I have a cold. My nose is currently very stuffed up. Over the years, I have tried every kind of cold medication on the market and none of it really works.
I’ve had several coworkers and bosses implore me to take medication, and grow annoyed when I cough/sneeze/snuffle for two weeks as it burns itself out. Many people find it difficult to believe cold medication does not relieve my symptoms (like I’m lying and find sickness fun? I don’t know). So apparently they do work for some people.
Am I just a freak? Anyone else immune to cold meds?
I find the only thing that really works on a stuffy nose is the nasal sprays. If you overuse them you can get dependent on them though, so I usually only use them at night when I can’t breathe. Sudafed and those types of things don’t do much for me, although they do help with sinus pressure a little. Cough medicine does nothing, in fact I remember reading an article about them that said cough supressants are little more than placebos, the only real suppressent is codeine. Codeine knocks me right out, so I guess you could say it works in that all my symptoms stop when I am unconscious…
Well, of course there is no cure as such, but most of the medicine works to a degree. You will still feel shitty after taking them, just less shitty. Most of them involve pseudoephedrine or some other sort of “upper”, which apparently has the added bonus of drying out your sinuses. A pharmacist once told me to take lots of tea, coffee, or cola for the caffeine!
IME, take lots of water, some of those standard pseudoephedrine-based drugs (not sure what brand names over there… Codral?), keep warm, and get lots of rest. Not perfect, but the best you can do.
I feel your pain, Obsidian. I’m in the first week of what will inevitably end up being a two-week cold at the moment. Ugh.
I, too, have rotten luck with cold medicines. If I hear a family member suggest Contac one more time I swear I’ll scream. Occasionally DayQuil or Sudafed will manage a slight lessening of symptoms–but not one that’s noticeable to anybody but me, and I’m still miserable anyway. The only thing I’ve ever found to significantly ease my suffering is NyQuil. Unfortunately, I can’t take that unless I’ve got 12+ hours to sleep it off, because it really knocks me for a loop–but then, hey. It’s the only sleep I get when I’m sick, so it’s worth it.
Pseudophedrine is completely useless. My standards are not unrealistic. I’d be happy if I could chew with my mouth closed, but I feel like I’m suffocating if I try.
Beware The nasal Spray. More than 2-3 days, and your running the risk of dependance. The rebound effect can be worse than the origional problem. I speak from experiance here.
I recommend equal parts Nyquil and Whiskey. You don’t get any better, but you don’t care.
I have yet to find any over-the-counter cold meds that do anything for me other than the nose sprays. I only use them at night, for up to four nights (I get short colds…sorry, ya’ll) and during the day I suffer. I don’t even notice feeling any less crappy after taking, say, Sudafed. It doesn’t do a damn thing for me. If I have a cold pretty much the only things I take are the aforementioned sprays, ibuprofen or acetominophen, and cough drops, which don’t do much but do help a little.
I suspect this is true of a lot of people, but the way they advertise the stuff, people are convinced that it Must Work Really Well or something. Even if it doesn’t.
When HallGirl 2 was in Turkey for a year, she brought back some nasal decongestant that had been prescribed for her when she was there. Last cold I had, nothing was working, so I took a snort of the Turkish Decongestant. Boy howdy, that cleared everything right up. I think it even dislodged some brain cells as well.
I have no clue what it was, since the label was in Turkish, and her knowledge of the Turkish language didn’t extend into pharmacuticals.
It should be remembered that colds are caused by breathing (not that silly virus mumbo jumbo doctors tell us about) so you can easily avoid colds if you avoid breathing. It is a proven fact that people who don’t breathe never get colds!
Cold has migrated to my ears. Stupid storm front that just came in is not helping.
Nasal spray helped clear some nasty, nasty gunk from my sinuses, but that only lasted a little while.
No one felt like cooking tonight, so we went out to this diner-like place on El Camino. I got a sandwich, which I couldn’t taste at all. Then I ate the pickle. My nose cleared, and suddenly I could taste for the first time in 3 days. I even had a piece of pie, which I could taste!
Nose blocked again. Ate someone else’s pickle. Nose cleared. Now, I’ve tried cough drops w/menthol, pepermint, sniffing vapo-rub, even listerine. Anything that’s usually “sinus clearing”. Nada. (Seriously, I couldn’t taste the listerine at all). But pickles! That works!
Have you tried Thera-Flu? Nothing else seems to work for me, but anytime my sinuses act up and I get a sore throat I drink Thera-Flu at night. It always breaks up the worst of the sinus problem and I always end up feeling better the next day.
I think I caught your cold. I woke this morning with my right ear clogged, my sinuses swollen shut and gunk in the back of my throat. Yep, it’s YOUR cold I caught. I think it’s no coincidence that I read your thread, put up my post, and less than 24 hours later I have similiar symptoms.
Or, you can make a Thera Flu Toddy: One tea bag, one envelope Thera Flu (or generic equivalent thereof), a jigger of whiskey and lots of Splenda. Tastes like crap, but it helps me sleep through the night and I usually do feel better the next day for having slept.
I took a cold pill once in my life. It cleared up my symptoms fine–but it also made me sorta drunk-feeling. I took the pill so I wouldn’t be sniffling through my last class of the day. I wasn’t sniffling, but I absolutely couldn’t concentrate. Pretty much a wash from my point of view.
Your co-workers are probably just hinting that you go home so they don’t have to catch your contagion.
I’ve sat here for weeks listening to various people, hork, cough, sneeze, blow, take their temperatures, ingest cold medicine, etc. All the while hoping I don’t catch the plague.
Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to stay home for a sniffle, but if you are sick, stay home.
I think I’ve caught your cold too That’s really unfair because I just got over the flu. I wish to og you had kept it to yourself. Achoo!
I have a box of lotion and aloe Puffs on the desk on my right, and a steadily growing pile of used tissues on my left. I have taken sinus medication – didn’t work! I drank tea – didn’t work! I had a nice hot shower with plenty of steam, and that didn’t work either. So tonight I am going to have something with a lot of red pepper flakes in it (doesn’t matter what it is, really) just so some of the crap drains from my nose.
I don’t want to use nasal sprays because putting stuff up my nose has always seemed rather gross to me. So I’m stuck with eating really hot food. That does work, for at least twenty minutes or so.
That’s really unfair because I just got over the flu. I wish to og you had kept it to yourself. Achoo!