The Rhythm of My Pregnancy: The Germaphobe (Week 13)

I have read that when you are pregnant your immune system is quite weak and you are at a greater risk of getting sick. To make it worse…if you do get sick it takes you about 3 times as long to heal compared to a normal person. Given that I know how lousy it feels to be sick with the flue – as a normal person….I now have this new found fear of getting sick as a pregnant person. This has turned me into an un-shameful Germaphobe…..let me just enlighten you on some of the extremities of my fear:

1. If I am walking in the corridor behind someone that coughs and the cough sounds bad….I stop dead in my tracks or overtake that person with my face in the opposite direction…with out breathing in.
2. I get to work early and make my tea and breakfast before anyone has touched any of the appliances. When I make lunch I am conscious of where I am touching and don’t touch my food till my hands are clean.
3. I have stopped kissing aunties on the lips and get supper irritated when someone forces a hi or bye kiss me on my lips!
4. I don’t share food with someone that is sick or even healthy unless it is Avon.
5. I won’t let Avon touch me unless his hands have been washed.
6. I have tried to reduce the amount of time I spend in public places – toilets, malls, shops ect.
7. In a staff meeting I was made aware that more people would be moving in our office and I raised my concern about how too many people in one office isn’t a good idea – especially during winter! My exact words were “Do you know how many germs get passed between co-workers?”
8. Avon got sick the other day and I didn’t kiss him on the mouth for 3 whole days. Just a kiss on the forehead was even pushing it for me.
9. Public toilets are only used in desperate situations!
10. The ultimate extreme is I have a new GERM TRACKING DEVICE in my brain. This means that in any given situation I can track what possible germs could be on something. I never had this device before…but now it is fully functional. The other day when I was getting petrol, at 6am in the morning, I got into conversation with the petrol attendant, Richard. He told me about how cold it was the night before and how he now has the flue. By the time he was saying this he was already holding my debit card and handing me the machine for my pin. All of a sudden my germ tracking device kicked in “how many sick people have touched this machine, Richard is going to hand me his germs on my card!” I couln’t not enter my pin or not take my card!!! I got into my car and touched the steering wheel and thought oh my gosh there are more germs on my steering wheel. I drove the next 45 minutes to work just freaking out about how I need to wash my hands and must not touch my face! My life was in danger!

Quite extreme hey, if I am like this now I am really wonder how I will be when the baby comes. One of my friends was saying – its your child and you will have to deal with her/him if they get sick – so be as much of a Germaphobe as you want! Eeek.