Cold Remedies

I am not happy with my immune system these days. This is the second cold I've had in the past two months. I used to NEVER get colds. I think I went three straight years without getting a cold. I was getting more sleep back then though.

Fortunately, this cold is not nearly as bad as the last one. I thought the last one was going to kill me. I had it mid November. That cold was strange, because it hit me every other day. It's like I had a day off from my cold and then the next day it came back with a vengeance.

Because I'm fairly new to the cold, I am completely ghetto when it comes to meds. My two old roommates introduced me to Airbourne and Cold Eeze lozenges. I've had the NyQuil conversation with many people. Most people love it...I hate it. I have this memory of me sitting at my bed when I was about 14 years old, holding a little 1 oz plastic cup with bright green syrup in it trying not to gag at the sight of it. I stared at it for a good ten minutes before I finally took the shot. I hate that feeling of alcohol going down my throat and then having it linger there. I swore I would never drink the devil's poison again.

And then last November, I drank some. My cold was bad. My head felt like it was going to fall off my body and I needed to get through a day of work. I'm a grown up now, it was time to grow up and drink the nasty stuff. It wasn't as awful as I feared but it wasn't good. And I tasted that stuff for the next two days. I've sworn it off again.

Anyway, again, last November I called my sister who seems to be sick all the time now that she has a kid, and told her I had a cold. She said to take Zycam. But apparently it was too late for Zycam. I was past the sore throat stage. Now it was time for Mucinex. I popped one of those right before going out to dinner with friends. I felt great. But the next day I started to act loopy and was told I wasn't answering questions.

Now, about six weeks later, I am currently on Zycam and Mucinex. Only this time I am drinking ALL THE TIME because I figured out the last time I took Mucinex I didn't eat or drink anything that day and so I was SEVERELY dehydrated. I'm feeling a little better, but still kinda dizzy.

Because I'm not used to being sick, I'm not used to all the remedies people have for the common cold, but I'm open to try them. The last time I was sick, Annie gave me some tea that was supposed to soothe my throat. Eh. She also gave me this eucalyptus ball that you're supposed to throw in a pot of boiling water and then hover over it with a towel over your head. I tried it. It did clear up my sinuses for a little while. Some girl in my choir told me to gargle with Listerine. She said the alcohol kills the germs in your throat and that's where the cold starts.

Everyone seems to have different ones. We just had people over for ward prayer. My plan was to stay upstairs and out of the way, but I ended up staying downstairs and talking to people. Here is what I got tonight:

Gargle with salt water (tried that when I was little, made me gag)
Drink the caramel apple cider at Starbucks.
Airbourne.

Here's my thing with airbourne and zycam and cold eeze and anything else that is supposed to "shorten" your cold. I use this stuff, but I'm not sure if there's any way of knowing if it works or not. You're only supposed to take a certain amount of airbourne within 24 hours or else it will damage your liver. I will watch the clock, counting down the minutes until I can take the next one. I can take zycam every four hours. I've been taking airbourne AND zycam for the past 24 hours and I'm feeling ok. My throat is still a little raw. I think what's mostly making me feel crummy right now is the effects of Mucinex. Maybe I just have a less severe cold, or maybe if I haven't been taking these remedies, it would be way more intense, I don't know. Here is what I do know: NyQuil makes me gag and say things I wouldn't normally say. Mucinex makes me dizzy, nauseous, and incoherent.

Oh look, it's 10 PM and it's time for another Zycam.