Monday, October 1, 2012

First Monday Health Tip

The months are slipping by, the sun setting earlier, the nights getting colder and soon we'll be spending more time indoors. Lots of people stuck together indoors means we're sharing not only enclosed, warm places where germs thrive, but we'll be breathing, coughing and sneezing on each other. Cold and flu viruses are not only varied and numerous, they're pretty hardy.

So my health advice is to stay home when you're sick. It's advice I've seldom followed over the years. Teachers get exposed to lots of sick children over the course of a school term. Kids come to school when they're not well because their parents make them, or they're responsible and don't want to fall behind, or perhaps they have an athletic event they need to be present for. Walk in nearly any classroom during the winter months and you'll hear someone coughing or sniffling. If you don't catch a few of those illnesses as a teacher, you've been very lucky or very, very careful.

Then the teacher gets sick, drags their feverish self into the classroom anyway, and spreads the cheer around a little more. When you're a teacher, it takes lots of planning to be absent. Most teachers will tell you it's easier to be there even if sick, then to try and makes plans a substitute can follow. I've been very guilty of this myself. But this year, I've faced the fact that I'm not irreplaceable. School will go on, even if I'm very ill. I'm going to keep all my coughs and sneezes at home.

So wash your hands often. Cough into your elbow. Avoid the ill folks. And maybe you'll escape some of those cold and flu viruses making their creepy rounds.

So do you take off work when you're sick or do you try to soldier on? Do you 'catch' bugs at work? Do your children or spouse bring them home to you?

14 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'm fortunate I don't get sick often - maybe once every other year? If that? If I'm that sick though, I stay home!

Jemi Fraser said...

I'm a teacher too - and you're so right. It's much, much easier to just go in as opposed to setting up a supply daybook. I should probably be staying home this morning (pretty bad head cold), but we have reading assessments due and I can't take it off!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Our friends who have kids seem to be sick all the time.

Bish Denham said...

I rarely get sick and attribute it mostly to taking zinc every day. That and an apparently strong immune system.

Lynn Proctor said...

i wish people would stay home when they are sick--and speaking of this--i still don't get the nasal spray thing for the flu---when people get that form of the vaccine, it is a live virus that can infect others--but they go right around people with it--

momto8 said...

my daughter is a SENIOR student at Layfettee (supposed tone smart by now)...they are offering $30 to students if the students get a flu shot...my daughter wrote me an email asking me if her friend, who already got a flu shot at home, can get another one.

The Happy Whisk said...

I dislike when I go to the market and the checker is oozing liquids.

Christine Rains said...

I don't get sick often, but my son's in preschool now and there's a lot of germs going around. I just force myself to soldier on. I'd like to just curl up with a book and nap, but it isn't going to happen. I'll be getting our flu shots this week or next.

mshatch said...

I do if I have sick days left otherwise I suffer through it. Luckily, I work with animals :)

LD Masterson said...

I know the problem for a lot of parents is the lack of someone to stay with the kids when they're sick. If Mom and Dad can't afford to take off work, the kids go to school - sick or not.

Why can't we find a solution to this?

Unknown said...

When I start to feel sick, I just stop feeling sick, and start feeling awesome! Obviously, it doesn't always work, but the mind plays a big part of feeling sick and well, so it works often enough.

M.J. Fifield said...

I admit I have gone to work when I'm sick. I just can't trust my co-workers to do my job properly... if it's really bad though, I do stay home.

David P. King said...

I usually only get colds when the weather changes, and out whole household went through a cold recently (pretty early), so I hope this means our defenses are good for the rest of the year, if not longer. :)

Unknown said...

As a former teacher, I learned to follow all these tips. I also wash my hands often. It seems to work, as I rarely get sick.