Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Epidemiologists . . . I need your help!

I wonder what percentage of people are sick on any given day. I don't mean diseases like cancer or systemic things like high blood pressure and diabetes.

I mean the things you catch that make you sick for a few days and then you get better. Colds. Strep throat. Stomach viruses.

I'm guessing it is greater than 12.5%.

The reason for my guesstimate is that there are eight people living under my roof. It has seemed for a pretty long time now that one of us is sick.

Miranda started running a fever on Friday and had a sore throat. She was better by Sunday night but then Matt got sick. He has had a sore throat and fever since Sunday. Luckily for him (well, for all of us I suppose), I can go to work for him when he is sick.

He is back at work this morning but as I dropped Myla off at Mother's Day Out, she felt a little warm. And she was fussy this morning. Hopefully she's not getting sick.

Anyone want to do some research and see what percentage of the general population is sick at any given time? On average?

Again, my guess: 12.5% or greater, or one person out of eight.

Large families out there . . . do you have this problem?

3 comments:

Garratts said...

Ick. During the short time we had five children, I felt like, if one got sick, I automatically knew we would be home for about a month. It's terrible!

I started making the most of the quarantines...when kids were sleeping, since I knew I wasn't going anywhere any time soon, I would start painting or doing some project I had been putting off because I was too busy. That helped me not feel crazy.

Heather

Mindi said...

Hey Heather!

I tried to respond earlier, but my computer and the Blogger site were teaming up against me . . . those little crazy letters that you have to type in for "word verification" were not there! Just a blank screen! Yet, in order to post I had to "type the characters you see in the picture above." Weird, huh?

Yes, I can get things done when I'm home playing nurse . . . except when Matt's sick . . . and then I have to go to Greene Eyes and see a million patients a day!! Which I have done all week . . . but tomorrow I am home again! Yay!

Melodi said...

I know this is an older post of yours, Mindi, but wow, it really encouraged me, believe it or not! People make comments to me about how I always seem to have a sick one, but hello!!!! We have six kids and two of them are little!!! We have germs coming into this house from a million different sources, so I say I'm doing great to keep my own body well and up and running. I hope Marshall is well now!

Melodi