I’ve had a cold since Thursday. A garden-variety cold, which has me sneezing, and feeling as though my sinuses are totally congested while my nose runs constantly. My throat feels a little sore, mostly because it dries out since I can only breathe through my mouth, and I have the occasional cough that gets worse when I lie down. Not life-threatening by any stretch, although I feel pretty miserable since I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since this set in.
Thing is, I shouldn’t be feeling this bad, but once again, OTC remedies have failed me. For as long as I can remember, I have only been able to use a particular OTC medication for a cold once, twice tops, before it is nearly or totally ineffective in the face of the next cold. Since I’m in my 40s, I’ve been through most of what’s available on the market, and beginning to feel desperate. I’ve even turned to allergy medications… but here I sit all stuffed up yet runny despite the once-a-day dose of loratidine (Claritin) I took at noon today. That was after trying the doctor-recommended 30-mg doses of pseudoephedrine HCl that worked for me last July, but not in this latest fight with a rhinovirus.
So, my question is… is there some physiological explanation as to why this seems to happen to me? Since the medication is supposed to be treating the symptoms and not the virus, it seems that the trouble lies with me specifically, but how? Or am I just a freak in this regard?
Any suggestions I might take up with my doctor when I see her next would also be welcome. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to stick my face over a bowl of steaming hot chicken soup…
I have a cold too. My Doc told me nothing will help my congestion since it isn’t viral. She gave me Nasonex and told me to try Claritin D. I run a cold humidifier at night but nothing else helps. As for OTC meds, nothing seems to help and it seems like I am immune to most of them. Tell your Dr. your not feeling better and see what she/he says. Sorry I can’t help.
It is a meme on this Board (don’t know how long you’ve been lurking) that the plural of anecdote is not data. IOW, what I’m about to say has no scientific validity. But, I have observed the same phenomenon. In consequence of which, when I have a cold, I carefully ration my doses of pseudoephedrine to those occasions when I need it most.
I don’t know, I am not a doctor, and what follows is most definitely not advice of any form. Nor would it be safe for you to try this, blah blah blah.
I’ve always figured that the suggested dosage on any OTC preparation is the absolutely minimal safe-for-almost everyone dose. The risk in American society that pharmaceuticals are taking on by offering something over the counter is actually quite significant, and it’s very easy to have lawsuits eating into your profit margin if the suggested dosage actually worked. I’ve been looking at things like MSDS, prescription dosages, half-lives, metabolism pathways, etc. trying to educate myself on what I’m taking. Pseudoephedrine works wonders for me, but only in 90-mg - 120mg doses two or three times a day. This is above the maximum recommended single time dose and sometimes above the maximum recommended daily dose – however it is hardly an overdose, I still try to monitor my blood pressure and heart rate.
Basically I think tolerance is not the issue here, but body mass might be. A lot of doses scale with mass but top-out at “adult dosage” which often seems to be equivalent to dosage for a 120lbs “child”. Obviously your kidneys and liver can handle what they can handle and putting unnecessary stress on them is a bad idea, but taking a medication that does nothing for you is probably a lot worse on your body in the long term. Either find a combination/dosage that works well for you or don’t take it at all.
(Sidenote: Some OTC medications seem to be labeled in what I would consider an unsafe manner. Mainly acetaminophen containing preparations seem to often push the boundaries. Personally I try to avoid taking more than 2000mg of acetaminophen a week, while a lot of them allow for up to 4000mg a day! Based on what I’ve read that’s already disputed territory and if your liver function is compromised and you don’t know it, things can turn really bad)
There isn’t a thing called “the cold”–it’s actually a large number of (usually) viruses that have the same symptoms. Perhaps this contributes to your problem. Not a doctor, etc. as above, and nasal irrigation is the only way I can unstuff at all now that Sudafed is no longer OTC in my state.
PBear42, I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one. I just wish there were something I could do about it! It’s probably too late for me to ration anything, though. Seems these days I’m stuck either getting over the cold on my own, or having to wait for a secondary upper respiratory infection to get underway before I can get meds that actually help.
groman, I see what you’re saying about the dosage levels; I myself do more than the regular dosage of ibuprofen on occasion because I’ve learned that I need it, and I don’t take more than the prescription dosage. I’m not keen on experimenting with cold meds, though. I think part of the reason I’ve been sleeping so badly (apart from the inability to breathe ) is that the pseudoephedrine is keeping me wired. I’m not sure I want to enhance that effect!
Shoshana, as I mentioned up top, I’m wondering why the OTC meds aren’t capable of treating my symptoms - the swollen nasal passages, the runny nose, the cough - more than once or twice, since these are pretty standard regardless of which of the 200+ cold-causing viruses is the culprit. If, however, different viruses are producing similar symptoms via different triggers, and that makes a difference in terms of which med to use, I’d be interested to hear more.
