I know I posted about going to work as a substitute teacher but I can't find that thread. So, anyway early in May I got sick a few days after my last subbing gig. A bunch of kids were coughing and sneezing and apparently I picked up a virus. Thinking it was just a cold I took the usual remedies but it kept getting worse and after about 5 days I was almost too weak to get out of bed. I called a friend to come take me to the E.R. at the local hospital and after taking some blood and getting my chest x-rayed I was admitted with the diagnosis of having double pneumonia. I spent a week in the hospital and then another three weeks in a rehab facility. I was just released to go home yesterday.

Now I have two months to decide whether or not I want to resume the substitute teaching and if I do what precautions I need to take to prevent getting sick again.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

... what precautions I need to take to prevent getting sick again.

Hope you can be well enough and find cost-effective solution(s) if you decide to continue subbing.
Schools can be a "germ ward". I think part of the problem is:
1) The parents send the ill kids to school because they can not afford to take time off to care for them or they don't care if some one else falls ill.
2) A lack of "proper hygiene" -- had washing, cough control, etc on the students part. Maybe the kids are not taught this anymore or they don't care.

My brother works as a maintenance technician for a local Texas school district. Every winter he gets sick with the flu or some other related issue requiring him to seek medical attention and a few days (or more) off from work.

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I actually had been wondering where you were. Glad you're back and better!

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Glad to hear from you, and that you are feeling better, Bob.

I have the same problem with getting bugs at the fire truck factory. People come into work sick as a dog because they don't want to take the time off.
We have isopropyl alcohol in spray bottles that we use for cleaning parts and various things in our work, and I spray my hands off to disinfect them. But when you have to work side by side with somebody that is coughing and sneezing all over the place it doesn't help much.
Luckily, my health is still such that I have not been laid up the way you have.
Hope you can stay healthy if you decide to go back to work.
And perhaps don't wait for it to knock you down so far before consulting the docs if you feel something coming on.

Best of luck to you, Bob.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Good to see you back Bob. Sorry I have no suggestion about the teaching gig.

Glad to hear you are back on your feet.
I'm sure you can think of ways of "managing" the little bug factories, so we won't bore you with suggestions.
On a personal note, have a word with your quack, there may be some anti-viral (flu) jabs available that would reduce the chance of the same thing happening again. There are certainly some anti-pneumonia jabs available for us "old perishers" and "professions at risk" in the UK....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Glad to hear you are back on your feet.
I'm sure you can think of ways of "managing" the little bug factories, so we won't bore you with suggestions.
On a personal note, have a word with your quack, there may be some anti-viral (flu) jabs available that would reduce the chance of the same thing happening again. There are certainly some anti-pneumonia jabs available for us "old perishers" and "professions at risk" in the UK....

Actually not a bad thought. On top of that many vaccinations we had as a kid lose some effectiveness as we get old. Talk to your quack and ask what a pediatrician would get. They'll get the idea then.

Actually, I had taken the flu and pneumonia shot precautions back in January. I guess they just don't cover all the bases.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Vitamin C.

ALL dA Time.

Yeah, it is Water Soluble and Most Gets Pissed Away, But Continual Vitamin C to Keep Levels Up is What Keeps My OLD SELF from Sickness.

Don't Think So. I've Read a Ton 'bout Sailors in dA OLD DAYs with SCURVY.

Once they Hit Shore to 'C' Up, many Dead, Most Sick, and a Few Left to Get Ship to a Place to Get Well.

They Get Better and Back to dA CONTINUAL BATTLE of Sailing dA SEAs. Fighting Tempests, Natives, Accidents, and SICKNESS.

MAN O LIVE. Incredible what They Went Through to Explore dA World. From My GUESTimate, 98 Percent of Sailors BacK Then DIED, and therefore NEVER GOT BACK Home.

To Wit: Magellen had 5 Ships. One Ship Returned with 17 on Board.

Orang OrangeBack Yap

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

Well, I have one more month until I decide whether or not to return to substitute teaching. In the meantime I have been looking for some other form of part time work where I won't be exposed to colds, flu and pneumonia as much as I was in the classroom.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

All the best in your thought process. I hope you can find a suitable job.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Have you looked into museum work? Seems like a science center of some sort or a planetarium might be a good fit.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I'd not read this read until just now :(

I'm glad you're been recuperating well, Bob :) what an awful knockback though. I think, for those who go straight into teaching from being at school themselves, the immunity they'd already acquired beforehand, carries them onward and upward without too many risks beyond maybe, headlice :/ Having children of your own go through the schooling system is a vicarious way of keeping roughly up-to-date too, still the hard-way though, by coming down with it yourself. Otherwise every breath can be a bit biological-weapon-cocktail-themed... sort of Russian roulette with germs and no empty chamber. That's what I think anyway.

I will have a think for alternatives for you :) Gordon's sounds a really nice idea.

I'm glad you are home and still have some time to rest before deciding what to do next.

I spent most of my career working with young children in a hospital setting. The first year was exceptionally brutal. I caught everything that came down the pike. After that things improved, but cold viruses mutate very easily and I would still get a cold or two every year, even after 25 years of preschoolers "training" my immune system. In my current job I work with graduate students in a university setting. They know how to cough in another direction and most of them are even smart enough to wash their hands now and again! With my new job, I've had one cold in three years - a "gift" from my niece and two nephews.

Children are definitely walking germ factories!!! Good thing they're so darn cute.

Wishing you well, my friend.

Children are definitely walking germ factories!!! Good thing they're so darn cute.

Besides the 'Cooties' which I think only effects American kids there are a whole host of other cute nasties.

In my time around our little horrors I've had head lice, scabies, fleas, bacterial lung and stomach infections, and other assorted social illnesses. (I'm quite resilient to viral infections so lucky.)

@Bob DeWoody

It might be that you are just allergic to kids :)~

Or perhaps the working environment isn't suitable and is bringing both you and your immune system down.

A change of jobs or scenery might be the answer.

I can't remeber if you are still working with kids from poorer families or not?

I wonder if doing some private tuition for kids (or adults) might be worth a try.

Or research a subject and offer yourself as a lecturer \ trainer.

Your pneumonia may not of come from the snotty coughing kids.

There is not much you can do about viruses especially amongst the firment of a school full of hosts.

As others will say. Vit. C., ginger, haldi (turmeric), avoid enclosed public areas, turn down the central heating, turn down the AC and always open the windows.

There must be other paths for someone with your qualifications and skills.

What's your best subject?

Children are definitely walking germ factories!!! Good thing they're so darn cute.

They certainly are :)

Well I am back working in the local school system as a substitute teacher while searching for some other part time work. Not much demand in my original career field for a part time 69 year old civil engineering tech. I'm not looking to restart in a new career but rather earn enough money to live a little more comfortably and not on the edge of financial disaster.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Children are definitely walking germ factories!!! Good thing they're so darn cute.

They certainly are :)

+ 1:)

Wishing you all the best in your new job, Bob!

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Children are definitely walking germ factories!!! Good thing they're so darn cute.

They certainly are :)

+ 1:)
+2:)
Wishing you all the best in your new job, Bob!

Same here, Bob!

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