I’m generally pretty healthy. I almost never go to a doctor.
I mentioned before that I caught a cold on the airplane back from New Orleans. Usually if I get a cold it hangs on for three or four days and then I get better. This one’s different. Started Saturday, really hit on Tuesday. Thought it was getting better this morning, but now I’ve lost my voice. I’m starting to think I should see a doctor; but since colds are caused by viruses I’m not sure he can do anything but tell me to get plenty of rest and drink lots of water and stay warm.
Never for a cold. They suck, but he probably won’t give you anything you couldn’t get over the counter.
But, not meaning to give medical advice, I would see him if I were coughing up nasty green and yellow mucus. This could indicate something worse than a cold.
I am also not a doctor and not qualified to give medical advice.
My experience with colds is that they can take a week or more to fully go away. I’d not find the symptoms as you described them worth the time. Here’s what I would do if I had those symptoms:
If possible, take a day or 2 to *completely * rest, doing absolutely nothing.
Drink *lots * of liquids. Chicken soup. Tea. Fruit juice.
Eat fruit unless you have an upset stomach.
Extra vitamin C couldn’t hurt.
I would go to the doctor if:
I had a high fever.
Two weeks went by with no improvement at all.
I felt chest tightness like the two times I had pneumonia. (I know, that doesn’t help you if you never had pneumonia, but it is a very tight, heavy and congested feeling deep in the chest. )
A sore throat that didn’t improve after several days. This would be to get a culture and check for strep, which can be treated with antibiotics.
I was told by a doctor once that laryngytis and hoarseness are almost always viral. Gargling with salt water could help. Avoid talking. Especially avoid whispering, which actually strains the vocal chords more than ordinary talking.
That’s OK, I’m not really looking for medical advice.
I’ve been telecommuting for the last three days, but I told my boss I’m taking tomorrow off sick. (Damn! There goes my quarterly attendance bonus!) I have four large mugs of java every day, and I’ve had tea with honey. Other than that I drink water. Just had some noodle soup. I’ve got some chicken broth, organic tomato soup, and more noodle soup in the cupboard. I could go get some fruit tomorrow though. I’ll spend the next three days doing nothing.
It’s just a cold. Stuffy nose, coughing. No fever. Only this time my ears are plugged up and I can’t talk. Neither of those has ever happened before. Other than the symptoms I feel fine.
Anyway, I was just curious when people go to the doctor. Comparing experiences, as it were.
Not to be gross, but when you blow your nose, what color is the snot? White or very light is probably okay, while yellow or (gag) green can be a sign of a sinus infection.
Clear, sometimes with some yellowish boogers. (Lovely topic for dinner time, eh? )
One thing about colds I’ve wondered: While antibiotics are useless against the virus, can knocking out a possible bacterial infection allow the body to more effectively fight the cold virus?
I’m a total wimp and will go to the doctor for almost anything that I can’t treat with OTC things. It’s a 15 dollar co-pay, and it gives me peace of mind. Now I’m smart enough to know that there’s not a whole lot they can do for a cold, but I’ve been probably 4 times in the last 2 months, granted one of those was an initial patient consultation thing, and another was a followup for a problem that wasn’t fixed at the last visit, but still I’m not too terribly shy about going. And maybe one of these days his pen will slip on his prescription pad and I’ll end up with a few hundred Vicodin or something. You know, human error and all.
For a cold? Never. For a flu? Rarely. If it goes past a week, or is particularly bad, then I’ll go (out of the four times I’ve had the flu, this has happened once, because it went from a week and a half of flu to two weeks pneumonia! :mad:)
For other things? Well, also pretty much never. I’ve had this fucking shoulder ache for like two years and I’ve done nothing about it, despite sometimes the pain getting bad enough that I can’t lift anything over my head with my right arm. Also, I feel this weird “pop” every time I bring my arm down after I’ve brought it up…the left shoulder doesn’t do that.
If I can’t walk and/or can’t breathe. I’ve been to the doctor (well, or nurse) for an x-ray of a possibly-broken ankle, for help when a cold settled into my lungs and would not go away (after ten days), and for a prescription when my allergies made it impossible to breathe lying down (plus fun associated nosebleeds).
I also recently went to get a prescription for birth control, but I only went because I found out that the only unpleasant bits about that are intrusive questions and measuring your weigh and blood pressure.
I really don’t like doctors. I figure that A) there’s not much they can do in most non-emergency situations, B) I know my body a hell of a lot better than anyone else ever will, C) I can do my own research and judge if something is serious or not, and D) there is absolutely no reason to pay a thirty-dollar copay (or a hundred and fifty bucks if you’re uninsured) to let a total stranger completely violate your privacy.
I work in a doctor’s office, so if I have something that I can ask them about I do. If it’s not within their scope, I’ll go to my own doctor grudgingly, eventually. I really don’t like to go to the doctor. I will not go to the doctor for a cold, generally.
There is a product in drugstores called Cold FX. It is the best-selling cold preventative in Canada, but has had some complications getting approved by the FDA in the US (it is primarily ginseng). But I think it is available there. I personally cannot believe that there is now a cure for the common cold and there is so little said about this product. It has been made famous by people who travel constantly - hockey and otherplayers, entertainers and business people. I have found it so amazing that I bought it for (constantly sick) employees & when I 1st heard them sneeze, I handed them the pills twice daily. They were always having colds and this worked absolutely 100% - but they quit taking them because “I don’t like to take pills” - but they later spend $80 on antibiotics when they think they are going to die. You do have to take it very early on and recognize the symptoms (I just cannot believe how few people do). If you travel and carry this along and hit it right, you will beat any cold. I just had one coming on that looked serious and I beat it in two days of taking Cold FX. I have to say that after I 1st used the product, I was so impressed I bought shares in the co., so I hope you use it and love it.
I go to a doctor if I think there’s a serious probability that I could die or be permanently incapacitated.
No insurance.
Last time I had carpal tunnel I just bought myself a wrist brace and hoped like hell it would get better. There was no way I could afford a specialist. Thankfully, after about five weeks, it went away.
Again, IANAD. But I’ve read in lots of places, and have been told by more than one doctor, that taking an antibiotic when it’s not really needed is a bad thing. You have good bacteria in you that actually help maintain your health. Kill off too many of them and you also make room for fungal infections. Many people have had the experience of having digestive problems after being on antibiotics, even when the drugs were absolutely necessary for some important reason. Then you have to take something else to counteract the side effects, ad infinitum.
Also you run the risk of making your innards safer for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Finally, if you’re female (I’m guessing with a tag like “Johnny” you’re not, but one can never be sure), it can make your birth control pills less effective, leaving you with a potential for inconvenience way beyond that of a mere cold. :eek:
People should give their ages. It makes a difference.
I seldom get colds, and have never gone for something like that. Our medical center used to have advice nurses who you could check with to see how many people had your symptoms. Now you can call your doctor’s assistant.
But I do go when something seems seriously out of kilter, and I get checkups every year. They have found things. I know someone, 61, who had serious leg problems, but seemed to enjoy having a disabled placard more than trying to fix it. It turned out to be due to a 15" blood clot in his leg, which killed him.
I have to be in pretty intense pain, or be near death to go to the doctor. My last four trips, in reverse-chronological order…
October 2007: I dislocated my knee, and went to the ER the next morning. The pain was exquisite.
May 2005: I caught a nasty, nasty strain of the flu. It hit me on the way home from work. I sat on the toilet and had explosive diarrhea and puked until I lost consciousness and fell off the toilet. I regained consciousness, climed back on the toilet and shit and puked myself unconscious a second time. On the second trip to the bathroom floor I landed badly and hurt my neck so bad I couldn’t get up. My wife called 911 and I went out on a backboard. I kept telling her not to call the ambulance, that I was fine, but I couldn’t get up off the floor of the bathroom.
May 2004: My appendix burst at around midnight on Tuesday. By 10:00 PM Thursday I drove myself to the ER. I was in critical condition by then and they had to call in a surgeon. I had an emergency appendectomy around 3:00 am.
January 2004: I’d been very, very sick for two months, and had a painful cough that left me doubled over and unable to breathe. I went to my PCP’s office and saw the nurse. I described my symptoms and expressed that I felt like I was dying (literally). The nurse scoffed, pretty much called me a pussy, and took my temperature. She took it three times with two different thermometers because she had a hard timwe believing I was conscious - temp was 106. She tried to send me to the ER in an ambulance but I refused. Turns out I had bacterial pneumonia, and I was (indeed) pretty close to “death’s door”.
Fever for three days with no noticeable improvement or cough for a week with no noticeable improvement at the end of that time period.
Then again, keep in mind that I’ve learned from painful experience that any little thing is likely to settle into my lungs with a vengeance. I’ve had bronchitis 6 times in the last 10 years and pneumonia three times. Anymore I can tell where it’s going fairly soon after catching cold or flu and I go early so as to get started on the antibiotics early and speed the whole process up some. I’m a cougher, too - when I say “cough” I mean constant racking hacks that keep me from sleeping and have been known to be forceful enough to trigger vomiting.
That’s how I feel, too. Doctors are for other people.
I did go a few months ago, because a cold was kicking my ass hard enough to make me miss work. I got a prescription and got over it fast.
I see a dermatologist, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at my skin. I say lots of nasty things about him, but I don’t get another doctor because I feel it’d be the same anywhere.
This is good to know. My daughter wants to start taking BC for the skin and menstrual benefits, and I realized I don’t have the slightest idea what getting a scrip entails.
I’ll go to the doctor when I have a bad case of the shills.
Seriously though - I’ve had my doctor long enough that he knows if I call him, there’s something that actually needs attention, and a lot of times, I can handle things over the phone. My last conversation with him was basically “Yep, green phlegm, bloody boogers, wheeze and rales, some shortness of breath, low fever” to which he said “You and everyone else… I’ll have Debbie call in a prescription for some Gorillacillin to your pharmacy.” The subtext is “Thanks for not coming in and infecting everyone else!”
I generally don’t actually see him but once every 18 months or so. Going to the doctor because you’ve got a basic viral cold is just wasting everyone’s time, and making it harder for the people that are actually in need of medical help to get it.
ETA: I’m 40 and have had the same primary care doc for 10 years.
FWIW, the nurse at the student health office requires a pelvic exam before she’ll prescribe anything. Planned Parenthood (at least in New Mexico) doesn’t. They’re also fairly affordable, and will (again, in NM), give you a year’s worth of pills in one visit, and just bill you once a month. (Though since it’s the first time I’ve been on it, they just gave me three months’ worth to start, to make sure I won’t have any problems).
)
