I have a cold

One time (in band camp), I had a case of the flu that laid me out for 24 hours. I could not move at all, literally. Strength was literally sapped. I had to caterpillar myself from my bed to my in- room potty - felt quite pathetic.

Sickness - when in shape & living relatively healthy (i.e. not constantly around cig smoke, sleeping regular hours, eating well), I'm OK 90% of the time. When lumpy & living like shit (i.e. right about..NOW), I don't get sick sick, but usually have prolonged cases of the snifflies, with an 50% chance of a sneezing fit.

The worst physical illness (as opposed to something that needed an operation, which was a double hernia when I was seven, such fun!) -- I've had flus, colds, etc., chicken pox when young, and get yer basic sneeze/stuffed nose combination three times a year or so, though things have improved. The worst feeling of recent years, though, was this miserable two day thing I had earlier this year, chills, slight nausea, completely wrecked, god knows what it was. I stayed at home and stayed in bed and worked my way out of it, but yech, it was horrible. Glad it was quick, though. Thankfully never faced anything life-threatening.

I have a cold too at the moment. My throat is killing me. The only way I got through last night was with half a bottle of Lemsip potion and a roll of soothers. Still couldn't get reasonable noises to come out my mouth by the end of the evening.

I have no patience with sickness. I take drugs and go to bed until it's over.

I don't particularly have a stuffy nose, in fact one side is runny, but I have a raw, scratchy throat and a headache and a cough and a general feeling of having my head up my ass. I'm congested but I can breathe, basically...I blame one person and one person only for this, Mr. "No, Seriously, I'm Not Sick Anymore!", but I should know better.

I get sick really ridiculously easily, and have gotten one major illness, at least, per year for the past 5 years. It's just stupid. Last year it was pnumonia, followed by several bouts with bronchitis. The year before it was strep throat followed by mono. I get strep throat at least once a year. I haven't this year, nor have I gotten anything devastating this year, so i'm hoping to last out til Dec.

i think i do actually get really sick every time i'm extremely stressed or depressed about something. my last crushing illness was in february. it came right when the new landlord of my rooming house started doing major renovations without notice that were making the house unliveable and gave us a month's verbal notice to vacate. i got this really nasty flu and was really feverish and basically good for nothing except lying in bed.

don't hurl yourself off a bridge over a cold. so many of us care about you. do you have time off work? if so, take the time off to do something you wouldn't normally have time for.

I am an absolutely useless repository of all these folk cures cause my granny was a botanist.

Peppermint will also stimulate nasal and bronchial passages. Honey helps fight infection. Small amounts of booze acts as an anti-inflamatant (or whatever the term is) and relaxes muscles and veins. The best cure for nausea is ginger and fennel.

I get sick a lot, as you can probably tell...

The sickest I've ever been was when I had mono, and no one believed me, and they all thought I was just depressed and acting up, so they pumped me full of tranquilisers or something that nearly killed my mono-weakened liver.

Wait, no! The sickest I've ever been was actually back in March, when I mysteriously lost half my body weight in blood overnight, and no one could figure out where it had gone. I couldn't walk, I kept falling over and passing out, my blood pressure went down to 70/30 or something half dead. It was kinda scary.

The bonus round: I had mono/glandular fever when I was 14 (yesssss! no gym classes!) and meningococcal meningitis aged 10 months, which my mother thought had done me some damage as did not speak properly until I was two and a half. She revised this opinion when instead of 'mama' etc. her child was using, immediately, WHOLE SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS, which obviously continues to the present. I lost 4 pints of blood in a freak nosebleed incident (on Halloween, no less, I was 6 and cross about missing Trick Or Treat as a result) and was found in a pool of same, unconscious, by own shocked mother because it happened while I slept.

But that's not even The Worst. I was four and a half when diagnosed with a bad strain of kiddie kidney cancer and given weeks to live. This diagnosis was unacceptable to my mother, who insisted they do everything to get rid of it, which meant surgery, radiation and chemotherapy until I was about six, lost hair etc. You really haven't lived until you've seen a nurse drop a glass jar full of your own snot and bile, I tell you. I had to go every year for tests until I was 11 but I've had no relapse, ever, so I count as CURED.

Also, weird about the speaking thing- I learned to talk in the same way. Wouldn't even do so much as a baby style "mama" until I was 3, and my brother went away to school, and I suddenly burst out in complete sentances.

Mel- no, they still don't know what happened. After giving me some nasty invasive tests, thinking I had a stomach ulcer, they just sort of gave up, shrugged and put it down to "anaemia due to heavy periods" which is Nu Science for "woman problems". Funny thing was, my period ended weeks prior. God bless the NHS. My mum keeps bugging me, saying I really should go back and get them to chase it (I could really gross some people out with descriptions of my woman problems, but I'll be respectful to the boys on the board, as they don't like it when you say things like "Jesus, I've been passing clots the size of peaches!!!") I still get dizzy spells and faint and stuff if I don't take my mega-ultra-iron pills. Weh-hoo. Mystery Anaemia is fun!

Heh heh. Maybe we should start a "Menstration: Classic Or Dud" thread.

Sickest I've been? Hmmm. I've been duelling with high blood pressure, and I had a horrible heart problem back in April which seemed to go away pretty quickly, though apparently my immune system's been left in a mess. Don't know. I was ill with flu to the point of passing out before I got to the phone once... Actually, I guess the sickest I've ever been, in terms of immediately life threatening, was when I took that ridiculous overdose. Taking too much ibuprofen can turn your blood acidic, plus too much paracetamol attacks your liver, so I began vomiting bile and blood, had to have really invasive tests, and my heart rate went up so high I almost went into cardiac arrest. Out of embarrassment I never told the doctors what I'd done, too, so they didn't pump my stomach and I just kept getting worse, to the point that I collapsed on the floor of the emergency room and began having violent convulsions. But in the end I had an IV drip of some weird liquid and it left me feeling fine.

Yes, people, THE POX. (It is much more serious in adults, but still, I just like saying THE POX because it sounds so silly and medieval.)

chinese people as a whole mostly dont use 'traditional chinese medicine'

I'm pretty sure that they do, except for cancer and acute heart conditions and such...like, not just going by the article, I'm pretty sure that's the case. "TCM" is vastly cheaper, for one...

do you really think that the rural populace there has a medicine chest full of Advil and Tums?

well more to the point, all over Asia there are formulae you can buy that incorporate some of these "traditional" ingredients. chaki's right though there's something about the "traditional medicine" tag that exoticizes. I think most Chinese people do the same thing everybody else does when they get sick: go to the pharmacy and ask the guy behind the counter "what can I take for this cold"

I mean it's not like China is some backwater or something

COLD CURE ALL: hot buttered rum and dave clark 5.

I ended up in the ER yesterday afternoon after a good seven hour stretch of diarrhea/vomiting and eventual dehydration. I don't recommend it.

Yikes! Feel better.

I mean it's not like China is some backwater or something

Yeah, but the article that I read was talking more about urban, like, Shanghai people and stuff. And my own experiences in Chinatowns in North America lend some credence to the whole idea of Chinese/Chinese-NorthAmericans being like "wtf, why should I buy this EX-LAX/Metamusil crap (no pun intended) for my constipation or whatever the fuck is ailing me when there are cheap herbal remedies to be had and so forth"...

uh, but i don't mean to argue unreasonably. I hope you all feel better. There's not much to recommend being sick...

the only thing i pop are dafalgan against the headaches. Usually i recover pretty quickly. I am with dell: i don't think it's "exoticizing" isrsly think a lot do the trad methods.

Xpost wtf. You better now? My mom was in horrible pain as well biut she likes to be a martyr.

Yeah, I'm basically cool now, just a stomach ache and no ability to eat. Lotta gatorade and water. It hit at 4 in the morning and after nonstop puking and runs and eventual doubling over in pain I finally went to a doc around noon or so, then a quick cab to the ER and I passed out around three or so. Walked home two hours after that. Just the worst: constant stomach cramps, headache, chills, couldn't really walk or talk or think. Thank god my girl was around to help out or I would've likely tried to play it cool and ended up facedown on the kitchen floor. I heard later on that everybody who went to my boss' christmas party got the same thing; they're all laid out.

I'm spending a lotta time in front of computer and wii and staying near a bathroom. It's fun being me.

so what was it? some stomach virus? had one when i was pregnant. NO FUN. i feel for you.

"wtf, why should I buy this EX-LAX/Metamusil crap (no pun intended) for my constipation or whatever the fuck is ailing me when there are cheap herbal remedies to be had and so forth"...

-- dell, Friday, December 28, 2007 10:36 PM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

because one of them works and one of them doesnt?

*sigh*

I'm assuming stomach virus. I was thinking maybe zombie virus?
I told my girl, "If I die tonight and come back as a zombie, promise me that you will allow me to infect you and be my zombie bride."
And she promised. Good for her!

So my mom had pneumonia. I had a cold again this week, the third one in the last couple of months. Thanks to having a kid who brings all these nasty bacteria home.

Also, please stop saying that wet hair can give you a cold. IT FUCKING DOES NOT.

emergen-c
zinc(um) lozenges
faux sudafed
Claritin
guafisenin
multivitamin + B vitamin

gah, i'm going for an 84-mile walk starting saturday, probably in the rain by the looks of things, would like to shift this before then. any advice pls?

I feel like crap and my nose is all sore from tissues and bright red and I look ridiculous and feel gross. WAH!

Chappede nose is the worst!
You seem to be having a tough time lately, E. I hope things get better for you soon.

It hurts so much! Puffs plus with lotion my ass. I might as well have used sandpaper. Also, thanks doll. I'm OK. Just some shit going down right now but it'll pass etc. etc.

I hope you understand I meant "chapped" and not some stampede of chaps instead of cattle.

lol I did but I sorta dug the typo so wasn't going to say anything.

E! I feel yr pain. (Literally - this entire weekend has been breathing through alternating nostrils.) Peppermint tea is A++ as temporary relief.

I'm trying to get 10 hours sleep and be functional for my quiz tomorrow.

<3 2 my sick homies itt

waaaa

spent an all-nighter 2 days ago and now boom i'm sick. soup , black halls, gatoraid, oj (plus vodka, maybe), tylenol. would like to avoid extra strength syrup but maybe before bed. hate the word strength, always spell it strenght. sounds so much better you guys should consider changing it.

Just got over this shit. Water, juice, Cold-Eeze, Advil, and two days in bed home from work mostly did the trick.

It won't go away.

I briefly misread the thread title as I have a child. Even so, your post still made a kind of sense, though the effect was moderately strange.

So, uh, get well.

ha, thx

Gah, I've had a cold for like 12 days now. Don't remember them lasting this long. I'm almost wondering if it's two consecutive colds or something. Either way, I'm spent.

I am in this same predicament myself. I don't have the patience to deal with it and keep fleeing to different places, only to then feel worse. I've currently got bowls of water balanced on radiators throughout the house in an effort to humidify the place so that I can breathe more easily. I might put on some pans of water to boil too.

It is happening again

I too have a cold.

Ha, I'm doing the pans of water under the radiator thing myself. I dunno if it makes any difference, but at least it's something.

My least favorite symptom right now: brain fog. Makes it mighty hard to work.

I had a double-length cold in August too. I think mine probably was two colds in a row because I flew out to a family event and flew back 5 days later and started feeling bad/worse a couple of days after each flight; I've noticed before that even an hour-long flight seems to give me about a 1-in-3 chance of catching something.

On the other hand, colds seem to be getting worse year on year for me, which I'm 98% sure is just aging, but maybe there've been some nasty cold strains around lately.

(Every time I get a cold I seem to get an ear infection or nose lining infection that won't go away for a while afterwards, plus my usually mostly ignorable tinnitus becomes extra bothersome for several days)

Anyway, get well soon, Evan and other ILXors!

Dang, that sucks. It's funny because you never think of colds as being that big of a deal until you get one. Hoping I can chalk this one up to just a nasty strain and that I don't have a sinus infection or something

i've gotten pretty good at battling colds before they get really bad. sleep and water seem to be the most important things. lots of miso. a salt water rinse for a sore throat really helps, too.

avoiding alcohol helps too.

^^^^^

I'm in the recovery phase. Still somewhat low energy. Much less snot today and what there is has become more viscous, as opposed to watery and copious. Good luck, ill-xors.

had one since the 23rd. think there's a particularly brutal strain this year

insisting on going to work/holiday not helping obvs

Yeah I caught a particularly nasty one the week before xmas, just getting over it now but still coughing a lot.

Was so heavy with fever at its peak, no appetite at all. Horrid.

Two weeks in and I think the worst of the symptoms are finally over, except for some lingering sinus stuff and a kinda painful dry cough I can't get to go away.

I really gotta bring in some donuts or something for my coworkers who have put up with all the coughing and other unpleasant noises this week.

Oh god I do not feel good.

Man, I don't remember having such bad brain fog during colds. Every time I get a cold now my brain just drifts, making writing almost impossible. Does mental fog get worse with age or something?

I never get ill. I am ill. Exhausted and listless, with a bunged up nose. I can't face going back to work (secondary school) at less-than-half-speed, but fuck the job is just as hard from home.

Belle and Sebastian are helping a bit.