nearly perpetual sickness

Something strange is going on at our house. I think our immune systems have decided to give out on us. Or maybe we're just turning into hypochondriacs. Over the past two months, it seems like at least one member of our family has been sick at any given time. Okay, it hasn't quite been that extreme, but we are usually sick or have just recovered from some sickness. And this past weekend has been no different. All three of us have a miserable cold. I just shot this picture of J, who has taken to walking around the house with both a Kleenex box and trash can.

Anyhow, I thought I'd jot down all of the colds/viruses that we've experienced over the past few weeks. I'm sure this won't be very interesting to other people, but I want to remember all of this drama. Maybe when this is all over, we'll be able to review this list and be slightly amused at all of our misfortunes:

• First week of February: Sam gets a high fever which lasts for several days. I've never seen my little buddy be so miserable in his life. We finally take him to the doctor and learn that he has an ear infection. He's put on antibiotics for the next ten days.
• Second-third week of February: I come down with a sore throat that turns into laryngitis. I have to cancel some of my classes and end up speaking in a constant whisper to J during Valentine's Day.
• Second week of March: Sam comes down with a really bizarre vomiting virus. He seems to act like he feels fine, and then the virus strikes without warning. 'Nuff said.
• Third week of March: Sam and I feel sluggish over the weekend.
• Fourth week of March: Sam comes down with a really nasty cough and cold. We spend a whole week trying to recover. J and I end up getting the cough too - and the cough has persistently lingered for all three of us (until present).
• Beginning of the second week of April (this past week): Sam comes down with a fever on Tuesday. He wasn't complaining about an ear infection, but did mention that he wanted to adjust his pillow so he could "sleep on his ear." I give him the remainder of the antibiotics which we got in March (see first bullet point), and the fever went down after two days. Hopefully we were able to stave off an ear infection while it was in its early stages.
  
• Latter part of the second week of April (this past week) - present: Sam's cough (see two bullet points above) comes back with a vengeance. The coughing wakes Sam up (and wakes everyone else) consistently every 15-30 minutes at night, and nobody gets much sleep. We all sleep a little better on Thursday night, but not by much. J wakes up with a cold on Friday morning, and stays home from work. By Saturday morning, all three of us are feeling miserable. Sam is feeling the best out of the three of us, J feels the worst. My voice is a little more hoarse (and my throat is more irritated) than the boys, and I'm paranoid that I'm going to get laryngitis again. Man, if I lose my voice during this busy school quarter, I'm going to be livid.

I've tried to boost our immune systems with anything and everything. A few weeks ago I stocked up on vitamins and Echinacea supplements, and I'm making us take them regularly. We've been trying to drink things that have a lot of Vitamin C, too. Nothing seems to work. J thinks that we just have more opportunity to get sick, since all three of us are going to different locations (and mingling with lots of people) during the week. That may be true, but I also worry that our furnace/heating system might need to be cleaned. Someone else told me that she thinks all of the sickness just has to do with this year - it's been a miserable winter for viruses and colds.

Who else has been battling sickness this past winter? Is my family an anomaly or have others been constantly battling viruses/colds?