OFFICIAL: Dallas hospital isolates ebola patient

[Trina]

Never come with a fever, but if you know your kids have a cold you shouldn't bring them (they probably don't feel like going either). I keep my kids home when they are sick we listen on the phone. Colds can be deadly to someone with compromised immune system or the elderly. In my opinion it is different for children because they are not able to keep from touching things spreading it. I was raised this way, some have been raised differently. I think we should be extra careful as we get closer tot he end with more and more dangerous illnesses. I will look forward to listening to others opinion and ways of handling this.

[blue-jay]

I agree with Catrina. It has happened so often that we sat in front of someone sick (coughing/sneezing) and a few days later we were sick. I'm getting so tired of that!

[Toy Poodles]

For some of us that are trying with all our mite to attend a meeting and to be able to stay the whole time, if someone comes that is sick they should probably stay in the back room and please don't shake anyones hands. It seems like every time I make it to a meeting I am sick a few days later. And sickness to me means really bad pains. I am already in a lot of pain but when sickness settles into places where you are weak already the pain is excruciating and I usually don't have for 24-48hrs, it is for a week or two. 

I have been in so much pain at times that I would literally cry to my husband to just put me out of my misery. 

 

I know how hard it is with kids, I raised 4 in the truth as a single mom, but I fed them healthy, gave them a multi vitamin and vit. c. If they came down with a cold, I would add zinc. Nowadays they have emergen C which is real good for helping the immune system in healthy kids and adults to either not get something or help fight it off.  

 

But i beg all of you, to think of those who have serious immune problems and severe health problems, instead of going up to them at the meeting if you or your kids are sick just call them later and said you wanted to say hi but didn't want to spread anything. We all must show love to one another which means considering the other person first. 

[cricket246]

I have a very low immune system and have major allergies. Sometimes people avoid me because they "perceive" my allergies as being something contagious. I do understand we have to be cautious.

If I'm not feeling well but no fever I sit in the back, if I'm running a fever and have symptoms that could even turn contagious I stay home. This year I have a feeling I'll be listening over the phone or sitting in the back (by back I mean in the bathroom in the cubby hole chair we have lol or back room) sadly.:.

Edited October 9, 2014 by cricket246

[Mykyl]

Well I will clarify that I am not silly. Serious illnesses we don't go to the meeting. (Flu, fever etc) Colds we do go. I do NOT shake others hands and I do not go near others but I would not stay home with just a cold. People get colds that's just life at the moment. Staying at home is not an option for minor ailments like that. ;)

Edited October 9, 2014 by Mykyl

[ava]

Well I will clarify that I am not silly. Serious illnesses we don't go to the meeting. (Flu, fever etc) Colds we do go. I do NOT shake others hands and I do not go near others but I would not stay home with just a cold. People get colds that's just life at the moment. Staying at home is not an option for minor ailments like that. ;)

 

I have to agree with this.  Vomiting, fever, flu, all good reasons to stay home. If I have a cold, I normally go to the meeting.

 

I know that every winter I am going to get a few colds.  I may catch it from someone at the meeting, at work, or anywhere, it is what it is.  I can't call in sick at work every time I get a cold with only a few sick days a year.  

 

I do understand what some are saying though that elderly and others may have more issues with being around someone with a cold.  I personally do not touch people, hug them, or shake their hands when I have a cold. And I will sit in the back school and leave the meeting right away.

 

It's easy to say "listen to the meeting at home".  My congregation though does not give the pin out, and I am aware of other congregations doing this as well.  You have to request the pin and it is reserved for home bound people like elderly ones, or ones who will be home bound for a long period of time like if they are recovering from a surgery.  So no, if I have a cold and want to stay home for one meeting, I will not get the pin.  When the pin was out to all, we would often have all 32 lines being used (mainly on Thursday night meeting) cause people would come home from work and not want to go to meeting and would just stay at home.  Then the ones who really counted on it, like the elderly, were missing too many meetings cause they couldn't get the phone tie in to work as all the lines were used. So it's not that easy to use the phone tie in depending on your congregation.

[shali]

How would you define sick? As a father to two little kids I would pretty much never be at the meeting the entire winter if I was to never go when feeling sick. Winter is just snot and sneeze time the entire time. Of course Vomiting is a stay at home for at 48 hours after last time you were sick.

Where is the line drawn?

The line is drawn when you are contagious and can infect others. Usually a sore throat means you are in that period of being able to infect others. When in doubt - don't!

[Trina]

I agree with you! Please do not bring children with colds to the hall, colds have fevers and are very contagious too, they can cause some other children/adults with asthma to have to go to the hospital...1Co 16:14 Let everything you do be done with love.

[shali]

A child with a mild fever can have chicken pox and pass it on to many older ones at the hall who will get "shingles" from it and it's extremely painful for them and lasts a long time! If your kid has any type of fever, you keep him/her home! Show love for the whole brotherhood!

[Mykyl]

How much clearer do I have to make my responses? I am not some stupid person who does not know when something is dangerous around older ones. I am so glad the congregations I have been a part of have always encouraged folks to be there rather than at home. Oh and we are in a congregation of mostly old ones. 70 upwards. Unlike some here when I started back they kept encouraging us to keep coming to the meeting.

In fact we have an old sister who asked me to come and speak to her. I told her from a distance that I was full of the cold but she insisted. This sister has many things wrong with her but it would be wrong to talk about them here.

I did not touch her nor breath directly on her. She is in her 80's and susceptible to illnes due to underlying problems. I am very careful.

It sounds like some here would rather I risk my families spiritual lives so that they could avoid the unavoidable in this system.

Again I am NOT talking of serious illness. I already mentioned fevers etc as a time NOT to go.

Thanks so much for the encouragement.

[Mykyl]

Again I am caught out by the 5 minute rule and cannot edit my post.

No idea why I am trying to state a point here anyway. It does not matter in the grand scheme of things.

I believe we are likely at crossed purposes regarding when I would take my family to the meetings and when I would not.

However I am not in your congregation and I have never had an issue in any congregation I have been a part of.

So there is no real issue. Just imaginary ones being discussed here.

Sorry.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Mykyl

[New World Explorer]

Cold, flu or ANY other related sickness is still a SICKNESS that can have negative effects on others, this is just the way it is.

Therefore balance and discernment is needed on part of a sick person whether to go to the Kingdom Hall or not.

Love for brothers and sisters should be our motivating force when making such decisions.

Unfortunately we need to make these decisions until Paradise comes !

[blue-jay]

It sounds like some here would rather I risk my families spiritual lives so that they could avoid the unavoidable in this system.

You think Jehovah would let you suffer spiritually in response to you showing fellow feeling and love for your brothers and considering their well being?

From what I know about Jehovah I would have said "no way". Do you think I'm wrong?

[shali]

Cold, flu or ANY other related sickness is still a SICKNESS that can have negative effects on others, this is just the way it is.

Therefore balance and discernment is needed on part of a sick person whether to go to the Kingdom Hall or not.

Love for brothers and sisters should be our motivating force when making such decisions.

Unfortunately we need to make these decisions until Paradise comes !

I know some older and younger ones who caught a cold from someone else at the hall and it turned into pnuemonia - causing the death of at least one - and it all started with a cold that someone felt wouldn't be a problem to pass on. I know as I get older, a simple cold can turn into a horrible chest cold/problem that lasts weeks or months with a horrible cough.

[Trina]

When you look up the medical information on colds you find that a cold makes you ache and feel bad, I know kids feel bad when they are sick they usually cry and complain while they are there and you don't get much out of the meeting anyway, they would probably feel better at home resting anyway and will get better quicker. Balance is the key and thinking of others and not ourselves. I certainly cannot bring my sick kids to the hall with the possibility of hurting my brothers and sisters, it is such hard work being a parent these days, many sacrifices!

[Lance]

There are so many different ways to approach this .. Each parent will have to decide ..

Part of western culture is that we avoid any challenges to our immune system .. The result is that we end up with sicker children and sicker adults...

There is a reason they call it the common cold .. The only cure for it is time and building up an immunity library to the many strains ...

If a person is very immuno compromised he or she should not be in closed public places.. That is just a situation for sickness to manifest itself ...

Obviously no one should go to a public meeting if they have a very contagious illness that can do great harm ... The golden rule really applies here ...

Edited October 10, 2014 by TheDoorGuy

[shali]

The problem is even the most mundane illness can do great harm to someone. Like I said, I know an older one who got a cold from someone and it turned into pneumonia and she died. The cold virus is constantly mutating and developing new strains, each a little different enough for your body to think it's new and it's never had it so it doesn't yet have the antibodies to fight it off. In certain cases, a simple cold can shut down someone's entire immune system (we have a sister like that in our congregation too!) Just like everything else, usually by the time you have full blown symptoms, you are no longer contagious, it's just those first few days when perhaps you aren't quite sure if you are getting sick. I don't go near anyone if my throat is sore - that is the period when you can infect someone else.

[Stavro]

At my hall, the rule of thumb (often repeated from the platform) is that if you're not bedridden or in the hospital, you have no excuse to be absent.

 

Those who are sick are advised to sit in the lobby and avoid contact with others, but if we stayed away for every headache or runny nose, many of us wouldn't attend any meetings at all. (The repeated abuse of the phone tie-in means that only those approved by the BoE can get the code, and those caught giving out that code are counseled and the code changed, with the one giving out the code removed from the list on the second offense.)

[shali]

We don't have any areas that ones could go to to keep their sickness to themselves. The lobby has no chairs and the second school gets used every week (except Sundays). Lately with what I've had, my cough has been so bad that it's a constant disruption all during the meeting and there is nowhere to go where it can't be heard. As soon as the A/C kicks on my cough goes into overdrive and so that the other 70 can enjoy the meeting, I've been using the phone tie-in. I finally turned a corner two days ago and feel like I can go to the meeting without coughing the whole time. Service will be a whole other experience I'm sure! But looking forward to being back in the swing of things after 3 weeks.

[shali]

The problem I see, is at the onstart of ANY illness,when you are at your most contagious, you still don't know what it is you'll be coming down with. What if you went to the meeting knowing you were contagious with "something" just to find out days later, you infected the entire congregation almost! Like I said, by the time your nose is running and your coughing or throwing up, you probablly aren't passing it on and I don't mind that. To ask ones to stay away for the 3 days they are infected shouldn't send anyone down the drain spiritually. In some cases, no meetings may be missed, in others - just one at the most. I went to our assembly this weekend and coughed the entire time (and at lunch, everyone let me know I was being heard!) so in the afternoon I went out to my car and listened to the rest of the program on the radio so others would no longer be disturbed. Wish we had that option at the congregation level!

[Musky]

The problem I see, is at the onstart of ANY illness,when you are at your most contagious, you still don't know what it is you'll be coming down with.

 

 

This makes no sense to me. How many of us feel great, everyday in this system? Do you mean if we wake up feeling crappy in general, we should miss a meeting? Like you say, if we "don't know" why were feeling somewhat less then optimum, we should there fore err on the side of caution and miss the meeting? If we did that, I doubt any of us would be "regular" in our meeting attendance.

[shali]

I'm not talking about just feeling crappy. I've said it several times in other posts that for almost any illness, it all starts with a sore throat. Doctors agree that when you have a sore throat then you are in a period of being contagious to others. By the time the sore throat is gone (unless it's strep or sinus's) and the other symptoms kick in, you can no longer pass your disease on.

[Musky]

At my hall, the rule of thumb (often repeated from the platform) is that if you're not bedridden or in the hospital, you have no excuse to be absent.

 

Those who are sick are advised to sit in the lobby and avoid contact with others, but if we stayed away for every headache or runny nose, many of us wouldn't attend any meetings at all. (The repeated abuse of the phone tie-in means that only those approved by the BoE can get the code, and those caught giving out that code are counseled and the code changed, with the one giving out the code removed from the list on the second offense.)

 

It always amazes me when I see such a difference in different congregation's "personality" which of course is reflected from the bodies of elders. In my congregation. We have an unlimited account with KHCONF and the Kingdom hall tie-in number and pin are posted on the information board and all are encouraged to use it at their discretion. (I have seen visiting speakers writing the numbers down).

 

We have a lot of elderly shut-ins in nursing homes as well as assisted living facilities. Our average number of tie-ins per meeting is 35. 

[Trina]

Bedridden is considered a serious illness, contagious people could cause others with immune deficiency issues to be bedridden, I am thinking about the other people I love more than my needs and wants (cause I'm a social butterfly and love to be there). There is no immunity build up to the common cold, it is different every year, and there are probably at least 9 strains of it in one year. All of the medical websites tell you that you should stay home and get rest if you have the cold. My elders in our hall have never made that announcement to us, they have always respected our concern for others, and we must not have an issue with the phone thing like some halls, I have only used it twice both while parents were visiting after a surgery. I usually have a friend or family member bring me the notes and announcements and study well anyway. But the phone line is for those who are not able to make it for good reason. Our back room is used for a sister with Tourette Syndrome so this is not an option. But I just hope no one gets sick that is my hope, I love you all and wish we did not have to worry about this like we do. ;)

[shali]

Many would not call chronic migraines a serious illness but when I would go to the meeting having one, I spent the whole time throwing up and crying, trying to find a dark corner to lay in where no one would touch me - how much do you think I got out of those meetings? Absolutely nothing - the stress of being there made the migraine worse. I would literally have to be helped out to the car. So by Stavro's explanation of when you should be at the meetings, I should be there even with a migraine as it's not a "serious" illness - just a 72 hour pain fest.