to ask that you stop spreading your illness if you have 'just a cold'

[user1496484020]

48 hours ago dp arrived home full of snots. Didn't know how he got it.
36 hours later, having taken cold prevention nasal spray, it has gone straight to my lungs. I've taken my seretide as usual and Ventolin about 15 times and I am still coughing.
I'm only 5 months out of ICU with pneumonia and multiple organ failure (lungs included). I have asthma.

AIBU in asking you to use a fucking tissue if you sneeze and to stay the fuck at home if you're snotting everywhere? I do not fancy another two weeks on a god damned ventilator.

I heard a radio interview years ago saying that 1950s stay home mums were the first line in infection control. By keeping children off school when they were ill, they reduced the spread of viruses and people were ill less.
Public transport and schools are probably the biggest spreaders of viruses!

scaryclown it's not always just about employers attitudes and affordability. Where my Ex works, there's a whole team. If one of them falls ill, they have to be replaced. Usually within 30minutes and by 6am in the morning. The last cold he had was for a fortnight. If he'd taken time off for that he'd no longer be in employment. He's just cautious when he's there. Regular hand hygiene and gloves etc are standard anyway and obviously he keeps his distance with the patients and public. He's worked there years ans the only time he's ever been off was when a random staff health check showed his BP was through the roof and he was sent home by his boss 'before he became a patient too'.

By keeping children off school when they were ill, they reduced the spread of viruses and people were ill less.

DD is a brittle asthmatic. If I kept her off everytime she had the sniffles she'd never be in school!

And don't schools also make a big song and dance out of absences for sickness now? Mine isn't school age yet, so I don't know.

Hi op

I am really sorry you're suffering but right now I think you need to take control

I am a Brittle asthmatic ( look it up) I also have a sub class immunodeficiency which leaves me highly vulnerable to certain types of infections, multiple auto immune conditions and am a retired nurse (just for context)

Right now you need an urgent drs appointment to check your asthma and reassure you

Going forward you need support from a specialist asthma team, the biggest problem I come across is people being managed in the cheapest setting which can lead to gaps in appropriate care

Besides care at your local hospital by an asthma consultant you can if necessary be referred on to a regional brittle asthma unit where additional treatment options become available

The first thing that strikes me is there are much better preventative treatments available and regimes

I hold steroids in anticipation of problems and have a plan which helps me micro manage my asthma

I also have had the baby hib vaccine which has massively reduced my susceptibility to coughs and colds, perhaps you need your levels checking?

You need to get proactive and demand the right support for you when you're better, but right now take care x

It's a shame that not everyone gets sick pay and that disciplinaries for sickness absence are so strict.

I too have asthma. I'm lucky enough to work in an office job where I can work from home if needed. I really think that more desk based jobs should stop being obsessed with being present 9-5pm and start doing more flexible working and home working!

You're directing your anger at the wrong people op. Try aiming for schools absence policies, council's fining parents and employers who don't pay sick pay and discipline employees off sick.

Although both my gp and hv told me to keep taking dc out to groups and so on when they had colds (I was highly anxious ftm) so maybe attack nhs next.

Eh? So it's your husband that's caused it yet you're angry with the rest of the world? I understand it must be hard for you but surely there is no one to blame for a cold. They're everywhere. Most people have to soldier on as normal with most minor illnesses (and a lot of bigger illnesses too unfortunately).

I do feel for you as a cold tends to lead to a sinus infection for me however I don't get paid for being off sick and you can't stay indoors every time you get the sniffles. Hope you are better soon OP x

Decaffstilltastesweird Yes they do.

I regularly had to have meetings with the attendance officer at DDs last school to explain why she was off so regularly or late on days of hospital appointments. Even though they knew damn well why she was off so regularly. One week she caught a horrible chesty virus that needed abs and steroids. Was in a parent group two weeks later when someone's twins started hacking their lungs up, we kept our distance but DD still ended up with the same virus and back on abs and steroids. So I do understand OPs frustration.

DS has ASD and we were regularly late because he'd have enormous meltdowns in the mornings (he hated his last school). I once even got threatened with a fine for that. Apparently five lates equals an unauthorised absence nowadays.

I've just spent a month off work with an acute asthma attack and chest infection so I sympathise. However the problem with colds is that the infectious stage has no symptoms. By the time you know you've got a cold, you aren't actually infectious any more.

schroedingerscatagain completely agree with you.

It took my DD several admissions and very nearly being put in PICU before we were even referred to a consultant! Who may I add, has been absolutely wonderful with DD.

I've had several GPs and docs refer me on to a consultant and I actually haven't been appointed one yet!

The first thing the HDU doc did was change my inhaler, he said the one I'd been given wwe one of the cheapest and a bit, well, crap.

Are you on the strongest dose of serotide OP? DD is on 125 and she's meant to take two puffs when she's got a bad chest. It's the dark purple one.

I wish people who had a cold would have to wear a sign so I could avoid them like the plague! Twice in 2 months myself and 8 month old DD have caught horrible colds from people who decided to breath on us.

A woman sneezed on me on the bus once which resulted in the worst chest infection I'd ever had. I wanted to hunt her down!

My sister is like you MrsRay but worse! She always thinks she knows precisely who gave her the cold and when and wants to hunt them down. Though, she neither has a small baby or any children to worry about, nor any particular health problems. She just hates getting the cold! Wraps her face in her top of someone is coughing near her. I think it's actually a little unhealthy.

Antibac gel is your friend!

Germs don't transfer by magic. Wash your hands - all the time. Don't touch your face or eyes. Air your house and office twice a day. What I'm saying is protect yourself, you can't possibly rely on everyone else.

However the problem with colds is that the infectious stage has no symptoms. By the time you know you've got a cold, you aren't actually infectious any more

I am pretty sure this is not true! Colds spread through nasal droplets when people sneeze, on hands/tissues etc throughout the time of the cold. They may be infections for a day beforehand (the day you feel achey and don't know what's wrong), but colds are definitely infectious during the cold symptoms itself, in fact, lots of the symptoms such as coughing and sneezing continue to spread it.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/Cold-common/Pages/Introduction.aspx

That's why common-sense measures such as handwashing, sneezing into a tissue and binning it, sneezing into crook of arm if no tissue, not touching commonly touched places like handrails/door knobs all work!

And not going places unless you have to- I have students that turn up to ask very trivial questions that could have been discussed by email with a streaming cold- what's the point! I get that people who work for pay/services have to turn up, but they don't. I work from home if I have a cold unless important.

This is me!

MrsRaymond thanks for posting that vid. I feel crap with this cold, I'm having to wait for my nose to stop running long enough to take my inhaler! I love family guy. It gave me a much needed chuckle.

MrsRay.