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alexxkayWent into work today, for the first time in almost a week, though still not at 100%. Started feeling poorly last Teusday afternoon, and was full-blown ill by Wednesday morning. Spent an inordinate amount of time just lying in bed, occasionally stirring to blow my nose.
Fairly standard primary symptoms: runny nose, fatigue, mild fever. Secondary symptoms really did me in worse: hacking cough from post-nasal drip, and headaches from hacking cough. And when I say hacking, I mean that I've been making noises that I associate with people who've smoked for sixty years. Now I understand why they make such gross noises, and spit in public all the time. Yuck.
The first night the urge to cough got really bad, I basically didn't sleep. I couldn't breathe properly lying down, so I eventually got a few hours of sleep by sitting up in my computer chair. The following night, though, I tried a new strategy: embrace the cough for its intended evolutionary function, and try to get as much phlegm as possible back out of the system before trying to sleep. Yes, it's disgusting, yes, it makes my throat sore, yes it gives me a headache -- but afterwards, I can BREATHE!
Also, somewhere in there I belatedly remembered a hard-won piece of wisdom. The traditional advice for colds to "drink lots of fluids" is *exactly wrong* for me. All my worst problems stem from overproduction of phlegm, and if I can get mildly dehydrated, that situation significantly improves. Obviously I don't want to overdo it. But since I normally drink far more water than the average American, it behooves me to change my consumption habits *downward*.
After those two changes, I was able to sleep a lot over the weekend, and felt well enough to go to work today. Still hacking occasionally, as there's a lot more that needs to make its way back out eventually. But I'm on the road to recovery, at least. Of course, now most of the rest of the household has the plague as well...
Fairly standard primary symptoms: runny nose, fatigue, mild fever. Secondary symptoms really did me in worse: hacking cough from post-nasal drip, and headaches from hacking cough. And when I say hacking, I mean that I've been making noises that I associate with people who've smoked for sixty years. Now I understand why they make such gross noises, and spit in public all the time. Yuck.
The first night the urge to cough got really bad, I basically didn't sleep. I couldn't breathe properly lying down, so I eventually got a few hours of sleep by sitting up in my computer chair. The following night, though, I tried a new strategy: embrace the cough for its intended evolutionary function, and try to get as much phlegm as possible back out of the system before trying to sleep. Yes, it's disgusting, yes, it makes my throat sore, yes it gives me a headache -- but afterwards, I can BREATHE!
Also, somewhere in there I belatedly remembered a hard-won piece of wisdom. The traditional advice for colds to "drink lots of fluids" is *exactly wrong* for me. All my worst problems stem from overproduction of phlegm, and if I can get mildly dehydrated, that situation significantly improves. Obviously I don't want to overdo it. But since I normally drink far more water than the average American, it behooves me to change my consumption habits *downward*.
After those two changes, I was able to sleep a lot over the weekend, and felt well enough to go to work today. Still hacking occasionally, as there's a lot more that needs to make its way back out eventually. But I'm on the road to recovery, at least. Of course, now most of the rest of the household has the plague as well...