Viral gastroenteritis - is it worse for us?

[Zizzle]

My daughter vomited all over her bed on Thursday night (multiple times) and I kept her home Friday. She seemed OK the next day, just upset tummy, belching and no appetite. School had sent a notice that viral gastroenteritis was making the rounds. 48 hours after her episode, I vomited at 3 am (multiple times). Then came the unbelievable amounts of watery D. I mean every 20 minutes for hours on end. I lost 4 lbs in one morning!! 24 hours later I was much better, and I'm back at work, but boy was I sick yesterday. Headache, lethargy, horrible cramps, tummy grumbling, D. My question is, is viral GI illness worse for us with MC? If the rest of my family gets it, will it be milder, or was it mild in my 6 yr old just because she's young?

I also skipped a full day of Plaquenil, and probably absorbed very little prednisone (7 mg), so my rash prone areas are pink and some are itching again. Amazing that things could flare back so quickly. I had a routine appt with my rheumy today. He said the sudden flare could have been triggered by the virus, not necessarily skipping meds.

And here I was hoping the virus might trick my system into doing something better, not worse. Oh well.

[ladyathome]

My daughter (21) just had it. It started Thursday night. She threw up several times. No headache, but the rest of your symptoms. Saturday and Sunday morning, she had D -and it was bright green. She does not have MC. Took her to the urgent care, and they said it was typical of the viral gastroenteritis going around. Today she feels fine and is back in class..

[tex]

My question is, is viral GI illness worse for us with MC?

I suspect that it is, at least while we are are still healing, because our immune system already has "a chip on it's shoulder", so it tends to be hypersensitive and the equivalent of an accident waiting to happen. But I also believe that after we have been in stable remission for a while, our reaction to viruses tend to become much more normal.

I'm not sure if this might be because we had more potent flu viruses going around back in those days, but I can remember having the flu when I was a kid, and for at least 2 weeks, the only time I got out of bed was to go to the bathroom. I never get that sick from the flu these days, but I suspect that if I had caught it while I was still reacting, or healing, it would have been a different story. IOW, I've always figured that we develop some degree of tolerance for viruses as we get older, simply because we have probably had a related strain at one time in our life that conferred some degree of resistance to make the symptoms less severe. YMMV, depending on which strains you have been exposed to.

I agree with your doctor, that the virus triggered the mast cell surge. GI viruses can also cause leaky gut — that's why our joints and muscles ache if we have the flu for more than a day or 2.

I hope that doesn't set your treatment back significantly. (And I hope that virus doesn't come to Texas.)

Tex

[Zizzle]

I agree with your doctor, that the virus triggered the mast cell surge.

Thanks Tex. This is a relief to hear, since I thought I was almost home-free with the meds. The thought of missing one day causing so much trouble was disturbing to me, like I'd be hopelessly dependent on meds forever.
My rheumy agreed to let me taper 1 mg of pred every 3 weeks (even though he said every 4 weeks last time and I sped up the taper on my own), based on how well I'm doing. I'll taper much slower when I get down to 3 mgs. He also said I'll be able to lower my Plaquenil dose then too (I'm already taking less than the norm). Yay!