Just wondering, has anyone caught a long lasting cold while visiting?

[Jentham2000]

Hi,

My wife and I have visited the theme parks and restaurants in the Orlando Area for the past 2 years. Each vacation lasted 1 week.

At the end of our 2nd week, we both caught a long lasting cold. Earlier in the week we had noticed a lot of people coughing loudly like horses, but never thought about it until we caught it at the end of the vacation.

Later we returned to Chicago, and the cold/cough lasted for about a month.

Has anyone else run into something like this?

Thanks, Bob

 

[mickey mouse lover]

Yes.
We went to Disney the week after Thanksgiving and I still haven't gotten rid of the cough even though I have been through a round of antibiotics.
Our daughter and her two children were with us and everyone came down with this except my husband, who came down later.
I don't blame Disney. It's just so many people and so many germs.

 

[Jentham2000]

Yes, I agree no blame to anyone. Just wondering if others have run into it and if so what they did to cure themselves.

With our experience, we used a lot of "Cold-Eeze" and "Mucinex" with plenty of fluids. It lasted about 1 month with it gradually getting better.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Absolutely yes! I don't know what happened but in October 2004 when we got back everyone one of us was sick as dogs for about 3 weeks! Coughing, congestion, fever, the whole thing! My guess is the fact that we always go pretty commando and may have exhausted ourselves making ourselves more vulnerable to the germs we may have encountered in all the crowds and airplane rides. Maybe...

 

[Sammie]

It happens. Air planes can contribute. Riding in close quarters in a car for long periods, too. Air changes in the room due to heating and air systems. Lots of germs on rides, etc. Time changes, lack of sleep and excitement, different diet can all make it worse too.

Hope you feel better soon.

 

[disneymomof5]

Every time we go my whole family ends up getting sick. My youngest son ended up in the hospital when we got home from our 2005 trip. This year(March)I bought Germ-X and lysol. i Lysoled everything in our room when we arrived and constantly cleaned our hands with germ-x, and the only one that got sick was my Ds3 for 1 day. He also sucked his thumb so that probably didn't help with germs.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Unfortunately we did. We were down for our annual October visit and not even a week after returning home I came down with a whopper of a chest cold complete with a nasty cough that lasted almost a month. This was the first time in 3 years I've come back feeling yucky. Unfortunately I because they were late here in Canada, I hadn't gotten my flu shot before we left. On the other hand, my DH started feeling yucky mid-way into our two week visit but not to the extent I was.

 

[Mischa]

Count us in on getting sick too! DH & I went down for 12/12 - 20/06 and came back sick. We were both feeling fine until the 18th when we went to Epcot. The weather was around 80s during the day and at night dropped to around 50s. We only had sweatshirts with us and hoped that would keep us warm until we got to SSR. Unfortunately, we had to wait almost an hour for a bus from Epcot to SSR and I think that didn't help matters at all. We were chilled to the bone by the time we got to our room. The next day dh & I were both sick (coughing, sniffles...). We bought cold medicine to at least help us feel half decent.

When we got home we made an appointment with the doctor and are now on antibiotics and he gave us some strong cough syrup to help with the coughing.

This definitely turned into a memorable vacation (just not the memories we were hoping for!)

 

[Jentham2000]

I'm sorrry to hear of everyone's experience.

It also happened to my Brothers family on a seperate vacation last year.

I am originally from NY and now live in Chicago. When I was younger, I was always told that the cold winters killed a lot of the germs, fungus, etc...but in the south they never died.

I wonder if that has something to do with it?

Either way, it seems to be a heck of a thing.

I guess the ideal protection is the lysol and germ-x as mentioned by a previous poster.



Bob

 

[Kymie]

Last year we went for 3 weeks over christmas. I was about 28 weeks pregnant and by the middle of the second week of our holiday I had a bad cold n cough and lost my voice. My voice came back about 3 or 4 weeks later but I didnt get rid of the cough til I gave birth in the March

 

[Brise Nannie]

We just returned from our Magical Gathering the week before Christmas. I'd heard about all the sickness @WDW and we found it was so true. Every where we went people were coughing or getting sick to their stomachs...and I do mean every where. We were VERY fortunate to arrive home healthy. Guess we really dodged a bullet!

 

[mysparky]

We were there during Thanksgiving week and I came down with a head cold on day 5. My son caught it from me 2 days later. Our colds (complete with sore throat, blocked ears, lots of congestion) lasted about 2 weeks. When I catch colds, it's rare to last more than 3 days. Luckily husband and daughter were spared.

I take full responsibility, however. I had brought disinfecting handwipes with us on the trip, but they were a little old and had dried up. We always washed our hands before main meals, but sometimes didn't before having a snack. Historically I've been a little manic with the wipes, this year I wasn't, this year we were sick.

 

[5mins2disney]

On our May 05 trip I got fairly sick..went over to the urgent care facility on US-192 and got antibiotics (nice ear infection)... didn't make for the greatest trip in the world lugging my kleenex and medicine all over the parks, but at least it was just me, the kids didn't get sick and still had a great time.

There's stuff called "Airbourne" you can take for people fly a lot that's supposed to help you from getting as sick. Most airplanes recirculate the air throughout the cabin so if anyone's sick on the plane there's a good chance you can share it.

 

[ilovepooh]

Yes, that's true. Airborne is supposed to help alleviate all of that. I've seen it in Wal-Mart and even my pharmarcy has it on the shelf.

 

[byoung]

Usually get one before going.

 

[CleveRocks]

Viruses and bacteria come in all shapes and sizes. The most common ones in St. Louis are NOT exactly the same as the most common ones in Seattle. The symptoms may be near-identical, but they "look" different to our immune systems.

So any time you travel anywhere, you're more likely to get sick than if you stayed home. At home, your immune system has encountered and has learned how to fight the local "bugs," but since your immune system has never encountered the germs from another region or city, it doesn't know how to fight them very well, and as a result you get sick.

Add onto this vulnerability the existence of a tourist mecca with people from all over the WORLD, many of them children (who seem to catch-carry-and-release more "bugs" than grown-ups due to their behavior), and you have a nice little stew of viruses and bacteria, a good number of which are "foreign" to everyone. In short, traveling to a huge tourist destination is almost a how-to manual for how to get sick!

Of course, there are things we can try to do to minimize catching a "bug" (good handwashing, sanitizing surfaces, reducing our tendency to touch our mucus membranes with our hands), but unfortunately there is no method that's 100% effective. The germs that are aerosolized and are spread through the air ... well, there's no real defense against them -- we can wash our hands all we want but that won't stop aerosolized particles from settling in/on our eyes, noses and mouths.

And by the way, about COLDS ....
If you have "cold" symptoms that last more than about 10 days, it's very highly unlikely that you actually caught a cold virus. There's nothing that can cure the common cold virus, but there may be help for cold-like illnesses that are not actually the cold virus. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist about it.

 

[AgiNJ]

My family and I were also there the week after Thanksgiving. I can't get rid of this cough. My daughter had a sore throat. We were there in October of this year too and I came down with a sore throat that time. oh well . . . . Won't keep us from going back tho!

 

[JillandFamily]

yes, my daughter was there the week before Christmas, and caught a virus, went to the doctors no antibiotic needed, but she is still fighting the cough.