Persistent cold/allergy like symptoms, please help!

[constantcolds]

I regularly get cold-like symptoms which seem to morph into more allergy like symptoms. I get this often during the winter and sometimes 3 or 4 times per winter. It goes like this:

- Starts off with a scratch in the back of my throat and feeling run down
- Fairly quickly I am bed ridden with a terrible fever, fatigue, body aches, dizziness and a bad headache. Paracetemol is usually all I need to take the edge off every few hours, but I still bed ridden, and have no energy to do usual tasks.
- I usually develop a chesty cough alongside it, but weirdly my sinuses are typically OK.
- After 24 hours, typically, my fever and cough has gone down substantially (although my body temperature still feels slightly 'off') and then this is when my allergy like symptoms develop:
- Persistently runny and itchy nose, and constant sneezing. I still have a headache and feel fatigued but most of my other symptoms including the cough have disappeared.

It's so strange because I thought with allergies that you typically don't get fevers from them. I don't know whether this is a cold or an allergy problem or a bit of both. Please help shed some light on this situation!

[specialmom]

This doesn't necessarily sound allergy related?  You are right that allergies really don't give us fevers.  I have a son who is a chronic allergy sufferer.  He can have a constant runny nose, itchy eyes, etc.  He takes allergy medication (OTC) year round and it definitely helps.  However, he also gets colds, viruses and infections.  You get those BEFORE you get the symptoms that are like allergy symptoms but they also can be signs of a cold.  :>)  How often does this happen?