Cold remedies, please - over the counter to out of your mind

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I am suffering from a COLD.

Og dern it.

Day #1, the day when your throat is at its sorest, your malaise is at its weepiest, your nose isn’t yet particularly stuffed up but you know it will be, and you didn’t get an ounce of the sleep you need last night.

La Grippe, La Grippe,
La Post-Nasal Drip,
With the wheezes,
And the sneezes,
And the sinus that’s really a pip!

I went home from work 45 minutes early to cosset myself. Unfortunately I am here alone with the lazy dog (Gabriela’s Husband having gone off to teach aikido, to Heck with him and his unfaithful irimi-lust) and I don’t know how to cosset myself.

Before you hit me with all the Doctor-heal-thyself fandoodle, let me remind you that I graduated medical school 20 years ago, my patients don’t have colds, and I don’t remember anything about non-fatal disease.

From weird herbals with or without incantations, through your favorite Pharmaco-Industrial Complex nostrums, what do you do when you feel YUCKY to cosset yourself?

Extra points for your best sore throat relievers - I have to go testify in court tomorrow bright and sharp at 9 AM, it’s a ghastly homicide, and it’s going to keep me talking for at least an hour.

Followed by another court date on a different case that should add a half hour to the tally.

Now I’m just feeling self pity.

Spam, spam, spam, spam, SPAM, spam, spam, spam - Right, right, none of that singing!

I have to go walk the dog (she said woefully, sure the world was against her) and I hope, when I come back, to see recommendations for favorite cold remedies.

This is not a request for medical advice. I know all about medical advice, dammit (chiefly: “If you’d washed your hands enough you wouldn’t have caught this virus. Don’t treat it with antibiotics.”) This is a request for advice on COSSETING.

Tia,

Gabriela, who currently feels like three out of the seven dwarves (grumpy, sleepy, and Doc)

2

Do a double shot of Nyquil and sleep it off.

3

What has worked for me: taking about 3000 mg of Vitamin C and drinking quarts of water, lots of rest, keep warm, and a steamy shower. Also, though it isn’t any damned fun, a nasal/sinus flush every 4 hours will generally shorten the period of misery. For the throat: hot tea with lemon & honey (I’d usually add a nip of whiskey, but that would be inadvisable for court).

Hope you’re feeling better soon.

4

Have a black pepper steak for dinner. Crust it in fresh-ground black pepper until you think you can’t stand anymore, and then add two or three more turns of the mill for good measure. Wash it down with hot lemon tea (grind up one lemon peel, add with your tea leaves). Take a shower as hot as you can stand it, stay in there until you’re noticably redder, then take a good ten seconds under the just-a-tick-up-from-freezing setting.

Sweat it out.

5

Oh, yeah, that’ll make me testify great in the morning.

If sleeping it off involves sleeping past 8 AM, there could be a charge for contempt as my reward.

Grumpy
Sleepy
and now, courtesy of Oakminster,
Dopey
Doc

I gotta go drag that lazy dog’s ass out of couch. See you all in an hour,

Whiner

6

No, they just are!

OK, that was bad.

Me, I’m a big believer in Day-Quil gelcaps. And hot tea, lotsa hot tea.

Feel better soon. :frowning:

7

IANAD <giggle> but what works for me is -

The first instant I feel that dreaded tickle on the left side of my throat, which happens when I first wake up but vanishes after about an hour, is to take 1 Humibid LA and chug a pint of lemonaid with fresh ginger that has been nuked until it boiled and is then cooled down to drinkable temp. I also hit myself with a dose of flonase.

I do this right when I first get up, and the humibid is a 12 hour release pill, so I take another with a hot lemonade and ginger 12 hours later. My flonase is a 24 hour deal, so I do it the next morning.

I follow this scrupulously for the full 2 weeks I would normally have the cold symptoms, and it effectively supresses every single symptom BUT if I skip even one humibid, or delay past 24 hours on my flonase, all the symptoms hit me like a ton of bricks, and then nothing alleves the symptoms until they go away naturally.

It is probably too late for you=(

But I encourage at least the hot lemonaid with ginger. You can use extra honey if you like=)

From what I understand, much of the sore throat is actually a result of post nasal drip, and if you keep the secretions thinned out with the humectant and an amazingly huge amount of water, it keeps the throat from getting scratchy.

Instead of normal lozenges, my hubby swears by gummy sour worms, the more sour the better.

8

My method: as soon as I feel the symptoms coming on, I go straight to bed. It seems to help in lessening both the intensity and the duration of the cold.

9

I think it was Mark Twain who explained the cure was to get a hat and a bottle of whiskey. Put the hat on the bedpost, get in bed, and keep drinking the whiskey until you see two hats.

10

Shot of vodka with lots of ground black pepper.

Followed by lots of steaming hot water with lemon juice and ginger. Or lemon and ginger tea. Steaming hot meaning so hot you can barely drink it.

Alternate 1 cup of tea with 1 cup/ large glass of lukewarm water. No cold water.

Of course, that’s the ‘how to make yourself feel better quickly’ route.

For real cosseting: Heinz Tomato soup, sliced, buttered white bread, and a glass of semi-skimmed cow’s milk. Brought to you in bed. Won’t do anything at all for the cold, but might make you feel more cheerful.

Unfortunately, I have no chance of the second right now (haven’t yet trained the cat to go shopping, open the can, butter the bread, and place it all on a tray), so I’ll have to go with the first. Maybe it’ll work. Or maybe I’ll just try someone else’s suggestion.

Good luck in court, gabriela!

11

I hate colds.

I really, really, really hate colds.

I hate them with the passion of a thousand burnings suns added to a hot cup of kiss my ass.

The nasal drip is the worst. Constant sneezing and the feeling that fully a third of your body fluids are seeping out of you. Not to mention the three boxes of tissues you’re forced to go through.

Unfortunately getting rid of the runny nose requires antihistamines, and antihistamines make you drowsy. Still, I’ll force myself to keep my eyes open and head clear and then down a big swig o’ Nyquil.

For coughs, nothing’s ever worked better for me than Buckley’s. It tastes like month-old wizened ass left to rot in an enclosed space and will make your brain try to fornicate with itself, but damn if it don’t work miracles in that department. (I mean miracles other than surviving the experience)

12

I find the best remedy is to get a lot of sleep. Not always practical, I know, but there seems to be no substitute for sleep.

And lots of hot tea. (Unless you’re not used to the caffeine, in which case… um, herbal tea?)

13

I always sing the entire score of Guys and Dolls. :wink:

14

Nyquil. The ultimate achievement of mankind.

15

Honestly, Gabriela, who I well-respect as an experienced physician: Since doing the following routine, I have Never had a cold last longer than a week, usually resolved in 3-4 days. Honest.

When symptoms first occur: 1 teaspoon/dropper of strong echinacea tincture every three hours (very important to have a good brand here—teas and dry capsules are not up to the task of proper dosage). Echinacea acts to stimulate macrophages, in a manner still not well explained, so needs to be administered with regular doses.

Raw garlic eaten in food during onset of the cold, and throughout. At the onset of cold/flu symptoms, ginger tea and a hot shower or bath taken, then head to bed. This usually causes a great sweating event, which tends to resolve around 2 or 3 PM, with an abatement of symptoms in early morning.

Again, I know everyone hears of echinacea as a panacea, but, since you asked for all means of cosseting, I’ll tell you this. The method is to up the body temperature, and up the body’s ability to destroy invaders. As said, I have never had a cold last more than a week with this method, usually abated in a few days.

16

For the sore throat: Sucrets lozenges. They contain a topical anesthetic. Taste like crap, but they kill the pain. Suck on one while you’re testifying, and maybe they’ll let you out early. Act really infectious (piling up damp Kleenex, coughing, maybe moaning a bit), and maybe they’ll let you out extra early.

I’ve got nothing else to suggest except lots of fluids, and you know about that.

17

Variation on the hot lemonade routine: hot limeade. I put a couple of tablespoons of honey in a mug, add lime juice (from a couple of key limes or from 1/2 to a whole larger lime), add water to fill mug, then zap. You can add some rum or other adult beverage if you like.

Also, stay really really ridiculously warm.

Feel better soon!

GT

18

You guys are all wonderful.

Out to load up on the echinacea, ginger, pepper, tea, fluids, bourbon (have to do something to put up with the previous 5 ingredients simultaneously) and Nyquil.

Then I will be a sneezy, grumpy, sleepy, dopey, but happy doc.

But not bashful. Nothing could make me bashful.

PS walking the dog, singing that damn song which of course now I cannot get out of my head -with appropriate alterations such as “For a lack of community puppydog and a feeling she’s getting her leash, a person can inherit a beast” - whaat?

I was gonna say, I could hit all the low notes quite impressively.
I bet I’m gonna regret that when I have to talk to a jury for an hour tomorrow morning.

Thanks again, Guys and Dolls,

gabriela

19

You guys are all wonderful.

Out to load up on the echinacea, ginger, pepper, tea, fluids, bourbon (have to do something to put up with the previous 5 ingredients simultaneously) and Nyquil.

Then I will be a sneezy, grumpy, sleepy, dopey, but happy doc.

But not bashful. Nothing could make me bashful.

PS walking the dog, singing that damn song which of course now I cannot get out of my head -with appropriate alterations such as “For a lack of community puppydog and a feeling she’s getting her leash, a person can inherit a beast” - whaat?

I was gonna say, I could hit all the low notes quite impressively.
I bet I’m gonna regret that when I have to talk to a jury for an hour tomorrow morning.

Thanks again, Guys and Dolls,

gabriela

20

Echinacea. Start taking it when you feel your sinues in that “I’m getting a cold” sort of way, and you really can control the symptoms.

I know some people think it’s a placebo, but it works for me. So if it’s a placebo, who the hell cares?