I’m not used to being sick. I mean, I’ve had colds before; but I can’t remember when the last one was. I’m usually pretty healthy.
A week ago Monday I went to dinner with friends. I was sitting next to a seven-year-old boy. He didn’t appear sick, and he was quite active; but I did notice that he coughed a few times. By Friday I definitely had a cold.
I’ve been taking Dayquil and Sudafed during the day, and Nyquil at night. I drink a pot of coffee every morning, and I’ve been having a pot of echinacea tea every afternoon. I’m not hungry, but I try to eat something a couple of times a day. I drink water. I have a tin of menudo in the cupboard, and I bought some soup today.
It felt like things were ‘loosening up’ today The viscous snot blew out pretty well, and it wasn’t a strange colour or anything; and the phlegm coughed up easily. but I’m still not feeling that great. I have a tin of menudo in the cupboard, and I bought some soup today.
How long do these things generally last? What can I do to cure my common cold?
Symptomatic treatment will make you feel better, but basically you just have to wait it out. Of course, some folks will swear that vitamin C or zinc or echinacea or whatever will fix you right up.
There’s an old saying: if you treat a cold with all that modern medicine has to offer, the cold will go away in seven days. If you don’t treat it all, it will last for a week.
I keep thinking of the Beverly Hillbillies episode where Granny makes a ‘sure cure’ for the common cold. (Naturally, it’s basically white lighning.) ‘Take this, and in a week or ten days your cold will be gone!’
You sick bastard! We’ve all been wondering what happened to them for the past 20 years and you’ve had them ground up and kept in your cabinet all this time.
If it’s like the cold we all suffered through at work last month, you ought to begin feeling better around tomorrow. It took about 5 days for noses to stop running like faucets. Nothing makes you feel like a three-year-old like a snotty nose you have to keep wiping.
You might feel better if you switch out the coffee for juice or plain water. Just be glad you have a regular old cold, and not what I had a couple of months ago–a nasty virus that left me with a really bad cough for a few weeks. I thought I was going to cough up a lung before it was all over. When I was at work, I had to go hide out in a the bathroom so I wouldn’t gross everyone out with my disgusting cough.
Kids are dangerous. I got sick a lot more often when I worked with people who had small children. Daycare is a breeding ground for viruses, and school isn’t much better.
Dump the coffee; go for the tea, juice and water instead.
Do you have any Airborne on hand? It may be too late for it now, but the next time you’re ever headed into a crowded place or anywhere kids are present, take some as a precaution. I call it a shield. SinoFresh wouldn’t hurt either; it’s supposed to kill nasal mold and bacteria.
Or try snorting some lukewarm salt water up your nose and then blowing. And gargle with salt water as well. That may kill it a bit faster.
Airborne is also great protection when you’re traveling. I’m taking it next week before I go into the train station and then the train…and the theatre, the Midway, the zoo, etc.
I don’t care too much for the lemon lime one, but the orange one is okay.
Johnny, try calling your local drugstores. I know it’s in Trader Joe’s but I think you’ve said before that you don’t live near one anymore.
An agitated patient stormed into the doctor’s office and demanded that the doctor cure his cold.
The doctor answered with the sort of information that has been posted in this thread, noting that there was no cure for a cold. But the patient was insistent. After about three rounds of trying to explain reality to the patient–that there was no cure and only palliative care available–with the patient becoming increasingly loud, belligerent and nasty, the doctor finally said, “OK. If you demand a cure, I’ll give you one.”
The patient stopped yelling and asked, “You will?”
The doctor replied, “Yes. I want you to go home and take a quick shower, being sure to get your hair wet, but don’t dry off. Then I want you to put on just a pair of gym shorts and run through the park in the snow. After that, I want you to sit out on your back porch until your hair dries, then repeat the process a couple more times.”
The patient was incredulous, “That will cure me?”
The doctor responded, “No, that will give you pneumonia, but that I can cure.”
