Is anyone else catching bug after bug?

[C1239]

Since having covid twice I seem to be catching something every few weeks, it’s driving me mad! I feel like I’m coming down with something then I seem to fight it off but a few weeks later I feel off colour again. Is it just me or does anyone else feel their immune system is weaker this winter?

I’ve been ill so long I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be well.

Okay so it’s only been 3 weeks, but this stupid cough just won’t GO AWAY.

It’s “just” a cough, all other symptoms have gone with a course of antibiotics and not leaving the flat for days, but I have never been ill this long in my life.

So something’s going on, yeah.

Me. Had Covid a few weeks ago, and now picking everything else up - sore throat, now flu sickness type thing.

My family are on our fourth virus in six weeks. Due to give birth v soon so really hoping they piss off ASAP!

Dh is a teacher and I'm hcsw. It's going through everyone at a rate of knots.

Me too. Hope we all get well soon.

There’s just a lot going around - my children’s classes currently have cases of flu, covid, strep related tonsillitis, one case of scarlet fever and someone just posted on class WhatsApp they think their child has noro. Plus run of the mill colds and coughs. It was absolutely inevitable after lockdown that bugs would rebound and it’ll settle back down again. I wouldn’t necessarily assume it’s any damage to your immune system, it’s just a lot more germs around.

Glad in a way it’s not just me. Wondering if I need to try and see if I can have my bloods tested as I definitely seem to have a weaker immune system compared to a couple of years ago but I think the doctors wouldn’t give an appointment anyway as so many people seem to be getting various colds

Yep. We seem to be circulating bugs between the 3 of us at home and this has been the case for the last 4 months. DH is currently in bed knocked out on a cocktail of flu remedies and painkillers and I'm wondering which of DS or I will be next!

Do you wash your hands regularly?
Sounds bizarre but since covid I have witnessed lots of people’s basic hygiene going to pot.

The amount of people I see lick fingers / sneeze on fingers and wipe germ 🦠 covered hands all over shopping trolleys / waitresses in restaurants coming out of the toilets and not even bothering to wash their hands/ public not washing hands after the toilet etc
It is extremely grim.

Agree there are loads of things going around but shit personal hygiene adds to that. Not suggesting that’s your behaviour for one second.

Feel better soon op.

I read an interesting article about how when you catch Covid, the Tcells in your body (the cells that fight viruses), will fight the covid, and in doing so, a lot of the cells will die. So you then are left with very few adult/nature Tcells.

All the "young" Tcells are corrupted when you get covid - it teaches them to attack your immune system instead, a bit like leukaemia, so they don't fight the viruses like they are meant to.

It takes 4/5 months for Tcells to develop into mature Tcells, so I think we're all in for a while of this yet while our cells re-learn what they are meant to do.

Go back to basics if you can - avoid catching minor colds and flu so your body has nothing to "fight". Make sure things are ventilated if you're in a large group, lots of hand washing etc

Virus magnet right here (waves to all).

Today I had a coughing fit for about two full minutes, couldn't breathe and had to hold my neck as it was painful (stabbing pain). Dragging air in when I could.

I ended up gipping, which was really attractive.

Give me summer any day. Winter be gone with you!

Yep bug after bug. Dc1 hasn’t managed a full week at school since mid November. I have had cold, temperature on and off for weeks as has Dh and 3other Dc and a cough that won’t go away. Lots of families I know struggling with repeated illnesses.

Yes, so so fed up of it. Just wanted to enjoy the run up to Christmas but ill again with the zillionth cold.

Sorry to hear there are a few of us struggling. @CapturedLeprechaun that makes sense about the T cells. I just wish I could avoid some of the bugs! It sounds silly but sometimes I feel anxious about getting another bug as it seems pretty constant then I’m sure the anxiety doesn’t help keep my body in a healthy way!

Yup, we've had 3 colds/flu in 6 weeks. Really fed up with it now, can't seem to get better.

@CapturedLeprechaun Do you remember the title of the article please??

I feel utterly miserable at the moment. I seem to have been fighting bugs since the beginning of November and this weekend I have tested positive for bloody Covid. I actually feel depressed with it. I am eating well, taking vitamins etc. I don’t know what else I can do to improve my immunity?

Chances are your immune system is indeed damped down.

It's quite common to have some damping after an illness, but there is a growing body of evidence that covid has quite a strong dysregulating effect and that this can last for over months. And that's irrespective of how mild the initial illness might have been.

So if you're getting covid a couple of times a year, chances are you're going be be always with a dampened immune system and therefore likely both to catch everything that's going around and also to get it a little bit worse than you might otherwise have done.

I had the flu jab early in November. About 10 days later I fell ill with a chest infection from a virus I had. That cough cleared, but then 10 days later I had severe diarrhoea that I had to go to A&E to get tested. Then I felt better and this weekend I have a cold and another chest infection. Ffs! I feel so rough 😩

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.15372

Is this the paper you were thinking of @CapturedLeprechaun ?

Probably not, as there are so many, but does it cover the same ground?

Me. Recurring sore throat. Once it was covid other times not

Kinda glad this isn’t just me. I had covid mid November and have been Ill today; absolutely wiped out at tea time. Went to bed and woke up covered in sweat. DS has also been poorly (he’s never ill) and all the guys in my team have been ill for about a month (we work mostly from home. One girl being in no physical contact whatsoever with the others)

I’ve had 4 viruses since September, the most recent being Covid. DH and I started with it 4 weeks ago. We were really ill for a while and only just starting to feel better over the past couple of days. We still haven’t been able to return to normal activities. We’ll be wearing masks indoors again now, but no doubt we’ll pick something else up on Christmas Day, when we’re at my daughters and there will be 12 people in total.

I am tempted to wear masks indoors again but no one else seems to. Has anyone else been to the doctor about how frequently they seem to be picking up things? Did they have any advice?!

We never stopped wearing masks in busy indoors spaces

There is a critically vulnerable person in the household (and the government won't provide Evusheld - even US provides it free FFS! - but that's another story.

I don't want to tempt fate, but we have had covid only once, over 6 months ago now, and are not coming down with one damned thing after another. We don't want covid again, and we don't want anything else either.

So we want to reduce our risk, and even though we can't ever guarantee not to catch stuff, we want to reduce the likelihood/frequency/severity - it helps keep one person in particular alive, but reduces the burden of being ill from all of us.