Friday, September 8, 2023

Paying my dues

The woman who used to watch our kids when Mrs ERJ and I were both working used to joke that she had "...the immune system of a sewer-rat" because she was willing to watch kids when they had the sniffles.

The first year she did daycare was rough because she caught every virus that swept through Eaton Rapids. After that...not a big deal. It seems likely that the new strains may have attempted to colonize on her nasal passages but found the environment inhospitable. However, the failed colonies were enough to re-pattern her lymph-nodes to protect against the ever-mutating viral attackers.

Quicksilver had the sniffles earlier this week.

Now I have the sniffles.

This too will pass.


8 comments:

  1. In roch-cha-cha new yawk they have the "Strong museum of play", which is a fancy name for kids museum. Very nice and well done facility, but EVERY kid in the community gets a school trip there.
    Mentioned the cesspit when having one of my children in to the pediatrician get some pink stuff after a visit, she smiled and nodded, said she donates thousands every year!

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  2. Not for nothing but what you mentioned, is, was, and has been 'common knowledge' for quite some times.
    The fact that the government decided to do the exact opposite with the chinky coof, is how you should have known it was all a scam...

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  3. When I was working, I noticed a similar occurrence. I had many people stopping in my office, mostly from ‘the outside’. Quite a few were sick, or had been sick, the usual seasonal stuff. I rarely got colds, never got the flu. I assume I built up immunity from the exposure to bugs.
    Southern NH

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  4. My mom, who was a teacher for over 30 years, developed the immune system of a horse from constant exposure to the annual cycle of sicknesses.

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  5. Kids are nothing more than walking petri dishes... sigh

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  6. Most normal people that work in healthcare within a few years of beginning their careers become essentially immune to most minor viral respiratory infections. In nearly 5 decades of seeing patients I have missed work only twice...once with a perforated appendix and once with a herniated disc. I simply never get a serious cold and don't think I've ever had the flu. And I'm not alone in that regard. You either develop a powerful immune system or you simply cannot do the job.

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    1. There was speculation early in the Covid event that one reason young people (younger than 40) were essentially immune to its effects was because several strains of the common Cold were of the covid family and there was some degree of cross-immunity.

      To the best of my knowledge, that hypothesis was never investigated.

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  7. When our kid was in day care she brought a current sample of something new every week. We were always getting over something. Sure don't miss that.

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