It’s our first real vacation in several years and our first visit to Europe. My throat is killing me and my head is woozy. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic (which is going to give me diarrhoea), a cough suppresant, and Tylenol.
What do you do when you need to get over an illness, but fast?
Eat yogurt which will help prevent stomach problems with an antibiotic.
I am not a doctor.
Swallow four tablets of Vitamin C. My mom used to make me do that and I always seemed to get over my colds really fast. Could be the placebo effect, though.
Chicken soup. Really.
An antibiotic? For any legitimate indication? Or did your doc just shotgun you?
A virus on its own is annoying enough. A virus with diarrhea, while traveling overseas, well…
She looked at my throat, listened to my lungs, blood pressure, temperature. That’s all.
So, vitamin C and chicken soup.
My brother swears by zinc. Any thoughts?
Treat the symptoms and let whatever you have run its course.
Before you get on a plane though, you should take something to keep your sinuses wide open.
Stay in the house, watch TV and play games. Drink OJ. Sleep whenever you can.
Maybe it was just a placebo for me too, but whenever I OD’d on vit C it made me constipated.
I’m surprised the doctor prescribed antibiotics for what sounds like a plain old cold.
In any case, if you have a neti pot, use it. It may help relieve symptoms and/or prevent this turning into a sinus infection (though I guess that’s unlikely if you’re already on antibiotics). I’ve had a couple of times where I’ve really felt like a cold was coming on (sore throat) and immediately started neti-ing every day, and it seemed to interrupt the progression. Could be sheer coincidence, but it certainly didn’t hurt to try.
I think the vitimin C, cold thing has been debunked.
Vicks First Defence can help stop a cold from spreading, but I think it’s only really effective if you catch it early.
Most sinus infections are viral, not bacterial.
Neti pot’s a good idea for symptomatic relief of congestion, though.
Sore throat = gargle with salt water. Do it now. It always helps me, but the sooner the better.
I’ve found I can neti-pot my way out of a cold.
I have the opposite reaction. I get the runs. Never heard of vitamin C leading to constipation!
even sven, how does that work? I can see the neti pot helping you be less stuffy but what about the other aspects of a cold (tired/achiness/headache)?
Thanks for all the advice! I’m off. Still have a sore throat and a runny nose, but the worst of it seems to have passed.