earache on top of Hashi = Four months of feeling rotten so far. Each part doesn’t sound much but its impact challenges work/social/home life.
Yes! Currently experiencing this. At this time of year I catch the usual lurgy everyone gets, plus get mould allergies. It takes months for my body to recover.