When I visited Japan I noticed certain people walking around with surgical masks on, and was told they had a cold and it was customary to do your best not to spread it. I wonder if that could ever catch on in the States?
I think it’s because people learn at an early age that being “sick” gets you lots of attention and sympathy, and can get you out of doing things you don’t want to do. Also, I think a lot of people are depressed, eat like shit, and never get any exercise. Smoking and/or drinking adds to these factors, too.
I can’t remember the last time I was actually sick. I’ve never even been on antibiotics, not even as a child. ( I checked with Mom on this one.) Mostly if I don’t feel well, it’s self-induced…hangover, lack of sleep, etc.
I’ve called in sick to work 3 times. When my ex-husband and I broke up, when I had my cat put to sleep, and when I did something funky to my back when painting the bathroom ceiling.
I think I’m just lucky. And I wash my hands a lot.
Growing up, both my parents were heavy smokers. I wasn’t sick all that frequently, but I would get a couple of colds a year. Since moving out last year I haven’t been sick at all. No colds or anything (knock on wood!). I’m wondering if maybe my body is happy it isn’t getting all that second-hand smoke anymore, but I don’t know how that correlates to not getting colds.
Cripes. Look, while it’s admirable that you don’t hold a pity party for yourself when you have a cold, it’s NOT admirable to go to class and spread that cold to others. Please take appropriate measures to ensure that you don’t infect other people. When I was in college, most classes meant that I had about 8 other people very close to me…only in Drawing 101 did I have any appreciable space around me. Thus, one sick student can easily infect 8 others, and with just a bit more effort infect even more. If you’re shedding virus, even if you feel capable of getting to class, it’s very inconsiderate to expose others.
Despite having sick time, my job makes it nearly impossible to use. You can’t use it for your first day of sickness, only days 2-on, so short illnesses or those falling near weekends are going to be unpaid. And absenteeism, even for medical purposes with documentation, affects raise evaluations, promotions, and our new management team has begun firing folks who are sick more than once every two months.
So, you’ll have to forgive me if I go to work anyway.
Plus, I’m also held to attendance standards at school similar to those mentioned by Hello Again, both as a student and as a supplemental instructor.
That said… I don’t get sick terribly often, and I get the feeling that the “colds and flus” that a lot of people think they have are other things-- hayfever/allergies, cold stress, mild cases of food poisoning. I do get the first two like clockwork every year, and they make me miserable, but that’s not really being sick.
If kids are always sick, though, why would being around them make you any more sick, assuming your immune system is good? Like…I’m not sure how to put this, but the reasoning seems off here. If kids are often ill, and people who hang out with kids get ill from being around them, then aren’t we (i.e., adults) just as susceptible/vulnerable as the children in the first place? Which is to say if you pick up a bug from a child, you could’ve gotten it from just about anyone/anywhere else.
Not if you are exposed to lots of kids. You may fight off cold virus versions 1, 2, 3, and 4 from kids A, C, J, and K, but one will sneak through sooner or later.
Or if they’re your kid, you don’t have much recourse in avoiding it. You’ll still touch their dirty plates and toothbrushes when they’re pre-symptomatic, and kiss them good night. Lots of cold viruses there for you to get without them even showing a cold. When they’re having the cold, you’re still going to wipe a runny nose, feed them meds, etc. You’d have more luck avoiding Bob at the office who’s got a cold because you don’t have to do those things for him.
Why don’t doctors call in sick all the time? They deal with sick people all day. I asked a doctor that one time. He said he washes his hands and generally observes hygienic practices.
Makes sense, thanks.
levdrakon, I guess not all doctors work with people with contagious illnesses. My dad works with cancer patients mostly. And he’s never sick, while I get several colds a year.
On the bright side, I rarely get vomitty…
ETA: Er, not that my dad would get sick from being around cancer patients. Just that in general, he’s rarely ill.
This is what I do too, after (as I mentioned above) switching medical field jobs really hammered home the importance of careful “infection control” practices. My previous job had very little actual patient contact, but handling charts and other things brought straight up from clinic had all kinds of little kid germs still very active on them. Now that I deal directly with patients and many of them have poor immune systems, I’m extra-careful. My husband has brought home just about everything I’ve caught, since I’ve started there.
It might come in through the Asian immigrant community. I live in San Francisco, and I occasionally notice Asian people walking around with surgical masks on.
I never get sick, but I think it’s more luck and biology than anything else. I am often stressed and anxious, and I’m not exactly the best patient. I have a host of stupid chronic health problems that I fuss about – allergies, torn rotator cuff, GERD, back problems – I just never get a standard issue, need to stay home in bed kind of illness like a cold or the flu. The last time I took a sick day of that kind was in 2003. I don’t have the most healthy habits, so it’s definitely not that I take better care of myself. I think I must have stronger antibodies against those infectious illnesses. Or maybe they just can’t get past the copious amounts of allergy-produced mucus in my nose.
My theory is that lifestyle has a huge impact on how well you can ward off illness, and how quickly you can recover when you do get sick.
In my early 20’s, I was smoking a pack a week, ate terribly, never slept enough, and worked in retail where I was exposed to hundreds of people and handled money all day (honestly, money has got to be the dirtiest thing EVER). I also had absolutely no routine in my life, because my shifts at work ranged anywhere from 7am to midnight, which meant I’d eat and sleep whenever I could fit it in, and was constantly stressed out about money. Not surprisingly, I’d get horribly sick every couple of months, and it would often take a week or two to recover each time.
Since then, I’ve quit smoking, started watching what I eat, make sure I go to bed at a reasonable time and sleep a full 8 hrs when I can, and work in an office job that provides me with a predictable schedule and a good salary. I do get the occasional cold, but it’s incredibly rare that I get really really sick… maybe every couple of years or so.
Preach it. I hated when my co-workers would come in when it was apparent they were on death’s door. C’mon, you have sick days for a reason; take them, and stay the hell away from me. Otherwise, whatever admirable workaholic trait you thought I would admire you for (riiiight :rolleyes:) is completely undermined by your inconsiderate behavior, to say the least.
That is something I would agree with but I do think it differs for each individual person.
In some ways I’m not very healthy at all- I have anaemia, one kidney, anorexia, depression, osteoporosis, and work with young children. I’ve been in ITU 10 times in the last year and then on general wards for a week or so after before being discharged. In the past I’ve had malaria and horrible food poisoning. I’ve also had my period for a constant 6months now. I had asthma until I was 15 when I grew out of it.
On the other hand, I shower once to twice a day, run long distances everyday, swim everyday, wash my hands and face a lot, clean my teeth a lot, eat my fruit and veg and get a good amount of sleep. I travel a lot and work in orphanges and rural schools in Asia and Africa and have all my jabs etc.
But despite all of this I never really get colds or flu or viruses, and when I do feel a bit crappy it doesn’t stop me doing my things that need to be done.
What has made me think about this recently is that some people I know really really well (some are relatives and another is one of my best friends) seem to be strangely ill all the time. Especially with IBS symptoms. I always think that with IBS, if you suffer from it, you really know it-it seems horrible. But there is a difference between having IBS and a bit of trapped wind. If my friend did a shoulder stand and stuck her bum in the air, and did a whopping fart, more often, she wouldn’t be complaining about her IBS so much.
I’m not really going anywhere with this. I just guess there are some people who just have problems more than others, and that everyone deals with their different illness in different ways.
When I was younger and until I had two kids, I averaged two or three humdinger ass kicking colds that were probably bronchitis level a year.
I was in great physical shape and considered my weight to be good ( 130. Though my doctor said I needed to lose weight and I nearly kicked him in the balls. )
I am at 170 now and, yes, I need to lose weight, but I haven’t been sick since 2004. ( Except for the 24 hour feel like shitfest that I and 20 others contracted from sitting in a hotel’s hot tub for hoursyes, hours. Everyone got sick hanging in that farkin’ petri dish, lemme tell you. Won’t do that ever again. Thank god we kept the kids from playing in while we were being lazy adults.) I was very ill in late summer 2004 with vertigo which I now think that I had a micro stroke, but neither are contagious. That is how I remember the year. Haven’t been sick since then.
I think alot of it boils doing to a few things.
Persistant hand washing. ( 4 brothers with a compromised immune system tends to make one realise that a cold *can and did * kill three of them. I have an elderly mother who is very healthy, but according to her she could go at any minute.)
STOP TOUCHING YOUR FACE. Yes, you. Your nose. Your lips. Your eyes. Your ears. All are GATEWAYS for your disease ridden hands to impregnant your body with DISEASESSESESES! I’m not paranoid. I’m vigilant. I keep hand wash and tissues in the car for de-germing the little vile creatures known as my children and their friends. You wanna see me blow a nut? Watch me see my kids with a finger up a nose. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING FERCRYINGOUTOUD!!!”
Vitamins and ** Supplements**. I swear by all that is holy on acidophilus .
Getting Enough Rest. Stress is over rated. Turn off the TV and take a hot bath and GO TO BED.
**Neti pot **. Saline rinses are one of the best things you can do for yourself and your schnoz.
Deciding not to be sick. Some people really get off on being ill and complaining about it. Ad nauseum. It is a hobby for them. Like old people who go to the doctor’s all the time. Mom, I’m looking at you! and there is nothing wrong with them. They are bored and their only source of community or involvement is talkign about illnesses with their friends and see who can trump someone else with the latest ‘problem’. Don’t Get Old would be my advice.
You know something is wrong, but not necessarily what. And yes, it’s pretty bad but at the same time you know it’s not going to kill you; you just have to endure. And change diet.
If you know anyone who claims IBS who hasn’t changed their diet, tell them they’ll get no sympathy until they do!
I am one of those people who is sick all of the time. It’s a pain in the ass. I have been that way ever since I was a small child, always with strep throat or the flu and once I even had scarlet fever. In my teens I had two knee surgeries, a severe allergic reaction to the sun that made me housebound for over a month, and an esophageal hernia. I missed so much class my senior year of school that I got one of those letters telling me I wasn’t going to graduate if I missed another day. I used sick days a lot when bad things were happening at home, so the physical often blended in with the mental.
In college I had severe mental health problems which made it very difficult to attend class and I ended up withdrawing medically two of the terms. Now that was almost exclusively psychological but it was accompanied by physical symptoms as well, including severe IBS.
To this day my issues persist. I’ve developed a paranoid complex about it and I am terrified to call in sick to work. I can’t do so without feeling incredibly guilty and worried people will think I’m faking. I don’t call in without a good reason though-- if I am really in a lot of pain. I have had two sick days in the last three months. One of them was because a new medication was causing me to throw up. I stuck it out a lot more often than I called in.
Problem is a lot of my health problems are chronic and not likely to go away anytime soon. So yeah, it’s pretty frustrating. I try to be as honest with myself as possible about whether I am really sick or just emotionally upset about something, but physically I often hurt a lot. I think I’m doing better with making the distinction than I used to when I was a kid, but it’s still frustrating.
No, but it might make ya sick 
Everyone is different. Some people have better immune systems than others.
I was born 10 weeks early and was only given a 50% chance to make it but I am never sick. I only mention that because you would think as an infant I would have been somewhat delicate but when I was an infant and my two sisters had the mumps I didn’t. When everyone else in my family had chicken pox I did too but I had exactly 4 bumps and no itching. No matter what I get it is always a super mild form. I don’t eat right or exercise. I touch my face but do wash my hands often. My sister takes her vitamins, eats right, exercises, is not a hypochondriac and gets sick quite often. All of my siblings and I have some degree of asthma, probably because of my dad’s extremely heavy smoking, and I have the mildest symptoms of all of us.
Like anything else I thinks it’s just how people are born and they can improve it by lifestyle but still have varying success fighting the bugs.