Ooh, my first thread! I have a question for ya’ll, though, so it’s not a totally pointless thread. Sorry.
I came down with a cold Wednesday evening. Thursday my head was stuffed to the point of pain, Friday it was a bit better but I started coughing some, yesterday I felt quite a lot better and my head wasn’t stuffed at all, but this morning my head is not so great and I’m occasionally coughing up green stuff.
Should I give it another day or two, or do you think I ought to go to the doctor? I’d hate to bother him with yet another virus. I mean, everybody’s got one right now. But when I was a kid, the minute I started bringing up that lovely green, my mom would have me off to the doc as fast as she could. I’d also hate to be put on an unnecessary antibiotic, I practically lived on the pink stuff when I was a kid and had ear infections.
I’m inclined to wait and see for a bit longer, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
I always give a cold at least seven days. Green stuff doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve got a serious secondary bacterial infection you’ll need antibiotics to fight. IIRC, it’s basically dead white cells and bacteria/virus being expelled from your lungs and sinuses, which is usually just be a sign that your body’s fighting the cold. Mornings are always the worst time for congestion, since you’ve been lying down all night and the gunk has had a chance to collect in your lungs. If you get a high fever or start feeling dramatically worse, that’s the time to call the doctor.
If your sinuses are filling up and you’re prone to sinus infections, try doing a saltwater snort (icky, but effective) to clear them out without drugs. If that doesn’t work, Afrin is a very effective OTC remedy. Vicks Vapo-Rub (honestly, I don’t work for these companies) is good for coughs if you feel like you’re not bringing up the gunk well, and any cough syrup that has just guaifenesin in it will help too. The idea is to get the goop out of your lungs, not to suppress the coughing. If the air is pretty dry, consider running a humidifier at night. And don’t forget the chicken soup.
Yep, everyone’s got it around here. I’m finally getting over it after two frickin weeks! Anyway, I’m not saying that you should or shouldn’t go to the doctor, or that I am presuming that you have what I have (if I did, the PC nazis would kill me dead, for sure.) but good luck, drink plenty of fluids and all that.
BTW, I had some lovely brownish-greenish-orangeish shower mucus there for a while. Gotta love that stuff. Two nights ago, during one of my hot/cold flash episodes, I dumped a full glass of water I had been sipping on the bed. psycat really loved that.
Oh yeah, Vapo-Rub is good shit. Even better when your gF rubs it on for you…
whiterabbit, if you’re coughing up green stuff that might be a sign of something serious. The same thing happened to my dad in January and it turned out that he had pneumonia.
I think it would be a good idea to go see a doctor. If it turns out to be a cold, that’s good. (Well, not good, but you know what I mean …) But if it’s something more serious you need to get it checked out.
In the meantime, make sure you get lots of fluids and rest during the day. ::gives whiterabbit a warm blankie and some juice::
If you are feeling generally better, and have no fever, wait and see. Odds are, it’s a viral infection that time and rest will cure. Drink lots of fluids to loosen the “crud”. However, if you suddenly develop a fever, or if you * need to sit up in bed to cough, or lean forward while you are coughing*, have a doctor check you over. These are signs of possible pnuemonia.
Have some chicken soup. Hope you feel better soon. That goes for all the sickies in this thread.
Ack, me too. I woke up with the scratchy throat this morning and now have a head full of cotton candy.
I find that the Zinc/Echinacea/Vitamin C lozenges from GNC help a bit during the day. I suck on one every 2 hours and it helps with the throat and the head. There’s been some debate over the proven effectiveness of Zinc, originally it was thought that the Zinc binds with the cold virus rendering it unable to reproduce, so it’s kind of like have a cold in fast forward…where it used to take a week to get through the scratchy throat - headache - coughing lose your voice cycle, I can usually get through the whole mess in 3 or 4 days. Like I said, they haven’t proven it, but it’s been helpful to me.
Of course I could be talking entirely out of my ass, having just taken some Nyquil too. Feel better soon! I’m off to la-la-land…
(heh heh heh, she said ‘suck’)
