Con crud

[telophase]

I decided that since I felt so tired last night, I wouldn't do anything useful after I got home from the grocery store (cold medicine run). Lazing about waiting for Mythbusters to come on, I decided I'd lie down a little bit about 7. Mom phoned at 7:45 and I immediately fell asleep again, waking up at 3. Decided maybe I ought to get out of my clothes and put a nightgown on, read Mushishi 5, fell asleep again until the alarm rang at 7.

And I'm still tired. At work, since the rest of the cold symptoms are mild and I don't have a whole lot of sick leave at the moment, although I expect there's a good chance I'll be out tomorrow if I get worse. I'm supposed to work on Saturday, and it's awkward to get sick this moment as I'm taking a Saturday art class this semester that pretty much kills my ability to trade Saturdays with anyone else. Blarg.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Yuck. The thing I don't understand about con crud is transferred as I actually never see anyone who looks sick at the convention. How do the germs get passed? I honestly don't feel like I touch that much at a convention (little different because you have a table). But generally doors are already open. Is the disease passing through the air conditioning? Already present in the hotel room? (I got mild con crud last convention and I didn't get a hotel room.) Do the bathrooms need to be cleaned more thoroughly? Restaurant food?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

IIRC, if it's respiratory, it's usually through touch contact - door handles, the backs of chairs, tables, badges, money, etc. - any surface that you touch and someone else touches. Or it can be passed through the air by little droplets of water, which brings in the air conditioning (Legionnaire's disease was passed that way at a hotel when the first outbreak happened). I got a cold after an Animefest a few years ago when I was walking by a group of people and one of them turned and sneezed right on me. (THIS IS WHY YOU COVER YOUR NOSE AND MOUTH WHEN YOU DO THAT AARG)

If it's gut-related, it could be any of the above, plus someone who's infected and preparing or touching food in any way.

I'm sure someone who knows more about epidemiology than I do will come by and correct me, though. :D

ETA: (After I just went upstairs to get chips - ELEVATOR BUTTONS)

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Haha I know. It just kind of makes me want to take samples of all the areas of a convention center and see where the germs are really building up.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I suspect money has a LOT on it, and I'm sort of forced by the nature of my attendance there to deal with it. :D

I don't use hand sanitizer/antibacterial stuff, though, because that, if it works at all, contributes to superbugs and I have a cousin who was on IV antibiotics for six weeks thanks to a resistant staph infection thanks to this sort of thing. I'd rather just wash my hands as often as I can, even though it's not perfect. :D

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I am not a fan of purell or giving antibiotics at the drop of a hat. I actually think it is more the merchandise than the money. I worked in a cash office for several years and money in general is dirty. I hated dealing with the 1s and 5s because they look ok alone, but when you get them all together it smells like skunk. So I think money could contribute but the real culprit would be the merchandise and table space on the edge that people run their fingers across when they are looking at other things further back or waiting to pay. Plus the merchandise goes from one convention to the next.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

When it comes to my stuff, I don't touch the front edge of the table much. I get people handing stuff to me and I hand it back, but money's ubiquitous - I handle it with every single transaction, I use it in the hotel gift shop to get drinks, I hand it over to the restaurant people, I hand it over to people who are getting something for me, etc. Also, I'm touching money immediately after somebody else has touched it. Merchandise on tables tends to have a short rest period between touches during which time the moisture dries up and the bugs die or whatever. But money is directly hand-to-hand.

The sheer number of times I handle money means, statistically, that I have a larger chance of getting infected from it than from anything else, I suspect.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Hmm I guess the buttons would be up there. but honestly how many different people push the button on an elevator? Additionally, the first week back on campus has a crowd of people touching elevator buttons, and I don't get sick then. I was actually thinking more along the lines of things in the dealers room, as pretty much everyone is in there touching something at some point.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

At a con? The elevator buttons are constantly in use, especially the ones on the outside that call the elevator.

I don't know why you don't get sick during the first week of school, but it's possible that your campus has a smaller percentage of people from other areas, so you're slightly more resistant to the bugs. Or you are in less confined areas, so the moisture that harbors the bugs dries up before you touch the surface or breathe it in (cons pack 'em in tight). You may also be getting more sleep and better nutrition during the first week of school than at a con.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Oh1 I didn't even think of the call button. I was thinking more of the inside buttons, where you have 10 people in the elevator but one person hits all the buttons. However the sleep/nutrition probably does have a big effect. I know when I go to conventions I tend to eat out a lot, which is not exactly healthy. I know the campus/con comparison wasn't great, but I think they are somewhat similar for a smaller con.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's still a valid comparison - campuses are breeding grounds for bugs. :D I think that with cons, you're just all in the same building all the time, which makes it a bit easier for infections to pass from person to person.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

On another note, do you remember hearing of con crud before 2003/4ish? I haven't been as active as I was but I don't remember everyone getting sick around 2002/2003 when I went to conventions in big groups. I wonder if the sickness is a newer thing in general and if so, why? Is it caused by the increasingly younger fan base? Or some other factor?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Nope, I've been getting con crud since I've been going to cons, back in 198mumble. :) I think you were just lucky. :D

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Well considering I was on of the increasingly younger fanbase back then it wouldn't surprise me. Maybe con crud has nothing on public high school germs XD

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Oh dear lord, no. XD Mom was a teacher and therefore had immunity from all the bugs, as she was exposed to them constantly, and had no sympathy for me when *I* got colds.

A few years after she retired, when her immune system had scaled back a bit, she got a bad cold and complained to me on the phone and I told her I had NO SYMPATHY! :D

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha. But all this talk of colds has me craving 7up.