This goes for teachers as well as the general population. It's foreshadowed when entering the field that your first year of teaching will be the most brutal to your physical and emotional health. What's worse, if teachers call in sick every time they don't feel well, the classroom loses valuable instruction time. Each time this year I had to go home sick, I came back the next day to find that I had to re-teach the lesson I'd left for the substitute and do a lot of back-tracking. Not to mention the email to catch up on! Here are some preventative measures to keep yourself healthy when facing a barrage of germs.
1. Wash your hands every day, every second that you can. If you see a sink and soap, get yer hands wet and sudsy. I don't believe that hand sanitizers do much alone, but washing my hands before eating or touching my face has saved me countless colds and influenza.
2. Most teachers have their personal favorite vitamin or mineral supplement to boost immunity. Mine is plain old Vitamin C. The highly-acclaimed Airborne and Emergen-C work, but so do two or more tablets of 500 mg Vitamin C every day. You can also drink orange or cranberry juice in high doses with no ill effects. Beware sugar commonly used to make the vitamins tastier. Your body will tell you when you have had too much because it will simply exit next time you go to the bathroom. Perfectly safe, cheap, and easy to remember.
3. In America we have a pill form of all medication. In Europe it's common to have an herbal tea. India gives us another way to deal with irritated sinuses: a Neti pot. I bought a Sinu Cleanse system, and it's just a plastic pot with packets of salt & baking soda. The design makes it easy to pour through one nostril, and once you figure out how to let gravity do the work, it feels quite soothing to clear the sinuses with water. I think this is the best way to clear up a stuffy nose.
4. Haven't tried this tip yet, but I heard from my stepmother that it protects you from airborne germs. Put a bit of Neosporin on your finger in the morning and smooth it on the inside of each nostril. Can't hurt right?
5. The rest is just common sense. Eat right. Be very careful about alcohol consumption, because it can knock your immunity down in one night. If you smoke, quit. Get fresh air but protect yourself from bitter cold. Sleep when you're tired, leave work early once in a while, and know that it's okay to distance yourself from others when you work in close proximity with sick people. We all carry germs, and they are expert at getting around from body to body. Just protect yourself and again: WASH YOUR HANDS!
Amanda writes to find her voice and to follow the footsteps to see where they lead.
I wash my hands often at work. They occasionally tease me about it until I remind them of how sick they've been and how I've never missed a day of work. Unfortunately, especially in the winter, the 3-4 washings can be harsh on my skin. So I had to buy a bottle of Aveeno for the winter months. Wash and then lotion.
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