Me, despite the fact that I am a tutor (which means lots of intimate sessions with
kids of all ages), I hardly ever get sick-maybe once a year or even less.
Often I can feel something coming on in the evening, expect to wake up feeling
awful, and the next morning I am just fine. I imagine my antibodies etc. are germs’
worst nightmares-a virus gets into my bloodstream only to be confronted with about
200 antibodies with nice long razor-sharp teeth which promptly chew it to bits. I’ve
often wondered if I’m alone or if others usually manage to avoid the kinds of things
which leave coworkers as helpless heaps of quivering protoplasm suffering horribly
in their beds.
I was in a national AIDS vaccine study run by the NIH 13 years ago. Of all the people in the study nationwide, I had hte strongest immune respnse to the vaccine. But we still don’t have a workable vaccine.
I have to counter act my immune system, to keep it from attacking my body. There are a lot of illnesses out there that have an over active immune system. I was gone from 2002 until last fall on this board because of it. Now I just disapear for weeks or months at a time. I have problems thinking and remembering things as the condition worsens. I don’t always catch myself befor the stuff I post gets messed up. The spelling and words used can give people an idea. I cringe when I see the bad grammer and spelling I do befor I stop posting on those occasions. A wireless keyboard adds to the dropped letters that I don’t catch also.
Sorry if that was too much information.
I think that I never had a cold during all of my undergraduate years in college–five of them. I started getting colds again when I began to teach… something about having all those faces pointed right at me. I dependably get a cold after the first week of each semester, now.
Up until the point I was in grade 2 I used to get tonsilitis all the time. I had missed about 15 days by the time christmas came around when my mom and dad sat me down and said, “Dan, you’ll have to get your tonsils out if you keep getting sick like this.” From that point on, I rarely, if ever, got sick.
Once in grade five I got strep throat and missed my track meet (I was captain, my school was pissed off). Since then (18 years ago) I don’t really remember ever getting sick.
I don’t even get flu shots. That might be tempting fate, perhaps I should start.
I have a very good immune system. My husband is always getting sick and bringing home colds and flus from the prison in which he works. (The inmates pass around viruses and they mutate, so just when you’re getting over it, it hits you again.) Somehow, even with him coughing and sniffling around the house all the time, I manage to avoid getting ill myself.
But when I get sick, I get sick. When a cold or virus hits me, it knocks me flat. Thank God it only happens once in a blue moon, because I’m miserable for weeks, weak, clogged-up and achy.
Mine’s pretty good: I can be around sick co-workers, sick classmates, sick friends, a sick boyfriend, or even a sick kid and not catch whatever they have. Typically I’ll have a cold once or twice a year, usually after a period of intense stress. I don’t remember the last time I had the flu – and I never get a flu shot – and my last really bad cold (with a cough that sent me to the doctor for some codeine) was 2-3 years ago. I’m pretty lucky health-wise.
I used to catch every cold that came my way. After I gave birth to my first child I almost never caught anything.
This struck me, because my first child was very ill, and I was spending huge amounts of time in hospitals and doctors offices, and I was under the worst stress of my entire life. I expected to get sick. I didn’t.
Since then, and three more children later, I almost never catch colds or anything else. Weird.
my body hates me. The feeling is pretty much mutual.
I get every bug that comes by, full-blown. I’m constantly sick. If someone even thinks about germs and looks in my direction, I’m laid up for a week.
I think my immune system got tired of it and moved to Brazil.
I guess I must have a pretty good immune system. The last time I missed any work due to illness was in 1988. The last time I saw a doctor for any kind of illness was several years ago for a throat infection; the last time I was in a hospital other than as a visitor was when I was 3 years old and needed stitches. I average about one cold (of medium severity) a year, and lately less than that (which may or may nor have something to do with the fact that I reach for the Zinc+Vitamin C lozenges at the first sign of what might be a symptom.
Mine can fend off a charging rhino. Comes from working in a lab that shares space with the infectious disease lab. Now, if I could just get over the non-infectious stuff that keeps plaguing me…
