I have a cold. It started as a mild sore throat a few days ago, and wasn’t getting any better Then started getting worse on Friday night; running nose, watery eyes, stuffed-up sinuses and ears, raspy cough. And this isn’t the mild sort of runny nose, “oh, I think I need a handkerchief”; this is the “I don’t dare be more than an arm’s length away from a whole box of tissues” kind. I went to a clinic this morning and got checked over; no strep, no pneumonia, just a cold. The PA recommended a couple over-the-counter medicines (one pill, one nasal spray) to deal with the symptoms, and told me what to do if it gets worse or doesn’t get better. I wish there was a miracle cure, but there isn’t. I guess I’ll just have to ride it out. Shouldn’t be too bad as long as the medicine works.
But they never do. These were both products I hadn’t tried before, so I was hopeful. I got them at a drugstore near the clinic and took the first doses when I got home. Then I went to bed. I woke up a few hours later and couldn’t even tell that I’d taken anything. Cold medicines have always been like that for me; maybe things get a tiny bit better for a little while, and then I have hours of misery until I’m allowed to take another dose. The nasal spray says to use it once every 24 hours. I’m looking forward to noon tomorrow; maybe I’ll be able to breathe for an hour or two.
Is this just me? Do over-the-counter medicines offer any relief to anybody? I know there’s no cure for the common cold, but is this the best medical science can do; I get to spend the next week with my head feeling like ten pounds of sticky-slippery goo stuffed in a five-pound balloon?
Pseudoephedrine and a nasal inhaler works for me. Cough medicine (DM) I usually have to double the dose to get any relief.
I don’t get a rebound effect from the inhaler unlike nasal sprays.
Alka-seltzer cold and flu. There’s a day formula and a night formula in the same box. My peeps swear by it. None of works for me (diabetic). Sleep as much as you can. And use that nasal spray alot. It won’t kill you for a day or 2, overuse. Feel better.
Do you use a neti pot or bottle? I find if I use my neti bottle, followed by a decongestant AND an NSAID (because part of the issue with sinus congestion is inflammation), I get more relief than if I take a decongestant alone.
Target your symptoms. You don’t suffer everything at once, so use what’s strongest for what makes you most miserable at the moment.
For congested sinus: get the “good” Sudafed i.e. the stuff you have to sign for at the pharmacy counter.
For dry cough that you want to just shut up, look for “suppressant” such as Robitussin. For max relief, drink juuuust enough to get loopy. NyQuil has different formulas, but boy, do they all help knock you about a bit.
For a wet cough where there’s crud rattling around your lungs, get “expectorant” such as Mucinex. It’s surprisingly expensive compared to other OTC but it works. Glug down a decent amount of water with it; the lung butter gets loosened up and easier to hack out so your lungs can clear.
Don’t combine expectorant with suppressant. They kinda cancel each other out.
If you can find someone who will make chicken broth from scratch, as in starting with raw chicken on the bone, that helps too.
Yes, I think what you are describing is unusual - most people (sez I) find that OTC cold remedies do help relieve two symptoms: nasal congestion and aches.
There are caveats:
Coughing is nearly impossible to treat with OTC medicines, as far as I know. Though some people swear by a few of the newer things on the market to help with expectorating coughs.
Some people (myself included; I’m pretty sure Ambivalid and Qadgop the Mercotan, among others on this site, have reported similar problems) do not do well with pseudoephedrine - it gives some people such horrible twitchy-overstimulated-wakefulness side effects that the nasal congestion, horrible though it may be, is better than the dreadfulness of pseudoephedrine.
Nyquil-type stuff helps me to sleep with cold symptoms, if that is necessary. For me that’s usually limited to one or at most two nights.
I usually end up after even a brief cold with a couple of weeks of coughing, so I rely on Mucinex to help me cough up the crud and shorten that by quite a bit. It works as advertised for 12 hours. They have several formulations now, I just stick with the original that is just for coughs.
That’s one of the things I was wondering, am I a sucker for following that dosage and time intervals on the package?
I wish. One of the things I’ve always thought sucked about living alone is that I don’t even have someone who can make a drugstore run for me. Chicken broth from scratch? When my nose turns into a snot factory I have to pull myself together enough to drive to the drugstore.
The pill the PA recommended is Mucinex. I took the second dose at midnight. Fingers crossed.
I did find one thing that helps a little bit, a hot shower. It’s probably the heat and moisture, and I’ve been trying to massage setting so maybe there’s a stimulative effect, too. Just took my fourth one today. After ten or fifteen minutes I cough up a nice quarter-sized glob of pale green phlegm.
I agree with targeting symptoms. But Robitussin is not synonymous with plain cough syrup. There’s different recipes for different symptom profiles, and you don’t want to overdose on certain things like paracetamol/acetaminophen. Look carefully at what active ingredients are in products and use caution: for all brands, Robitussin, Nyquil, whatever.
If you want a lot of cough suppression (which OTC is dextromethorphan), consider getting Robitussin cough pills instead of a cough syrup. There is a lot of sugar in cold/cough syrups, as well as alcohol.
Combination cough suppressant and expectorant (dextromethorphan and guafenesin) is a very common product. I don’t think they cancel each other out.
Yeah, but if you take Nyquil (which is about 80% alcohol), you get to pretend you’re taking medicine instead of being a drunk.
Plus Nyquil has something in it (antihistamine?) that works miracles at drying up my runny nose.
I get a good restful night, with a dry nose, and an alcohol-induced sleep.
I’ve found that zinc lozenges work wonders for me, BUT with a big caveat-- I need to start taking them at practically the very instant that I first notice the first symptoms, no matter how minor.
I take the generic version of NyQuil and it knocks me out. Sleep seems to do more good for me than anything else. And for a cough, chewing gum seems to help suppress it - maybe because it keeps my throat from drying out? Dunno - I just know it works for me.
For those who are saying what particular meds you take, that’s not really what I was trying to get at. I’m just curious if anything actually works, and how well. Suppose you’re bedridden without the medicine, coughing and dripping out of multiple orifices; how much better do you feel with it? Do you go to work, go to the grocery store for some soup, heat up some canned soup in your kitchen, or are you still in bed but just a little less miserable? If your condition without the medicine is a 10, what is it after? I’ll be damned if I can find anything that gets me below a 9.
