Every December, we enjoy a 2-night stay in a very nice Hotel that we really can't afford. While there, we watch movies, swim, fool around and pig out on ridiculously pathetic treats.

This year was different and we may never do it again. On the way home, I began to feel a very raspy, dry and serious swallowing inability.

My wife also noticed that she also had similar indications...a stuffy nose and a building up of mucous in her nose and lungs.

Our 4 month the old daughter was sneezing, and her eyes were tearing up copiously.

The condition got much worse for each of us within two hours. Being a cheapskate, I googled the symptoms, and four hours later, now coughing hoarsely, I discovered that we were probably victims of Sick.Building Syndrome.

Whenever you go into an enclosed modern facility, you are breathing the air of each person therein, eventually. The hotel we stayed at had people from 19 countries. The year before, we stayed at the same place. In our Journals, we wrote that we both came down with an awful flu-)like respiratory infection.

It clicked.

That fine hotel, among the most respectable in Asia, was likely a source for countless sufferers of 2 to 4 week lung and phlegm issues.

We won't be going to that place again. Not even to dine. Their Buffet is gourmet.

Today we live in an era of cost-cutting and negligence at every level. Ducts and filtration systems that aren't monitored and maintained with care are home to mites, spores and some pretty virulent dust riders.

No more hotels for us.

Happy 2020, all.

It's the Law of Unintended Consequences, I suppose.

More building codes dictate a very efficient, energy-conserving standards. Such buildings don't "breathe" as much.I'm seeing more and more new construction where few, or none, of the buildings can be opened.

Thus, the architects and engineers must design HVAC systems which recirculate the interior air, thus exposing people to more germs and pathogens. Sure, they're supposed to mix exterior air in, use filters and so on, but the fact is, in a modern building you're breathing lots of "old" air--and other people's exhalation.

So should we do away with those horrible socialist building codes ?

I've worked in a number of schools with mold issues in the ceilings. I don't know if mold would impact a large building like a hotel.

Beware amateurs making medical diagnoses off the Internet.

I was at an end of year brunch Sunday where half the invitees worked for a single company. It's an annual event, 25 to 30 people. Only two people from the company showed up, the rest cancelled either Saturday or Sunday morning. There's several nasty bugs in SLC right now.

Yesterday I got a last minute call from a friend needing a ride for a medical test, and her already arranged ride giver was too sick.

And we've all heard about cruise ships where a norovirus was brought onboard. That's a huge disruption, and in a few cases the cruise had to be cut short.

I wouldn't blame the building until "a bug going around" was ruled out, and there was testing data that implicated the building. A web search provides neither of those pieces of data.

I hope you and family feel better soon, Screen Name.

I have a wonky immune system that mistakes my own cells for invaders, yet when real invaders come along, it fires up and attacks me even harder. Some internal guard dog I've got, barking at the burglar while it shreds the couch cushions.

I get colds, sinus infections and and tonsillitis a lot, and am particularly vulnerable to flu and pneumonia, so I get vaccinated for those every year. I don't hardly go out into public right now, because I'm trying really hard to have one January finally where I don't get rhinovirus, strep or bronchitis.

The Victorian era brick building I used to work in reeked of mold/decay. I used to get such horrid headaches, and the worst case of pneumonia I ever had was when I worked there, The only bright side was that being that sick led to the autoimmune diagnosis and a treatment plan that has helped.

Remember to stay hydrated. I supplement with emergen-c packets and zinc lozenges when I get sniffly, it seems to help with severity/duration.

It's a mix of vitamins and herbs known (or at least reputed) to be immune reinforcers. It's not a wonder drug or anything, but we've found it to be helpful in reducing the severity and duration of colds and flu.

You'll find it at alternative groceries, etc., and -- much as I hate to channel $$ to Jeff Bezos -- Whole Foods.

I never thought about it being the buildings. I think it could be. I think mold can be anywhere no matter the size of the building. I always sleep with the window open in those buildings anyway. I feel claustrophobic in them no matter what the season is.

I think cruise ships definitely feel the same way and I slept with the balcony door open (we just ended up with a balcony because we kept getting bumped up to better rooms when they didn't fill the ship). When they get sick on the ships and go on up to Denali, where my daughter works, many of the workers up there get ill, too. They also pick up every respiratory virus from the visitors. My daughter gets ill every year.

It could very well be how many people you are exposed to. When my kids were in school, I was SICK all the time. I got the flu every 3 months or so. I had never had strep in my life until I had kids in school and I endedup with chronic strep and was on penicilin for a year. Now that I'm home alone a lot, I don't get sick as often, though my son will bring home viruses from work. Last year when I worked at Sam's, I got SO ILL, but I had to keep going to work as I was a new hire. And I know it spread to me from other workers and people, and I shared with them, too.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2019 12:50PM by cl2.

And then there are airplanes and hospitals.

Yesterday, my wife's niece in Manila was refused admission into the hospital because a pre-screening swab revealed that the girl is suffered with a very contageous viral infection. They were told to take her to a free public clinic. Those clinics are populated daily with scores of coughing babies, toddlers and children who must wait for hot hours before they are called in for examinations.

Yikes.

Here in Utah everyone is sick including me. It sucks! I got it at work in our sick building eating lunch in close quarters, which is more like a kennel for humans. I'm treated worse like a dog at work, no joking!

One thing about hotels is that it's best not to go to the cheapest one. I was in St. George last year and there are some mighty cheap places to stay down there. One particular place on the vard had no way to open the windows and smelled like stale butter popcorn, All my personal belongings had a horrid smell afterwards. I never every use motel pillows either (I can only imagine where they've been).

The three of us have all but recovered after full hydration, fresh air, deeply inhaled, a long sleep and drowning a dozen tangerines.

I am going to cities only when unavoidable. The traffic, dust, smog and high prices have really turned me off. Stay in a hotel and the extra fees and taxes ma.ke even a bargain disappear. When the economy misses my cash, maybe governments will remove the boot from my neck.

I am too old to pay for unwanted, mandated crap.