Seem to be sick all the time!

[rickyrickygrimes]

over the last 5 months I’ve had:

3 bad colds / respiratory infections
2 really bad ear infections that required ABs
a staphylococcus infection in the skin inside my nose that required ABs and ointment and lasted for ages
ongoing breathlessness / upper chest tightness

i usually get a couple of bad colds each year, and I wear hearing aids so do tend to get minor ear inflammation now and then, but it just seems constant atm!

I’ve been to the dr with the individual complaints but not with a general question about whether so this is normal 🤷‍♀️ is it?

other than a healthy lifestyle (which I generally have) is there anything I can do to strengthen my immune system?

That does sound like you’ve been through the ringer with bugs lately, OP!
My checklist for not getting sick is eating a lot of veg, sleeping well, not eating foods which upset my gut, and hand washing - after the bus, before eating etc (many don’t, amazes me what I see in my office). It could well be you’ve just had a run of bad luck if you’re doing all the usual but it could also be a deficiency of some sort so maybe your GP should look at the issue as a whole. A good while ago my iron levels were low and I was getting colds constantly on top of all the tiredness but noticed a difference after I was put on iron tablets.
I’d definitely be going back to the GP in your shoes about the breathlessness, I don’t think that should go unchecked.

I am exactly the same!!! Infection after infection constantly xx

Hope your luck has improved now OP? Did you find anything that helped reduce the amount of illnesses?

To be honest there really do seem to have been a lot of nasty bugs around this last year and many more people regularly unwell that I know of. I would say that repeated antibiotics are not ideal for your body and often wipe out good bacteria too which can have a knock on effect on your overall health. For ear infections they often don’t need abx as it only tend to reduce the infection by 2-3 days so perhaps avoid them in future? Do you get enough sleep and eat healthily? If so then there isn’t much else you can do- I think this is the impact covid and lockdown is having on our immune systems being disrupted so badly by not mingling with other people and germs for 6-12 months. We need to ride it out.