Nothing In It; Being the blog of Elliott C. 'Eeyore' Evans (hosted at his domain 'ee0r.com')

This post is titled:

Was Sick

The Monday after I got home from Pennsic, I started getting sick. At first, I thought it was just my allergies adapting between War allergens and home/work allergens, but over the course of the work day my symptoms got worse and I started getting hungry.

Sometimes when I get sick, especially if I'm getting a fever, my body decides to stock up on calories. I'm serious. It starts demanding like five meals a day and this keeps up until I start feeling better. Add this to the fact that most food tastes gross when you can't smell it, and colds get very annoying.

Tuesday I started medicating myself with herbal teas. For a simple cold, this is often sufficient and less disruptive than modern pharmacology. We buy a tea called "Gypsy Cold Care" that is tasty and super effective at toning down mild symptoms. Tea swilling also helps keep you hydrated, which even doctors will tell you is a good idea.

Wednesday morning, I was feeling better, so hope was strong in me that this cold would blow over rapidly. Over the course of the work day I felt worse and worse until I finally called the doctor to get an appointment. I didn't get an appointment, but the doctor called a prescription for antibiotics over to the pharmacy. What antibiotics are supposed to do versus a viral illness is unknown, but since colds often become sinus infections for me, I agreed to take them.

While I was at the pharmacy I picked up a new box of generic "TheraFlu" equivalent. This stuff is great, if you've never tried it. It's basically like "NyQuil", only it replaces the licorice flavor and alcohol base with a light lemon flavor and hot water. Drink a big mug, go to bed, and feel better in the morning.

Feel better I did. I spent most of Thursday and Friday drugged up on decongestants, antibiotics, analgesics, antihistamines, anti-tussives, and caffeine to counter the drowsiness. I felt much better for the weekend, and feel fine now except for the lingering cough I usually get after this type of cold. At least I was able to skip, through diligent work, the full-blown coughing fest I usually get that keeps me up all night coughing for two or three nights.

This might have been a cold, but it also might have been swine flu. My doctor didn't seem interested, even though the symptoms I described on the phone match very well to the descriptions of H1N1 that I've since found on the Internet. I probably should have stayed home from work.

2009.06.00 at 12:00am EDT



All text and graphics copyright © 2007-2013 Elliott C. Evans except where otherwise noted.

[Visit my web site] [Subscribe via RSS]