Barbara Patz knew the misery season had arrived when she began getting sick on Christmas Day, then spent the rest of the holidays entertaining upper respiratory and stomach bugs. Although she staggered into work -- she swears she has absolutely no recollection of one meeting -- she finally retreated to bed in a sweat suit, clutching a heating pad.
"I'm never sick," insists Ms. Patz, owner and president of Paladin Advertising and Public Relations in Baltimore. "I haven't missed a day of work for nine years. When I called my doctor, he said, 'You must be dead to be calling me.' "
In the misery department, Ms. Patz has plenty of companionship. At this time of year, whole families and offices are hit by stomach viruses, colds and other respiratory infections. Some people drag themselves around like zombies for days, spreading germs. Others call in sick at the hint of a sniffle.
About the only thing that's healthy is the sale of over-the-counter medications.
"It's been as rampant a year of infection as I've seen," says Rob Stoltz, an internist at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. "The past six weeks, the numbers have been unbelievable. There are two distinctive illnesses: one which is respiratory -- the cough and cold syndrome -- and the GI virus, which brings diarrhea with a lot of vomiting."
Dr. Stoltz, of course, got sick as well.
"I got the upper respiratory infection," he says. "The gastro-intestinal virus seems to last from one to two days. It seems the cough that comes with the upper respiratory can last about a month -- but a cough, in itself, is not worrisome if you're feeling OK."
Many people have gotten both illnesses, he says, because their immune systems were weakened enough by the first virus to fall prey to the second.
"A lot of my patients have gone back to work and then gotten sick again," he reports.
The holiday season made things worse by reuniting people with friends and relatives -- and their germs. In particular, people hugged and kissed a lot of kids.
"One of the biggest risk factors is exposure to people who are carriers. And kids are some of our biggest carriers," says Alan Kimmel, an internist in Roland Park.
Just ask Parkville resident Celeste Morrissey.
A week before Christmas, her year-old daughter, Erin, was diagnosed as having pneumonia and an ear infection, which had developed quickly from a "runny nose" cold. Erin recovered quickly, thanks to antibiotics, but Mrs. Morrissey fell sick. Shortly thereafter, Erin's grandparents and great-grandmother in Bel Air also came down with the bug.
