I teach in a public high school. About once per year I'll pick up a cold that makes me feel pretty crappy for a few days but not so bad that I miss school.

My 15-18 year old students are going to have a hard time when they get older. On average, ten percent of them are absent on a given day because they're sick. It's not unusual to have some of them absent for 20 or more days in a 180 day school year. I don't know where they're planning to work once they leave school.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

That's part of the issue for me. I'm self employed, so, sick time costs me both money and time. Even going to work while sick is a loss because I'm less productive, it takes me longer to get healthy, and I hate being that guy trying to "tough it out" while sneezing/coughing all over everyone/everything and potentially getting my employees sick. But if I missed every day I was sick I would only have worked part time the last two years!

It's not just little colds either... Everything I get turns in to a raging sinus infection or chest cold that makes me sound like a chronic smoker.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I had to google that. Looks pretty intense!

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I am fortunate. I bet it has been 20 years since I have had the flu. About 15 years ago I got a stomach bug or food poisoning along with half the people at a get together I went to.

Other than, I would have sinus issues once in the spring and then in the winter. However, I haven't had those since I started using a neti-pot along with sudafed. As soon as I notice sinus drainage, I start using the neti-pot and taking the sudafed. Usually within a day or two it clears up.

I think I've been sick once in the last 6 or 7 years, and that was because I was in Boston in February and didn't have a neti-pot.

Once a year is the norm. This year I got really sick in April and I swear I haven't gotten over it yet.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

Stress or lack of sleep a possibility?

I'm generally pretty healthy, but there have been periods of my life when I've got sick more frequently and/or severely than usual, and with hindsight it's nearly always been times when I was stressed or just overdoing it.

I think that's partially to blame. I have had pretty long, very full, stressful days for quite some time now. Constantly battling to fit everything in. However, the two years I did IM training were just as busy, plus more exercise, I had just started my business, and rarely got sick during that time.

I'm definitely going to look in to the allergy tests. As long as I'm not allergic to pasta and meat I figure I can adjust my lifestyle. And dust. Being a renovation contractor, that one would be hard to avoid.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I think it's been three years since I've been sick. (Watch me get something now for saying it out loud.) I used to have allergies up until two years ago. Those affected me like a cold when I had them.

4 sick days in last 20 years.

Never. Since my early childhood I have never been sick with anything. I do not remember what it is like to have a cold or any similar sickness.

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DISH is how we do it.

For me the difference was that IM was good stress, nobody was making me swim, bike and run, I did it purely for enjoyment and would make time for it, and it was under my control. Whereas work can be bad stress. Even if you enjoy what you do, most jobs/businesses tend to involve a fair bit of crap to suck up - difficult people, tedious paperwork, being overloaded, etc. - and it's often out of your control to do much about it.

I also run my own business. And went through an interesting trajectory. The first few years I was so keen to make it work, and so excited at the opportunities, that I pretty much had endless enthusiasm and energy for it. As it got more established and inevitably had some downs as well as ups I found I needed to step back a bit and find a different work life balance as it was making me stressed. Got it in a reasonable place right now, a lot of that has been down to me learning to get comfortable with turning down work that is likely to lead to a lot of stress.

Prior to kids rarely

First daughter goes to nursery and she's a living petri dish and ill on and off for her first year

The biggest thing that causes me to get sick is being run down, late nights, early mornings, broken sleep

We just returned from 7 years overseas 2 weeks ago. We get back and within 24 hours i just go down like the proverbial sack of s##t

I get a knock me down illness about once a decade. And yes this year there was a nasty one running around that takes weeks to fully clear.
I worry about wood dust with you. I probably ha2e way better dust control than you. Cedar exposure, which I assume you will come into a lot of contact with, can build up and be really tough on the respiratory system. Make sure your allergist knows about your work and common species. Some exotics like rosewood variants are really bad. Basically any oily wood can become as issue over time. Had s friend of mine have to sell all his rosewood and cocobolo because of contact dermatitis reactions.
Also look at you're finishes as s possible source of irritation.
No way you should be that sick that often.
Good luck.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

I'm asthmatic and have allergies and I catch everything and always have. About a decade ago I had a couple of really bad sinus infections and they now flare up every time I get sick. Crappy lungs and crappy sinuses - when I get sick it's an awesome festival of wheezing, sneezing and nose bleeding!

If you get a chest cold every time, or almost every time, you get sick maybe try Advair? I take it as soon as I know I have a cold or virus. It seems to shorten the duration of the cold and I don't get the lingering chest cough that takes weeks to clear up nearly as frequently.

Flonase helps for the sinus infections, I take that as soon as I feel anything coming on. It seems to be the only thing that really helps with them.

Hopefully this is a short term thing for you and you figure out how stay healthy.

I'm more worried about things like mould and mildew to be honest. I do get a reaction to cedar though. If I'm working with it for a few days, the glands in my neck get swollen and I get some.cold like symptoms, but, without the lack of energy, excess mucus, etc. When I get old growth milled stuff, I get the reaction in maybe one to two days, as opposed to 3 to 4 with lumber yard farmed cedar.

I recently bought a festool dust extractor. It's awesome, but, pretty much lives attached to the table saw.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Occasionally a mild cold but just last week we all had pretty darn bad diarrhea that probably the youngest one brought back from daycare. I work in a hospital at orthopedics so nobody is really sick there. Nevertheless, I clean my hands religiously.

Ad Muncher

Those are valid concerns. You may have just weakened your respiratory system to the point you are more susceptible to viral and bacterial infection.
Habe you thought of wearing a nosh n99 or n100 filter? I use an n95 periodically with known irritant lumber. They aren't that bad to use.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

Last flu: 9 years ago.
Pneumonia: 7 years ago (I think)
I tend to get a yearly summer cold.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I used to work at a university. I was exposed to a lot of students and got sick with cold, flu or bronchitis about every other month. When I left the university I guess the constant exposure to pathogens had built up my immune system because I didn't get sick with anything for 6 years but after that my immune system seemed to weaken. Now I get sick about twice a year. Most of the time I get sick now my wife brings something home from a sick patient or my son brings home something home he caught at school. If you are getting sick a lot and are not bouncing back as quickly as you used to I would keep pressing my doctor for answers.

I went through about 4 years of being sick all.....the....time. My kids were in daycares and brought home all kinds of nastiness. I felt I always had a cold and I had 2 bouts of pneumonia, 1 bronchitis, and 1 NASTY case of Hand/Foot/Mouth where I couldn't even walk.
The past 2 years I have been sailing along pretty well. I assume my immune system has been rebooted.

When I was at my peak fitness and training constantly, I was always sick with some niggling cold that would last 3-4 weeks, go away for 1-2 weeks, and then come back for another 3-4 weeks, for 7-8 months straight. I chalk that up to being at a low weight, a lot of training, busy at work, busy at home, and putting adequate sleep as a last priority over proper rest.

Other stress took over when I quit racing which led to other types of stress-induced illness like worsened depression, anxiety, and awful gastric distress, but I stopped getting as ill in the same way after putting a little weight back on to be in the normal range rather than bordering on too light. The stress-induced stuff worked its way out after lifestyle changes and some more minor dietary changes. A couple of years ago I had some strange viral issue that knocked me on my ass with a never previously experienced fatigue for a good 9-10 weeks, which had me sleeping 13-14 hours a day and totally knackered, monospot was fortunately negative, but that's been about it since that point other than a few days here and there where I've hit a wall from going too hard for a few weeks and have a day or two where I'm just wiped out & then a couple of times a year when my kids share minor colds with me.