Saturday night, while driving back from Rothenburg, my throat got all scratchy and I felt achy all over. I thought this was from running the dry heat in the car for 7 hours, and from hunching over the steering wheel in the stressful act of painfully creeping along the highway during a snowstorm in the dark for 4 hours.
Sunday morning, the truth became known. Both A. and I have bad chest colds. We're hacking those deep, irresistible coughs. Mine make me feel like the top of my head is going to fly off and that I'm going to break a rib. It's a productive cough, too, which usually triggers my gag reflex, so I've already thrown up once.
A.'s seems to be limited to a horrible cough. For me, I have a 101 fever and a dull headache I can't get rid of, too.
The comforting thing this time, if that can be said, is that EVERYONE else has this, too, or had it recently. In our building alone there are five people with this chest cough. Also, the thing with a chest cold is that you know it will run its course and eventually go away, even if it takes 2-3 weeks (as is the case with bronchitis, which I may or may not have). I feel some comfort with this illness -- as opposed to my other recent health problems -- in knowing what it is and that it will eventually go away.
I seriously am so tired of being sick, sacked out on the couch with no strength, unable to get comfortable in any position. It feels hard to fight it this time, because I'm so worn out from everything else I've been sick with. I've just totally and immediately succumbed to this.
Oh, and taking vitamin C before this happened and then taking Zicam and Emergen C at the first sign of symptoms did NOT help. I always wondered if all that stuff about packing vitamins to prevent or shorten colds was just a myth. I'm leaning that way right now.
We're also out of Kleenex.
No comments:
Post a Comment