So in this past week of work, about seven or so people are incredibly ill - flu-like symptoms, lots of runny noses and coughs that are nasty phlegmy. Apparently, another cohort of about 17 students involved in a group together ALL infected each other as well.

It seems everyone is sick. Now, mind you, I've got a very limited statistical group right now: I've just got folks here in CT and Beth has been sick in California. Another friend who lives in LA is sick, sick, sick.

So what's up?

And, by the way, I hope you are all feeling better, if you are sick out there. Being sick sucks.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2001

Answers

Illness prevails in Seattle, too. Although I have no job at the moment, the clinic where I interviewed today had about 6 people out sick. I know this because it was about half of the group that was supposed to interview me (as if 7 people firing questions at me at once wasn't bad enough). I might have to go in for #3 when all the sickies return.

I hope everyone gets well, too, because I don't want to catch it.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2001

Sick people abound in the Twin Cities, too. My wife, then my daughter, now my son. Co-workers, friends, all getting laid low. Poor suckers. If only they ate right and exercised...

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2001

Sickness. It all started when during innocent years just before pre- teenness reared it's engorged head. I had just a few curly-q's growing like newly planted springtime daffodils from the smooth underside of my marble sack. Though only sparsely populated, the sporadic, spiraling, shagless mane intrigued me so. I spent many an enchanted evening in front of the hall mirror manipulating the marbles in their sack, squeezing them, fondling them, rubbing them together.

To this day, when I am troubled, though carefully shaven clean on a regular basis, I solace a day's wretchedness by lying back in my chair gently rubbing the cylindrical, keratinized, pigmented filaments sprouting forth in seeemingly never ending abundance from the upper layers of my lower epidermis. Marble sack, marble sack, o' I love thee so.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2001

I am going to piss everyone off by saying this: I am not sick. Everyone around me has been sick. I have not had so much as a sniffle all winter. Living in San Diego helps, I'm sure, but all my co-workers have been sick and I haven't. I'm not usually an abnormally healthy person. I got my flu shot, I wash my hands compulsively, and I'm apparently very lucky.

Before you line up to shoot me, I had an abscessed tooth last week that was agonizing. It required multiple dental visits, a lot of Vicodin, some *nasty* antibiotics, and three days off work. It was as bad as any illness I've ever suffered, except I wasn't contagious so I didn't feel quite so gross as I might've.

I will never understand why my boyfriend wants to have sex when I'm all swollen-cheeked and disgusting, or phlegmy and disgusting, or otherwise unwell and disgusting. I mean, I'm happy enough to oblige, can't be too often for me, but I'd think he'd be a little more eager when I'm in good health. Sometimes I feel bad for pestering him for sex so often, when his drive's a bit lower than mine, and then one night I'll be moaning about my aching jaw and THEN he comes on to me. This is either a good thing, because he loves me whether I'm disgusting or not, or a bad thing, because he finds me so unattractive that tossing in a slimy fever or bulbous chipmunk cheeks doesn't really make it any worse.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2001

I'm at the tail end of the weirdest cold I've ever had.

Runny nose alternating with congestion. That's it; no nausea, no sore throat, no fatigue, no ickiness of any kind. I felt perfectly fine - I just had a head full of snot. I thought it was allergies, at first, but it lasted too long.

I mean, I'm not complaining - it could have been worse, certainly and so I'll take the minor inconvenience. Still, it was fairly freaksome, all things considered.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2001

Pretty much everyone I know has had at least a bad cold that lingers far longer than it should or some level of flu symptoms.

Heard the most bizarre thing today about one of our colleagues in Columbus OH - he was put in the hospital a few days ago following some sort of heart failure (Three days ago his heart was working at about 15% its normal capacity and they were talking transplant.. it's up to 45% and getting better now.)

Today, we're told that the doctors are saying it was flu that settled into the heart muscle.

I've never heard of such a thing before!

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2001

I'm not sick either, but I had some low-grade mono variant all last spring so I figure I'm owed a break this year. My flatmate had full- blown mono, with a swollen throat so she couldn't eat solid food for a while. I just had a sore throat every morning, a need for 12 to 14 hours of sleep per night, and a complete inability to read to the end of any sentence demanding concentration (which is a pretty big handicap for a student).

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2001

Judy, there are three reasons your boyfriend sexes you while your nose is runny or your body is in less than tip top shape.

1. He loves you.

2. He has sadist (or masochist - depending on how bad you really look when sick) tendencies.

3. He finds the smearing of all glistening body fluids sexy.

4. He's just gross.

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2001

I'm not sick, but probably 60% of the people in my classes are. Every day the teachers gripe that people are sick and therefore not coming to their MANDATORY classes. Gee, I wonder why everyone's sick. Could it be that they were all forced to come to class sick until they gave it to everyone else?

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2001

Everyone around me has been sick as a dog, but I have not been ill for one second of this winter. No cold, no stuffy nose, no nothing for me. And the air at my office is usually very bad and illness travels around like wildfire.

Not me, baby, not sick at all. Even when my husband was so sick he said he was "DYYyyyyiiiing" and I slept next to him.

Being sick does suck though, and I feel bad for anyone suffering through it this winter.

Colleen

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2001

Lynda, my mom used to say I had a "cold in the muscle" when I'd complain of an aching shoulder or something when I had a cold. I thought that was just ridiculous, but a physical therapist told me years later that it's true. He also said that when you have a cold or flu you shouldn't get a massage then because the pressure and opening of your joints can help the cold go into the joint, which can potentially be a problem. Weird, huh? I'm glad your friend is better, that's pretty scary.

Everybody's sick now because it's winter, we're all on buses and in offices coughing in each other's faces and touching each other's phones with our phlemgy fingers. That's why they call it "cold and flu season."

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2001

Yep. Sick in North Carolina. Not me though! All the smokers in my office are walking around hacking up lungs from having Bronchitis. They sound pitiful.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

A friend of mine went to the doctor late last week for this crud, and was told this is a virus that's going around, but that most people are going through what I've gone through:

1) get snotty and croupy 2) deal for a week or so 3) give in, go to doctor 4) get antibiotics for a sinus infection 5) feel a little better in the nose and head department, think "well, I'm glad that's going away" 6) continue to feel like hell, except with clearer snot than before 7) pass virus around to everyone, reinfect self and others

Doctor's advice was anti-inflammatories (aleve or advil), OTC decongestants (particularly pseudoephedrine), fluids rest etc. PLUS vigilant handwashing, change toothbrush, use lysol or alcohol wipes frequently on phones, keyboards, and other vector surfaces, and "keep your damn hands away from your face." Flu season precautions, basically, but assume that other people don't realize they're contagious, because everyone thinks they have a sinus infection.

If you get a secondary infection in your chest or head, go ahead and get antibiotics, but they're not going to get rid of the virus.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

I always get a bad horrible cold somewhere close to March...without fail and two people at work are out sick, too. Both kids are sick...so no, I am with you.

I wonder if my flu shot is running out of steam too fast. I wish to trade my ears in for gummybears because I'm sure gummybears can be gooey and not hurt this much.

Snottily yours,

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

re: flu in the heart muscle

my mother just got over the flu when her left eyelid started to droop and her pupil was constantly dilated. after lots of tests they decided that her virus had infected the area behind her optic nerve. she's getting better, but slowly. she also told me that my cousin's diabetes was caused by the flu attacking her pancreas, rendering it unable to produce insulin.

I had never heard of such things before, but after reading the post about flu in the heart muscle, I am wondering if this is more common than I thought, and I just didn't know.

has anyone else heard of such things?

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001

Yup, evil illnesses abound in Texas too. I had this crappy flu that turned into pneumonia that damn near killed me. Wound up spending a week in the hospital on an antibiotic drip. Luckily, the pneumonia alerted to my docs to some funny looking stuff in my left lung that may or may not be cancer...don't know for sure til I get another bronchoscopy and biopsies. The first biopsies weren't that great. Bah. Anyway, I'm glad of pneumonia, 'cause if this weird stuff in my lung is cancer, it's been caught really early and should be easy to treat.

Hope all you sickies out there start feeling better.

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001