It's the house. It's gotta be.

[athelind]

I've got another expletive deleted cold.

It's got to be the expletive deleted house. It must have a mold problem or something. I did not get sick nearly as often in the last place we lived -- and as far as other factors are concerned, I'm eating better this year than last, and I was under a metric expletive deletedload more stress last year.

I haven't done a temp assignment in weeks, so I'm not picking up bugs from The Office.

The one variable is this old, skanky, musty, shabby, expletive deleted house.

'Kay, I'm ready to move again.

Comments

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

I suspect your blame of your current residence for your recurrent viral URTI's is misplaced. Most colds are caused by droplet transmission by someone infected actually touching you.

While you are not temping currently (and not being infected by your co-workers), you still are in contact with persons if you deal with retail clerks (ie. touching them when you exchange funds with them at the store), buy food touched by others, touch doorknobs in washrooms, etc.

Frequent handwashing helps, or carrying with you one of those hand sanitizers and using it reasonably. So does immediate removal of used (and snotty) Kleenex and other tissues so that dessicated viral particles simply doesn't re-infect you. Finally, regular exercise ande eating right goes a long way to boosting your first line defenses against infection; your own healthy body.

::B::

P.S. But if you still want to move and get a change of residence because it's shabby and run down and stinky and doesn't stimulate your muse and is closer to nicer neighborhoods, etc. those are all good reasons to move!

Thinking out loud

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. You raise good points, though Archie does, as well, below.

My general connection of "sick house => sick me" hinges around the idea that having to deal with fungal spores in the air depresses my immune system. Since I'm eating marginally better and getting marginally more exercise than I did last year, when I wasn't getting sick nearly as often, the house really is the major variable.

More, I've had a long history of allergy attacks giving way to actual infections -- then continuing on as allergy attacks long after the happy little bacteria have all been evicted via chemical warfare.

However...

My general level of exposure to the Public At Large has, in fact, increased since last year. The big problem with the LAST place was that it was surrounded by acres and acres of housing tracts, with Great Trafficy Thoroughfares providing more of a barrier than a conduit to Anyplace Actually Worth Going. Since I was telecommuting, I could go days without actually interacting with anyone who didn't live in the same house.

And, as Archie points out below, This Shit's Going Around This Year. EVERYONE seems to be coming down with The Crud regularly this season.

Still, there are other factors that make a move Inevitable. The prospect of getting out of what may or may not be an Immune-Depressing Zone is just a perk stemming from what's otherwise a tooth-grinding nuisance.

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

I'm going to play both sides of the argument here.

On the one hand, staying in a mold-infested house greatly weakens the body toward illness. I know this from long, long personal experience with my work building, which is a mold infested rattrap. The more I stay OUT of it, the healthier I feel, and the less I have problems with things such as my colitis.

On the other hand, it may not have much to do with the colds of this season. There have been two very, very nasty viruses going around: a "vomiting virus" that I got at Christmastime, and a very strong cold/weak flu virus that has a nasty tendency to keep coming back. Over, and over, and over again. I've had two runthroughs with it (though a week off work produced only one brief relapse). This one may not be the fault of the house. It's the virus' pathology, sadly.