Cold progressing fast

[cjsmith]

I'm past the eating-caltrops stage, past the brief "feeling half decent except my nose is a faucet" stage, and am now in the "there's a knife behind my sternum" stage. I don't think I've had things go this fast before.

Didn't sleep at all last night - had to keep getting up to blow my nose & take more Sudafed. Also, any time I breathed I needed to cough, and even the tiniest cough-like hint of motion reminded me of that knife behind my sternum. But man, is this cough ever productive. That stuff tastes truly nasty, by the way. I'd forgotten how nasty.

Also, when I try to talk I sound like a duck. I think today will be another stay in bed day.

Comments

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Glad it's progressing fast. Surely that will mean it disappears quickly, too.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping so. I'd be overjoyed if it at least went to a new stage by tomorrow -- I'm on planes (& in airports) all day tomorrow, and I can't take Robitussin with me.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

*quack*

Feel better!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

8-) Thanks!

Now I'm not sure whether I sound like a duck or like bagpipes. When the infrequent honks aren't coming out, I do sort of wheeze. (Rob votes bagpipes.)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I'd say "Happy New Year" but instead I'll send healing vibes and virtual chicken soup. *hugs*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Mmmm, chicken soup.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness for fingers!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

At least I can blog! (okay, and take meds, and pull more blankets over me.)

[anirishpenguin.livejournal.com]

Hope your feeling better soon. Hug

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I admit I'm getting a bit tired of feeling icky. :)

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Chicken soup.
Preferably, with matzo balls.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes indeedy. The minute I get out of this hotel and back to California.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=louisville%2C%20ky%20kosher%20delis&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Tempting. I'd have to get Rob back here with the car... and get out of this nice warm bed... but it's still tempting.

Okay, so I'm paranoid...

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

A cold that's progressed faster than ever, and lungs full of nasty tasting crap?

Are you sure this isn't pneumonia? Are you sure?

Re: Okay, so I'm paranoid...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If we're allowed to call it pneumonia whenever there's any fluid in the lungs, then yeah, that I've got. But if it is indeed pneumonia by any definition, it's a mild case. I don't have fever high enough to have chills, I have no muscle/joint aches and pains, my breathing isn't labored or shallow, I can breathe deeply as long as I do it slowly, I haven't coughed up blood, etc. I do have the "knife behind the sternum" feeling, which might be "pleuritic chest pain" (I got that off wikipedia).

In short, it doesn't feel any shittier than stuff I've had before, so I am (perhaps unwisely) not very worried. Am I being naive?

Re: Okay, so I'm paranoid...

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

The lack of fever is encouraging. You're probably okay. If you can contrive to spit out the nasty tasting crap and find it greenish or pearlescent, a trip in for a test couldn't hurt.

Re: Okay, so I'm paranoid...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I likely have a slight fever (hard to say, as I have no thermometer with me) but it's clearly not a high one.

The nasty stuff is dark yellow now. It was lighter this morning and at that time I couldn't really say whether it was more green or yellow, but it's definitely yellow now.

Thanks for the sanity check!

[tshuma]

Wow. Eating caltrops is so much more a genteel way of describing that feeling than my normal "deepthroating a cheese grater".

I'm pretty certain my friends would know what a caltrop was, but I despair of my coworkers.

(glad to hear you're starting to feel better.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I admit a description more similar to yours was what came to mind first! Then I remembered that I might have minors on my flist. ;-)

Thanks! There is definitely less pain. I'm glad of that!

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

I'll have to remember that one :)

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

Feel better soon!

My (much milder) cold is also receeding -- except for some continued throat drainage, I'm just about back to normal.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad you're on the mend. I hope I follow you soon!

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

sending you more chicken soup and a bottomless box of kleenex. good luck on the trip home. *hugs*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The laryngitis is now complete; maybe Rob will enjoy the silence while it lasts. I won't pester him on the flight like I usually do!

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Long Showers will help.
You can get hot tea on the plane. Drink lots of it. Bring your own bags of tea (tea leaves aren't liquid) if you hate generic. But DRINK Tea. Herbal is best, but any tea will give you liquids and let you breathe in steam. This is a good thing.
There is now cough and cold medicine in a strip, again no liquids, that you can take on the plane. Do take something for the congesion, otherwise the air pressure changes will make things much worse.
Vicks VapoRub. But if you take it on the plane you'll need a tiny tube since they do consider that a liquid.
And lots of Kleenix. If nothing else, the other people on the plane will appreciate it.
Travel safely.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! About the tea: whenever I am sick I rediscover that warm / hot water is the soothingest drink in the whole wide world. Mmmmm, hot water.

Rob did find cough and cold medicine in pill form. YAY!

I'll be wearing a face mask on the plane. I'm wishing the person who sat behind me on the flight to Louisville, almost a week ago, had had one. She was coughing up a storm and not even trying to cover her mouth. (Thanks, lady, for the wonderful holiday you gave me.)

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

I love how hard it is to describe the way you feel sometimes. Somebody asked me once how I was and I said, "I feel fine except that I'm tired and every once in awhile I clear my throat and it tastes like I drank olive oil." I doubt even my doctor would have had a good answer for that one. This particular person just decided to never ask me how I felt again. :)