I got a cold on Tuesday, and I’m sitting here dripping and stuffed up, coughing and wheezing, with my chest starting to hurt from filling up with phlegm, and every time I turn on the tv, I hear stories about SARS and all the precautions everyone is taking now. And just for the record, I have read The Stand - four times.
So, anyone else out there with a cold and SARS on their mind? (That kinda sounds like a country song - “Always have SARS on my mind…” - why, yes, my head IS full of phlegm; why do you ask?)
(CRorex, you would be more than welcome to come in and tell me that if I develop SARS, I’ll be too busy being sick to worry if I have it.)
Watch for a dry cough or high fever (over 100 F or 38 C). Those seem to be the chief symptoms. Of course it’s worse if you’re in Toronto or have been to China, Vietnam or Singapore lately.
featherlou, I’m in the same boat. Mine started with a sore throat on Saturday night and by late Monday I was the phlegmy, drippy mess that you also appear to be. I keep taking my temperature, but so far, it hasn’t been over 98.3 degrees, so I think I’m safe.
I’m developing a dry cough now. No fever though; I keep checking to be sure. I’m not normally a hypochondriac, but the timing on this cold couldn’t be worse.
Jesus tell me about it. I contracted a bad head cold in Bangkok on Monday. Almost burst an eardrum on the plane flight on the way back on Tuesday. Couldn’t go back to school on Wednesday. I’m significantly better today, but all freakin day what do you think I heard.
Interestingly, in Seatlle, when we cleared customs from Tokyo, there were CDC people handing out little yellow forms on it with SARS symptoms. They said if you had any of these in a week, call the doctor.
Cold, check. Cough, check. Fever, nope. I’m more worried about sinusitis and otitis media right now than SARS. But I’ll keep my eye on this one.
Yep. Started feeling oogy yesterday, and read the WHO site on SARS the same day. I’ve also read The Stand three times. For a while I’d read it whenever I got sick enough to skip school for several days. Pretty morbid of me, I guess.
I’m not exactly worried about SARS. I haven’t been anywhere that is supposed to have infected people. Still, it is creepy.
My little boy has a fever and a cough. We never go anywhere, so I think it’s unlikely that he’s got SARS, but I’m paranoid. We’ll be going to the doctor today.
I’m sure you’ll be fine featherlou, but you might want to stay at home just in case.
I’m visiting a city and staying near a hospital with a SARS outbreak. Seriously, police are standing around controlling traffic and people are wearing masks. I guess I won’t be going to the hospital cafeteria for lunch today.
ShibbOleth:
Eh, the whole city is a pit. Quite a beautiful, interesting, active pit with quite a lot to see and do, but a pit nonetheless. I think what did it for me was breathing out of a rented regulator for 2 days while diving in Phuket. But that is just my current hypothesis – I was only in Bangkok for 1 day at the end of the vacation (but 3 at the beginning), with 9 days down south in between. So I got the cold somewhere in the South, it just developed in Bangkok.
Enjoy Thailand. Feel free to email me if you want some suggestions.
Are you experiencing a high, sudden fever? Chills? Headache? Rigor?
The symptoms you’re describing sound more like a sinus infection than anything else. The fever appears to be a key symptom. No fever -> get yer butt in bed and drink lots of fluids.
That being said…
The general rule of thumb applies: If you’ve had more than incidental contact with someone with SARS and you start getting sick, CALL your doctor and explain to him what happened then ask him what to do.
Going out to the doctor’s office, sitting in the waiting room coughing and spreading your germs around to other people who are sick (and thus immuno-compromised) won’t accomplish much more than possibly spreading the SARS pathogen around more. Every MD in the world is following this and looking for symptoms. Your particular doctor might not want to talk about your symptoms over the phone and just have you come into his/her office, but considering how it only takes a few min to make a phonecall it can’t hurt.
Odds are it’ll take your doctor 15 seconds to rule out SARS – my money is on the no fever = no worries – and it keeps him from being swamped with patients and keeps him from having to quarentine his office.
However, should you have SARS: the good news is that there is an 80-90% full and rapid recovery rate.
Personally I’m half sick, very mild bacterial infection – yay being able to identify the bacteria myself – with an eyeinfection… I managed to sneeze into my eye
I hears ya, featherlou. It was all over the news last week, while I was lying on the couch watching TV and trying to get well from one of those awful knock-you-on-your-@ss flus. First time I’ve had that sort of flu from hell in over ten… years… waitaminnit. First time I’ve had a flu that bad since the previous Gulf War.
Right. Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. But if it happens a third time…
Oh, yeah, I assume it wasn’t SARS, since no cases have yet been reported in this country. And I’m much better now.
No kidding. My sister is in the hospital after going from having a cold on Weds to having a fever of 104 and passing out on Thursday. No one has mentioned SARS to us but the thought crossed my mind. She has now been diagnosed with pneumonia. There’s bad stuff going around.
Hope everyone’s upper respiratory yuck goes away quickly (mine included). I’ve got a sore throat, watery eyes, non-productive cough, chills, constant clear runny nose- but no fever. On the positive side, I think I’ve found a cure for the obesity problem in America. All I have to do is figure out a non-invasive way to knock out the sense of smell. I have had next to nothing to eat for the last few days because it has no taste - what’s the point? I even tried to work up and appetite by posting about pork but the desire is gone.
featherlou, I’m sorry you’re not feeling well, and certainly wish a speedy recovery for you; but, gosh, it’s good to know that I’m not the only dweeb who thought of The Stand upon first hearing of this “killer pneumonia”!
