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Original poster

Can someone clever help with this please?

31 replies

Mugglywuggly · 21/12/2018 20:41

Just to start I may be a bit thick have no scientific basis for this theory, and am just hypothesising.

Dh thinks I’m ridiculous but I’m hoping some clever people will come along and help.

I have a horrible cold which I was annoyed about, however all my dc (3 of them) and my dh have all been struck down with a sick bug over the last week. I have been looking after all of them, cleaning up sick, changing beds about 457 times a day and providing cuddle care as and when necessary. All of this and I’m not sick???

Could it have something to do with my cold? Can viruses fight off other viruses? Or should i count myself out for Christmas

OP posts:

Redken24 · 21/12/2018 20:42

I could be wrong but maybe your the only one washing your hands properly 😂
Suppose depends on the bug

OnlineAlienator · 21/12/2018 20:44

Ooo, placemarking, interesting theory! I think genetics plays a part tho, i have skated by things that have affected DH and all genetically related individuals....

mrsseashell · 21/12/2018 20:46

I think it's a lot to do with just getting on with it and not letting yourself get poorly- I always miss the bugs that my DS and DH have I honestly think it's because I don't have the time to be ill!!

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General health

ButterflyWitch · 21/12/2018 20:48

I’d imagine you are probably already immune, about to come down with it OR so flipping stressed your cortisol is giving you a super human immune system

italiancortado · 21/12/2018 20:52

We have had loads of bugs over the years that have affected some but not all of us, done think their is any reason for it. If you are lucky you don't get it 🤷🏻‍♀️

RebelWitchFace · 21/12/2018 20:56

I get a billion colds a year(about 3-4 of them are actually serious enough to make me feel like I'm dying). I don't think I ever had a tummy bug. I was really sick one time but I suspect the fairly old chicken more.

ginyogarepeat · 21/12/2018 20:57

It's definitely not to do with how busy you are viruses don't bypass people based on how their schedule works. I think it's a genetic thing to do with how our bodies are wired. I never get stomach upsets, apparently my dad was the same; everyone around him could be vomiting and he'd be fine!

Stephisaur · 21/12/2018 20:58

I think you’re more likely to be the carrier I’m afraid!

LooksBetterWithAFilter · 21/12/2018 21:02

I think it depends on the bugs really. Dd is 15 and has hardly any of the sick bugs the rest of us have I could count on one hand how many she has had. Ds1 has had more but ds2 is 8 and has had too many sick bugs to count every time one is going around school he gets it. I hardly ever get the cold I have never got them and if I do I’m not often as rotten with it as everyone else is whereas dh gets them all.

It’s also a likely with all the cleaning up after everyone you are doing you’re washing your hands a lot more and more thoroughly than everyone else is so you are reducing your risk of getting ill. But now you’ve told all of us you’re getting it tonight. Oh I also find that I get ill once the rest of the house are better means they all can run around after me for a while.

Crunchymum · 21/12/2018 21:11

I'm an emetophobe so sickness bugs (and how to avoid them!) preoccupy a lot of my thoughts when one is doing the rounds.

To date DC1 has had about x1 a year (he's six) and one was bad enough to land him in hospital for 24h IV rehydration. I've only ever caught one bug from him [it was one when he was only sick a few times and not the time he ended up in hospital]

DC2 is 4 and she has had a few bugs but her's manifest differently. She is never massively sick. Maybe a few pukes and a few days of low appetite and lethargy. Not caught any if these.

Neither child catches the others bugs.

Baby (11 months and breast fed for first 6 months) hasn't had any bugs.

I'm immunosuppressed, due to medication, and I've still dodged 2 sickness bugs.

Of course I'm going to come down with Norovirus on Xmas Eve, now I've posted this!

Crunchymum · 21/12/2018 21:12

I've heard it can be down to different blood groups.

My DP and I have had maybe 2 bugs each on the decade + we've loved together and neither of them were caught from each other. He has never caught any from the kids either.

Crunchymum · 21/12/2018 21:13

loved = lived

And I mean your blood group plays a part on how susceptible you are to sickness bugs.

willdoitinaminute · 21/12/2018 21:29

As a health care professional I wash my hands to the point of obsession. As a result I rarely get colds or sickness bugs. At work the reception staff are more likely to succumb to stomach bugs than surgery staff. Our theory is that surgery staff handwash and wear gloves reception staff don’t and are more likely to eat without handwashing after handling stuff that patients handle.
I think that some people are just less resistant to stomach bugs, DS has only had one bought of sickness in his 14 years. DH is much more likely to have stomach bugs. DS has colds but never complains about feeling ill and I’ve never known him moan about a sore throat. DH is frequently clôse to death even with a sniffle!

christmasisuponus · 21/12/2018 22:23

I am obsessed with washing my hands, I carry a hand sanitizer around and make sure the handles on a supermarket trolley are cleaned with a tissue. I always tell the kids to wash hands as soon as they come home from school and before they eat. Yet I get struck down everyone Christmas with a very bad cold borderline flu. Really fed up with it. I exercise, eat very healthy, take vitamins and drink lots of water so why do I always catch these nasty things. Currently in bed feeling nauseous with a chest infection

Thecurtainsofdestiny · 21/12/2018 22:45

İnterferon

UnrelentingFruitScoffer · 21/12/2018 22:55

Plenty of sleep and plenty of exercise are both really important in fighting off infections.

Hand washing and good hygiene reduces your exposure but sleep and exercise prime your body to fight it off.

jessstan2 · 21/12/2018 22:56

You are probably extra scrupulous with hygiene and you may have some immunity to the bug the result of your family has. Be glad!

Hope your cold and their problems are soon over.

Ollivander84 · 21/12/2018 22:59

@mrsseashell I wish I had the time to be ill because I usually am but my crap immune system and two jobs means I do get ill and nothing I can do about it

I think people tend to have a weaker spot - I never ever get stomach bugs but any form of chest infection/tonsillitis and that's me done!

BigStripeyBastard · 21/12/2018 23:02

I'm just the opposite, I'm afraid. I am massively lax with handwashing. I wash them after I use the loo but that's it. I am in constant contact with the public but get maybe one cold a year. Never had flu and haven't had a vomiting bug in nearly 20 years.
I was a nurse for 15 years though so probably have a cast iron immune system.

ShitArmBadTattoo · 21/12/2018 23:05

Haha yes that’s right illnesses only strike people who have the time to be ill.

That will be why my mum got cancer AFTER she retired, she was simply too busy to entertain it before.

I shall contact all the hospitals and tell them to just give ill people more to do. THAT will solve the NHS crisis. Fuck me if only we’d worked that out as a nation before...

Ollivander84 · 21/12/2018 23:06

@ShitArmBadTattoo
My dad says it too "ooh I'm too busy to be ill"
Thanks dad. I mean I only work 55 hours a week with severe neutropenia and no immune system, obviously I CHOOSE to be ill

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 21/12/2018 23:08

Blood groups was one of the things they were looking at, crunchymum. Supposedly people with group B are more resistant.

Even if it’s something else they haven’t found yet, there are sections of the population that are known to be more resistant to noro viruses. Although I think it can vary from strain to strain.

FestiveNut · 21/12/2018 23:11

Did they all contract it at the same time, but you miss exposure? If so you're just in the incubation period. Of course, if you each your hands thoroughly before they go anywhere near your mouth you shouldn't get it anyway.

ShitArmBadTattoo · 21/12/2018 23:12

@ollivander84 maybe you should do more? Maybe get a couple of hobbies and do some volunteer work, you know REALLY fill your days

Ollivander84 · 21/12/2018 23:17

@ShitArmBadTattoo no time sadly in between looking after the horse, pole fitness and also a third job as a plus size model
And he wonders why I nap....

I spent 8 years undiagnosed and with constant infections and complaining I was always ill. Turned out my neutrophil levels were such I would have been isolated in hospital so no bloody wonder I was sick!

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