How strong is your immune system?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.

This is from the Nursing Humor forum's "Ways to tell if someone is a nurse" thread:

"-Your immune system is so well developed that it has been known to attack squirrels in the backyard"

So how is your immune system? Do you get sick often or rarely? And when you do get sick, do you get REALLY sick or is it minor?

I'd also be interested to know if this immune system strengthening takes a long period of time. For example, if you are healthy as a horse, did you used to get sick often when you first became a nurse?

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I don't think nursing or working in a hospital builds your immune system.

I work with people who are constantly sick. Then like myself rarely sick. Other lifestyle factors enter into it, as well as genetics.

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Hmmm...Interesting. I have been working at a clinic for about a year & exposed to all kinds of nasty stuff-- :coollook: yet I haven't even had a sniffle of a cold. Maybe it's the obsessive hand washing that goes along with nursing???

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

I think if most of us thought about it, or noticed we might say we had more sniffles etc. while in nursing school. I think the immunity builds slowly, and because of our somewhat limited exposure to patients during school we build immunity without really feeling full effects of illness. Kind of like a flu shot,, its such a small amount of virus that most people dont really feel effects except for maybe a slight fever or achiness and then it goes away. During nursing school i think we get it the same way only we are so busy with classes and obcessing with care plans etc we work through it without giving it much notice. Except maybe for the fact that we think to ourselves we cant be sick and just push ahead in spite of it. JMO

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Haven't caught anything in 13 years since starting Tai Chi and doing Qigong exercises. Wife is a school teacher and also tries to bring home good bugs for me to repel! Used to be bedridden with the flu for a week every year. My ki is too strong! :rotfl: :rotfl:

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My first year as a nurse I was sick all the time. Now when I get sick which is rarely(knock on wood :), I get a mild version of the sickness. My kids come home with all kinds of nasty stuff and I can be around them the whole time while they are sick and never get it. I truly believe this profession builds our immunities.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

When I was in school it seemed I got sick everytime I turned around. Now I'm rarely ill, and I usually sail through those mini-epidemics while my co-workers are sneezing and wheezing and puking......but when I do come down with something, it hits me like a ton of bricks! I had that flu bug in February, the one the flu shot didn't protect against, and it knocked me flatter than a pancake for almost two solid weeks. In fact, it was a full month before I felt normal again, and even longer before I stopped coughing. That was the sickest I'd been in 15 years.......hopefully it'll be at least another 15 before another episode like that befalls me. :uhoh21:

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My immunity seems to be a bit stress related. If I'm able to do what needs to be done, I can be exposed to all kinds of stuff and I'm OK.

If I feel like I'm under the gun or behind the power curve, I can be minimally exposed and then I get sick.

Maybe it's psychosomatic illness????

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I think working in a hospital builds up your immunity to pathogens and viruses. I have managed to escape the bugs. Plus, I am OC when it comes to hygiene. When my kids and hubby are expelling from both ends, I 've never cought their bug.

I feel my immune system is up to par........

plus I exercise 3-4 times a week and pop vita's everyday.

I recommend GNC womens ulta mega....you will pee moutain dew, but hey, It helps...lol:)

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Specializes in LTC, office, home health.

How funny this question is asked today!! This week I was on orientation at a peds clinic for 2 days and last night and today have felt like $h!t!!! the N&V!!! We saw so many kids with N/V/D yesterday!!! and strep throat!!! Glad that part of orientation is over!!! This is the second week on a new job after being in school for 3 years full time so i really think my immune system is way down. Before when i was working full tme in LTC I rarely got sick.

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YOu may think I'm crazy (and I hope i don't jinx myself here) but it all boils down to AEROBIC exercise. I've been doing aerobic exercise regularly for the last 5 years (I'm talking super cardio here) and i havent even had a sniffle.

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