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The Uncommon Cold

blastoff99

blastoff99

Gold Supporting Member
Supporting Member
Dec 17, 2011
1,820
12,727
Under the flight path
#1
I'm late to this party, seeing as it's almost March. But maybe there will be enough collective experience gained over the last few months that someone will say something helpful :) .

Ok, I rarely get colds. Last good one was 2001. I've had Genuine Influenza more recently than that, and it was not fun.

Almost a month ago I broke overnight with a weird itchy rash that was non-scary but spread so fast I could watch it. Almost immediately I started to hurt - everything hurt, including my hair. The doc Rx'd Tamiflu because apparently I was in the very narrow window where, if I really did have influenza, Tamiflu could make a big difference. So I took it and didn't get worse, and didn't develop fever / chills / aches / cough / runny nose, then got better. It took until last Tuesday before I felt 100% better, but the deficit was not large before that.

HOWEVER - later that day I thought 'Don't tell me I'm coming down with a cold.' The jury was out while I slugged Airborne and water and Vitamin C and zinc. Thursday it walloped me, and I've been down since. I mean, down. I keep thinking I'll get up and do something, but a walk to the mailbox is enough. So far it's all upper respiratory, but it is intense. Buy stock in Kleenex, for sure.

I did go to work Monday. This was dumb. I lasted three hours and should have given up after three minutes. I called my doctor's office to say 'this is kicking the crap out of me; at what point do we worry about a sinus infection?' and the nice nurse said not to call back until Thursday morning, and only then if I was still getting worse. Really? Really? I went home and collapsed face down on the floor for four hours, which was good because I haven't slept much in a week. But... they don't even want to talk to me?

So, educate me about colds. What I think I remember is that, once you get through the first couple of days, you can sort of go about your daily work, albeit more slowly and less well than usual. You may be miserable, but you can push through at least some of it. I ain't pushing through ANY of this. Doing anything other than veg'ing on the couch is too much.

This makes me think I don't have a cold. Or I guess I could just be a wimp, but wow, if this is how colds are in this new era, they've been substantially upgraded since earlier versions.

For the record, I am:
drinking lots of water
taking guan... whatever... stuff
snorting salt water
taking tylenol for the headache
not taking OTC cold remedies because they don't work and do make me nuts

Please advise. Maybe I should eat more carrots?
 
#3
^^^ Well, not until you posted that.

Fever: no
Headache: yes but not a crusher
Aches and pains: not now (but yes, three-plus weeks ago)
Fatigue and weakness: heck yes
Extreme exhaustion: oh yeah
Stuffy nose: non-stop running, really
Sneezing: yes
Sore throat: no
Chest discomfort / cough: not really (what little coughing there is is probably a result of snot + gravity)

I think I have 'Illness a la Carte.'
 
#6
Munjibunga said:
Have you been to Disneyland lately?
Click to expand...


Nope. Not West Africa, either.

I also haven't been to sleep lately. Since falling comatose on the floor Monday afternoon, I have had three non-consecutive hours. All of them were Monday night. Went to bed over five hours ago, but never dropped off. Except for about two hours yesterday, my nose has been running non-stop. As in, 'use a kleenex, throw it away, use another one, throw it away.' This makes sleep impossible. I took six (!) benadryl at about 11pm, figuring it would either dry me up enough so I could sleep, or knock me out regardless. Nope. And... I know we all need sleep, especially when sick. Adding to that, I have a medical condition that could flare up dramatically without sleep. I'm surprised it hasn't already.

Doctor's office WILL be hearing from me when they open in seven hours. This is ridiculous.
 
#7
Make some chicken soup! Seriously, throw some veggies in there and eat it as much as you can.
Also, as much as it will feel like a chore, get outside and get your blood flowing by walking around the block. The more we use our bodies, the better they work on our behalf. Doing nothing but laying around will cause you more grief than good. It will also help you sleep.
Fishheadjoe
 
#9
Six benadryl did... nothing. I wasn't too worried about it killing me, as I used to take four on a regular basis to counteract a side effect of a medication I (thank goodness) no longer take. Maybe I'm immune to the stuff.

Thanks for the reminder, joe. I was out for awhile yesterday, and I'll do the same today - but maybe less far. The mailbox seems about right. It is somewhat farther away than you might think.

Finally got to sleep at about 5:30 this morning, and was out for two hours. Called the doctor's office at 8, and was told 'we don't have any openings today.' They managed to squeeze me in when I told them what color my snot is.
 
#11
Fishheadjoe said:
Make some chicken soup! Seriously, throw some veggies in there and eat it as much as you can.
Also, as much as it will feel like a chore, get outside and get your blood flowing by walking around the block. The more we use our bodies, the better they work on our behalf. Doing nothing but laying around will cause you more grief than good. It will also help you sleep.
Fishheadjoe
Click to expand...

Not if you have the flu. Eat, yes, but don't exercise if you ere that ill. Your body needs all it's energy to fight the virus and heal.

I had what sounds like the same flu, it was vicious.
 
#12
I wasn't suggesting any kind of exercise outside of a quick walk or stroll. You gotta get your systems moving and lying in bed, even if it seems to be the only thing you are capable of doing, is not the complete answer.
Hope yer feeling better soon OP... and don't forget the chicken soup! Matzo Ball soup if you can!
Fishheadjoe
 
#13
I've had roughly the same thing since the start of January. Body and muscle aches, sharp pain in the back, dizziness, fatigue, disorientation, headaches, fevers, itchy eyes, and a slight cough. I don't really have much congestion though, just a slight bit of drip down the throat.

I finally went to my GP yesterday, she scheduled me for blood work in 2 weeks. 2 weeks... I can't decide if I'd be pissed that everything cleared up by then or not. Grumble grumble grumble...
 
#14
The verdict is in: sinus infection, not secondary to a cold, but secondary to the influenza virus I had almost a month ago. The Dr gigged me a bit about not calling them last Friday to tell them what was up. He REALLY gigged the nurse about blowing me off on Monday.

Rumor has it that with this ZPak or whatever it is I might feel better enough quick enough to trudge off to work tomorrow morning. This is most welcome news, but sheesh, if we could have accomplished this on Monday, that'd have been great. Not only have I been wacky miserable and missed three days of work, because I've missed three days of work I had to bail on my volunteer gig doing FOH all weekend. True, I may be fine by then, but since I work and volunteer at the same place, I can't exactly ditch my day job but get well on weekends. This'll be three in a row FOH turns missed due to illness - and in five years, I've never missed a single turn.

Whine.
 
#18
I've been sick that last couple of days too. What's tough is that there's no such thing as "the" common cold or "the" flu. There are a thousand different colds and flus (flues?). The symptoms of each might be a little bit different. I remember hearing that you never catch the same cold twice - each is a different variety of rhinovirus (which just means viruses that get into your nose), once you've had one your body makes the antibodies for that one and you'll never get sick from it again. Over a lifetime you might develop immunities to fifty or a hundred different cold viruses. But since there's a thousand or more of them, there will always be another one out there to get sick from...
 
#19
The *rest* of the verdict is that... ok, this is too weird but it does make some sense... my body wasn't through fighting off the influenza virus when it got distracted by the sinus infection. By the time I got on an antibiotic (nine days after I thought 'huh'), the flu virus was ramped back up and the sinus infection was off to the races.

I have more flu symptoms now than I did four weeks ago when I was diagnosed with it. I did spend 2.5 weeks kinda fighting a low-grade non-specific unwellness, but now I have more standard flu stuff. This sounds like bad news, but I am thrilled to report that today, for the first time since Wednesday of last week, I feel like I might live through this. YES, I feel garden-variety awful, but I don't feel 'there is something seriously wrong here' awful. This is the kind of awful I can work through.

I do need to get some sleep. That would probably help a ton.
 

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