Always Ill

I moved to London in July, and started working in November. I work at a special school (8-17 year olds with moderate-severe cognitive impairments, so lots of germs) in London. I take 3 trains (about an hour) to and from work. And since I have started I am ALWAYS sick. I'm actually on day 4 of bedrest right now with the worst flu I've ever had coupled with a lung infection.

Generally in the states I was pretty healthy. Maybe would get sick once a year. Since November I've been healthy about 30% of the time.

I know that the reason for this is new country, unhealthy city, lots of train germs, school germs, etc. What I am wondering is if anybody else experienced something similar when they moved- and if so, how long until you had the antibodies built up to not be constantly ill.

Seriously- I feel like a dying slug here!

Sorry you've been so sick.  I usually get sick just after I start working with kids (usually the young ones who constantly leak snot ) but it's usually just for a week or so.... I have no idea why that would still be affecting you now.... probably like you said- kids coupled with moving and germy trains and maybe stress from relocating.   

It's also winter, so maybe you're catching everything possible.

Have you gone to the doctor?  If you're too unwell to go to an appointment, I believe you can call NHS Direct and get a doctor's opinion over the phone.....

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/About/CallingNHSDirect

I hope you feel better!!! 

I have seen a doctor a couple of times in the last 2 weeks. They have me on a huge amount of nasty drugs (but at least the appointment was free! lol).

Maybe after this flu I'll see several months of good health... hope hope! I'm also considering if moving out of the city might be something we need to do... it's not a great market to be looking for new work though, if I can manage to not die in London!

...in London. I take 3 trains (about an hour) to and from work.

WEAR GLOVES ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT! Seriously, do not touch anything public - handrails, buttons at cross walks, lift buttons, door handles, etc. These things are crawling with freaking germs.

This one single thing has helped me and so many friends! It means you're less likely to touch your face, eyes, mouth, etc with your gloves, which now harbour the germs, keeping your hands inside relatively clean.

Stress is also a huge factor, too - I've been continuously ill for the past 6 months, and even with my toddler immune system (I started from scratch again in 2009 after my transplant), that's still a lot for me. And I finally looked back and realised it coincided exactly with a particular client putting a huge amount of stress on me. So I'm hoping that by acknowledging it, I can deal with it.

Also, I point-blank asked one of my haematologists if there's anything, ANYTHING I can do to boost my immune system (vitamins, yoghurt, supplements, colostrum milk, green tea, hippie crap, etc), and he looked at me and said, well, maybe some vitamin c or zinc, but that's really the only thing that isn't just a colossal waste of money.

PS: also the flu that's going around this year is particularly nasty. I had it for --three-- weeks in December, and friends with normal immune systems have had it for similar lengths of time.

I had a thread here on UKY after I moved.  I was constantly ill when I moved.  It wasn't helped by living in a student-dense area.  I got to know my local pharmacist well and they said that illness in general was much more rife with all the students bringing germs around the area.  He said he'd seen more ear infections and throat infections there than anywhere he'd worked.

I can't say when it shifted. It did seem like it took a year or two to really start feeling more normal and not catch every cold that came my way. I also did some kind of funny thing to my ears and after not having a single ear infection in my life, I moved to Cardiff and suddenly had ear infection after ear infection, some of which became resistant to treatment because I'd had it so regularly so I had to work with specialists. I was starting to worry I was going to do permanent damage to my ears.

I did eventually stop getting ill all the time, and when I moved away from that university area, I suddenly stopped getting ear infections and haven't had one since, so what my pharmacist said must have had some merit.

I got a horrible cold the first weekend after I moved here, and from there I was ill at least once a month for about three years.  Colds, flu, chest infections, it was so bad and I didn't feel like myself because I had always been really healthy.  I also worked at a school, so that was part of it, but honestly I think this is normal.  The germs really are different, and you have to give your body time to get used to them.  For the past year and a half-ish, I've hardly been sick at all, which is how it was when I lived in the US.  So it does get better!  And fortunately, there is Lemsip here .  

ETA: I just read Cadenza's post, and ear infections!  Yes!  I had one shortly after my permanent move, and another almost exactly a year later.  I was 30 and it was my first ear infection since the age of 4 when I had tubes put in my ears  .

Yeah, does the fact that I was on a first name basis with my pharmacist after having been healthy for years say anything?  I think it was probably about 2.5 years for me to not catch every single bug.  My in-laws started asking my husband if I had always been sickly before.  They were starting to worry about my constitution or something as I was always ill.

Yeah, is the fact that I was on a first name basis with my pharmacist after having been healthy for years say anything.  I think it was probably about 2.5 years for me to not catch every single bug.  My in-laws started asking my husband if I had always been sickly before.  They were starting to worry about my constitution or something as I was always ill.

Exactly, I caught everything that came around.  The first time some of my colleagues were sick and I didn't catch it, I really felt like a corner had been turned.  How's that for an immigration milestone?

I never really noticed a problem with colds/flu bugs, but that's probably because I rarely left the house for 18 months!

I did have...er...intestinal issues for the first few months I was here, until I convinced my MIL that, yes, when they print 'Refrigerate after opening' on the side of the jar, they really mean it.

I did start a job in November, where I'm in and out of schools, seniors' centres, etc. a lot, and so for the first time in my life, I got a flu shot.  I regretted that for about 10 days, but I haven't really been ill since.  So I'll probably get one again next year.

Really, though, I think the only thing to do is take the usual precautions.  Avoid touching things, wash your hands frequently, carry hand sanitizer gel.  There are a couple of products available that are basically a gel that you coat the inside of your nose with, and they're meant to stop you catching colds, but I'm personally skeptical.  Same with pretty much any supplements/homeopathic stuff.  Even vitamin C, which is somewhat helpful-- your body can only actually absorb a certain amount of it, so must of what's in those 'mega-dose' products (stuff like Emergen-C) goes right through you, giving you really expensive urine, and no more health benefit than you'd have gotten from eating an orange.

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'm really glad that I'm not the only one that this has happened to!

I've also had people at work ask me if I've always been sickly. I don't think they believe me when I tell them that I used to never ever get sick!

I'm glad that it does seem to get better with time though (doesn't everything about being an immigrant??)

Thanks for the glove advice Squirrelly! I will definitely use that strategy! And maybe start obsessively using instant hand sanitizer... I already wash my hands a lot, but perhaps I need to step it up a notch!

Seriously, do you guys sometimes feel that if we can survive the UK we can survive anything?? It looks like such an innocent "green and pleasant land"....

Seriously, do you guys sometimes feel that if we can survive the UK we can survive anything?? It looks like such an innocent "green and pleasant land"....

Lol. I was just back in the UK for Xmas/NY and forgot to bring my anti-bac with me the *one time* I took the tube - and I got that nasty cold/flu. Seriously, Londoners, sort it out! 

I am a ritual user of the anti-bac. Carry it with you everywhere. If you have wipes, you can then be *that person* who wipes the rail on the tube before you grab it. With gloves I get paranoid that the gloves are now covered in someone else's nasty snot and how are you going to get them off your hands and into the wash without touching them? Oh the horror.

As others have mentioned, vitamin supplements really won't do much to boost your immune system. But eating foods with those vitamins in them will do! Getting those vits in natural form is always better.

When I saw the nurse to get my BP done recently, she saw on my record that I have been faithfully getting flu jabs every year for some time. She said there are findings that people who get them every year are less likely to get other infectious diseases such as regular colds. Apparently there is some sort of immunity that is built up carrying over from year to year. I said, Wow that had been my personal experience. Good to have my theories confirmed!

Seriously, do you guys sometimes feel that if we can survive the UK we can survive anything?? It looks like such an innocent "green and pleasant land"....

lol, yes!  Three weeks ago I was saying how " I used to catch everything that went around, but now after living here for 2.5 years, my immune system is so fierce it will flush out anything!" ...and then three days later I caught this same sort of particularly nasty flu-ness squirrellypoo mentioned, that wiped me out, and I'm still trying to get over. 

So no, it's not just you.

But thanks for the gloves tip, SP- I wore mine on the tube today because the metal pole was really cold, but I think that's a good way of protecting myself better-- I'm less of a fan of antibacterial hand sanitizers, because in my head, overusing those is the same as over-prescribing antibiotics- which really bugs me.

If you use the kind that are just alcohol, it's not the same thing. Alcohol just dries out viruses and bacteria, and for most of the infectious kinds, that's enough to render them harmless. Antibiotics affect bacterial genes, which encourages selection of resistant genotypes. Of course, the best thing to do is wash your hands frequently, particularly after being on public transport, and make sure you rub with soap for at least 15 seconds.

When I saw the nurse to get my BP done recently, she saw on my record that I have been faithfully getting flu jabs every year for some time. She said there are findings that people who get them every year are less likely to get other infectious diseases such as regular colds. Apparently there is some sort of immunity that is built up carrying over from year to year. I said, Wow that had been my personal experience. Good to have my theories confirmed!

Whaaaaaaat? Bullshit. Show me the research!

I have to get the flu jab every year now, and do, religiously. So far I've had (confirmed and swabbed by the hospital labs) flu every single year anyway, including Swine Flu. And last year I was ill in (big breath) January, April, July, September, October, November, December, and culminating in shingles this January which I'm still dealing with the after-effects of two months later.

The flu jab can reduce your risk of getting the specific strains of flu included in the jab, and can reduce the impact if you do get those strains. Emphasis on "can" (not "will"). The effects only last for a few months, which is why you have to get it every year. I think your nurse is just trying to encourage patients who are eligible to actually come and get it every year, which is an excellent thing. But wrapping it up in nonsense reasons is irresponsible.