To think illnesses have been utterly awful this year

[lipikar]

We've been ill most fortnights since the beginning of November.

What the fuck is going on? I'm so fed up.

Is it the 5 year old starting school? Or something else. He's actually been the least ill of us 4.

I'm drained.

If we’re going with anecdotes then I haven’t been ill since 2019 and I’ve had 4 vaccines.

Definitely worse. I've had about 3 colds a tummy bug and constant sniffles. Prior to that went 4 years and nothing at all despite contact with kids!

I work in a school and we are normally quite robust but all the staff in my foundation unit have been constantly ill since October! Reoccurring chest infections, covid, d&v, tonsillitis I've never know it so bad!

The illnesses are going through the kids and the staff!

I totally hear you OP!

In the last 2 months I've had, flu, sickness bug, infected abscess on my head which needed antibiotics, water infection and now Covid!!!! All in 2 months! My son has also had impetigo AND croup in this time!!!

I think we all go through phases of catching everything but that doesn't stop how truly awful it is to be in the slump :(

Well, just to add my twopennorth - DH, I and DS1(16) have had (as usual) no time off work school and very minor illness if any at all. DS2 (13) has had quite a few minor sniffles and one episode of nasty, flu like illness lasting 3 days (also par for the course). Our hospital has not really been covid free at all, with ongoing intermitten5 ward closures, though very few seriously ill, and only a handful in ITU. We had one large peak of flu with quite a number of ward closures but none for a good few weeks now. I know a quite a few personal friends who have been ill ( covid and others) but nothing prolonged.
So all in all a fairly average year. But certainly worse than the last 2 winters I would say.

YANBU. I barely left my house for 2 months this winter I was ill constantly.

I'm actually glad you wrote this OP.

Having hit this year with family Covid, coughs, 2 vom bugs, rashes and snotty noses, we are so over the constant illnesses

Still haven’t had Covid (worked on a clinical NHS site 2020-2022), haven’t had a cold for best part of 5 years, never had flu, haven’t had D+V for over 15 years.

I cover the whole of England for work and am in close proximity to colleagues from all
over multiple times a week. One child at secondary school. Only thing I can put it down to is that I eat for health. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide What do you eat? Love to hear what eating for health means for you.

I eat good quality protein (not meat) with lots of green veg. Mainly. Good fats, some fruit. No seed oils, major carbs (bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, nothing with wheat flour). Nothing with added sugar or sweeteners. Hardly any processed foods. Limited dairy. 2.5-3 litres of water a day.

It’s made me a more creative cook and I’ve never had more energy or slept so well.

I've got an anecdote! Apart from one bout of mild covid, my 12 year old DS has never missed a day of school due to illness. He's literally never ill (touch lots of wood).

His diet is mainly beige and he's never had any vitamin supplements.

I took millions of vitamins as a child, my mum was obsessed with them, vitamin c in particular. We had loads of fruit, orange juice etc. I was off with coughs, colds and flu regularly enough for me to think now of languishing on the sofa with a comic and a bottle of lucozade as a fairly standard part of my childhood.

@lipikar YANBU OP.

i haven’t felt it personally this year but a few of my friends have and they’re utterly fucked off and drained by it.

i hate this attitude on mumsnet that if you’ve not got a chronic/terminal illness then you should be grateful.

you’ve no idea what other stresses people have in their lives where this tips them over the edge.

one of my friends has caring responsibilities for her elderly mother as well as having young children and this constant cycle of illnesses in the household has meant she’s unable to help care for her mother as much as she’d like which causes even more problems and worry.

awful attitudes and plenty of narrow minds on here to be honest

I had strep throat for the first time in a few years when it was going round (I seem to be prone to it) and my youngest had impetigo (which can be caused by strep) at the same time.

Luckily we just needed some antibiotics unlike some poor buggers. In fact compared to some of my other brushes with strep it wasn't too bad, I've been in bed for days sweating and fever-dreaming a couple of times!

Otherwise, just DS1's usual habit of picking up a bug and vomming for a week when the rest of the household pukes once if at all before getting over it!

We've been pretty lucky - nothing serious at all, a few runny noses and coughs but nothing bad enough to need time off school, work or missing fun activities. DD1 started reception in September but was in nursery for 2 years before that, and we always went to baby/toddler classes except when they were legally closed in lockdowns. I think many other children her age weren't exposed to group activities as much as previous cohorts due to parents not taking them to toddler groups/nursery, which has affected immunity. Have a DD2 too who does baby classes every day and is often a bit sniffly but has never been ill enough to need a GP appointment, just needed Calpol a handful of times.

School environment doesn't help much with illness. I wonder how much better education would be if indoor air was addressed, not to mention less days off work/better productivity for parents. There is some nasty stuff that's been going around. Some people think lockdown is to blame for them feeling more ill. Others (like me) think it's one of the many shitty impacts of covid on the body.

I'm in Australia, so it's been 30+ heat for ages. And we've been non stop ill all year. Every week some new virus hits us. Gastro twice, coughs that never end, the list goes on.

We've never been sick like this over summer. Dread to think what winter will bring.

@babyjoeytribianni Is that similar across Australia? Seems very unusual to have those illnesses during the summer.

YANBU. This winter has been a virus-fest for most people I know. I even had one and I’m usually pretty lucky to avoid most colds, coughs etc. I had one in early March- thought it was a heavy cold but possibly Covid in retrospect as it took a while to recover and my sense of smell went haywire. DH has had a few colds and had pneumonia for most of Jan. Hoping for a healthy summer!

i normally get something in october but missed it
am catching up with covid and now a cold
in the previous 3 years every-time i thought i had a cough i tested for covid.
we have been much more hygiene conscious up until recently.
time to bring back the hand washing

Agreed! As someone that never catches bugs I had covid then have caught every bug going since. Never been more ill.

There do seem to be a lot going round atm.1000mg vit c and zinc is a good combination to strenghten immune system. I often think we have a bad year then clear for a while.

The irony is that you were literally waiting for a thread like this. You opened it as soon as OP hit post, knowing what it was about as it’s in that title, and then commented on it.

Making yourself look silly.