January 04, 2007

• *dons Andromeda Strain hazmat suit* I find colds last just as long whether you medicate the symptoms or not. So yeah, get with the drugs. *burns suit*
• I think you mean "decongestants", not "antihistamines", as antihistamines are used for hayfever symptoms (and also in nighttime cold remedies to help you sleep). The reason decongestants aren't recommended is that they dry up the mucous, thereby preventing the body from eliminating it quickly. The faster your body can flush out the bad crap, the quicker you'll recover, which is why it's recommended that you push clear fluids (specifically water; definitely nothing with sugar, but that's another topic). However, if one expects to function at work, or to be able to sleep, one must take decongestants. It'll just take you a little longer to recover. I am not a doctor!
• I'm not a doctor either, and I specifically went into Arts to avoid all that sciencey-type stuff, but I will say this: Tylenol Cold and Flu, Daytime / Nighttime combo pack. Make the purchase. Expensive, but it really does work, esp. the night bombs. And this stuff works even as a threat. Put it in the medicine cabinet, point it out to your cold and say "you got one day to pack your shit and leave, or I'm coming after you with this..." It works. Seriously.
• Buckley's eh? Okay I'll try it next time. I've had good luck with the zinc stuff. As far as shortening the 7-day duration part. And sweatpants. It's all about the sweatpants and TV.
• OMFG, is Buckley's still around? Back in the day, my doc forbade mot cold medicines/decongestants, etc. because of my Type 1 diabetes. (Medical opinions have changed sine then, grace a dieu.) All I could take was Buckley's. I had these big, elaborate fever dream of Ol' Grampa Buckley and his slackjawed, inbred, banjo-picking sons brewing up big batches of the vile stuff in an old oil drum in the back yard of their moonshine shack, adding mysterious barks, weeds, vermifuges, nail clippings, unsuspecting Yankee tourists, mandrake root, half-eaten skunk carcasses, and wintergreen until the steam fomed little skulls and crossbones in the mountain air. One swig of the stuff and I could feel myself morphing into a combination of The Incredible Hulk and Granny Clampett. I found myself being careful not to pill any on the bathroom sink for fear it would eat through the porcelain. These days I mix decongestant spray and saline nasal spray half and half. It does the job nicely.
• ok, so since we're talking about sickie, I am having the weirdest viral whatever, um, ever. I thought I had strep. I have a sore throat (day 6 now) with very swollen right gland/tonsil. the tonsil is red, with a few white patches/streaks. I have NO other symptoms. no fever, no congestion, no coughing, no tummy upsets. just 6 days of a weird sore throat. I had a strep culture yesterday. it was negative. has any other monkey ever had a thing like this??
• Tonsillitis maybe? Your doc took a culture and didn't offer any opinions?
• Well I am a bit of a anti-western-medicine dork, I rarely take medicine and usually only a painkiller if one of the symptoms is a bad headache. Liquids - whether you take medicine or not - suck that water down! Very important to drink lots.
• Medusa, I transcribe for an ENT and consequently hear plenty about tonsils, most of which I'd never heard of until I 'scribed the stuff. Without actually seeing your tonsil, I must ask if the white patches/streaks could possibly be matter stuck in a pocket in the tonsil? If so you might have cryptic tonsillitis, a weird but apparently not uncommon phenomenon. OR you might have some kind of infectious process going on--the swollen gland suggests an adenopathy related to this. Since you've said nothing about your age, illness onset, past medical history, dysphagia (difficulty eating) etc. I don't dare hazard a guess on this, but do suggest, Medusa, you may wish to have this thing checked out. Head and neck issues are nothing to take casually! Most aren't sinister but golly, when they are... Infected tonsils all alone can be a Major Pain at any age, BTW, but are highly treatable. Good luck and hope you feel better fast! PS Have you tried hydrating, gargling with warm salt water, eating lots of garlic and taking vitamin C? Just a thought.
• Diverticulitis?
• MonkeyFilter: Very important to drink lots.
• bad petebest! go to the corner and put yr pants on! Diverticulitis! my intestines are just fine thanks. the poop comes out on a regular basis. wow, kinnakeet, thanks for all that shared knowledge! I am an otherwise healthy not-quite 39 (ekk!) year old female, non smoker. I have never had tonsil problems before. those little fuckers! and yes, I have been gargling salt water, flooding myself with garlic, herbal tea with lemon n honey etc., otherwise my appetitie is normal and I am eating well. (and pooping every day, just like normal. ignore pete!)
• A little combustible herb is also very helpful when suffering with a head cold. May not help the symptoms, but at least gets your mind in a better space for a while. Also a good bronchial dilator for initiating phlegm-clearing cough sessions during lower respiratory illnesses.
• Medusa - any chance it could be mononucleosis? Mono is often misdiagnosed as strep, especially if you don't get the full-blown sleep-22-hours-a-day aspect of the ailment. I, too, am not a doctor. But I am sick. Either food poisoning or the flu. Going home now to convalesce.
• Medusa, gogol "tonsilloliths" and see if it sounds like your problem.
• and who needs a "preview" function for comments, anyway?
• Wow. I think that the form: "(monkey), google (malady) and see if it sounds like your problem" ...is the 2007 cool kids way of saying "fuck you"!
• No, he said "gogol" so he's referring to 19th century Russian literature. Perhaps Chichikov had one inflamed tonsil.
• Do svidania, Uvula Tonsilovna.
• Please rephrase your post properly in the form of a regular expression.
• @ RTD!
• ...has any other monkey ever had a thing like this?? I had to deal with something like that this past July while out in the bush. It occurred in the beginning of the month and lasted about a week and a half without treatment (save for hot tea). It returned in late August and I went to a clinic about it. They took a swab for strep, but no results were ever sent to me I got better and it hasn't returned. There was difficulty eating, swallowing (including water and tea, although tea was soothing), an associated cough from the discomfort and dryness. Two others in our camp at the time it first occurred were diagnosed with strep. I, for some reason, didn't go to a doctor about it. When the symptoms returned, there was also a loss of speech and a fever. Am I crazy? Mistaken? Is it advisable to just take the stupid DayQuil and quit blowin' my shnozz ninety times a day? Thanks in advance for any help you might offer. If you didn't know, quackwatch.org is an interesting, if controversial, website which debunks "scientific" claims of alternative medicines which do not do their homework or attempt to perpetrate fraud.
• Cold relief: Hot black tea Spoonful of honey Teaspoonful of lemon juice Shotglass of whiskey, or a light rum Stir ingredients in a mug or teacup, being careful not to bruise anything. Omit no ingredient. Down the whole works, in cautious sips if it's hot. Repeat as needed. Repeat too often and you may need assistance in climbing into bed, but two or three won't hurt. You should feel much better the next morning.
• I loathe Tylenol Cold & Flu, primarily because I don't tolerate pseudophedrine well - it's the most effective common nasal decongestant. In a lot of the US, it's been placed behind the pharmacy counter and removed from many OTC medications (it can be used to make crystal meth). The replacement, phenylephrine, isn't as effective, but is fine if you can't stand pseudophedrine's side effects. Generic versions of either of these - store brands - are readily available and very cheap. I'm not completely sure TC&F has pseudophedrine anymore. But if you compare the ingredients of most of the common OTC drug cocktails like it, they're largely the same thing, so the main issue is whether or not you like the flavor of a particular brand. A lot of people take a decongestant, but never take an expectorant, thinking it will make them cough. Actually, it thins mucous. The most common one, guaifenesin, is sold in extended-release form as Mucinex in the US. You can get Mucinex blended with dextromethorphan, a cough suppressant, or with pseudophedrine. The antihistamine usually used as a sleep aid is diphenhydramine, which is the same thing as Benadryl. 50mg is the usual dose for sleep. I usually make up my own cocktail depending on what my symptoms are. I have to take Mucinex all the time (I had a prescription before the OTC form came out). I only take Mucinex DM if I have a cold and the coughing is bothering me. For me, this is as simple as, "Do I want an ear infection?" I always get one, from my everyday allergy-driven congestion level, if I don't take the expectorant. It's important to do what you can to thin out the mucous and get it out of your nose and chest, because if it sits around, it's a prime place for infection to take root. Many sinus and ear infections are actually secondary infections that set in when someone has had a week of bad congestion from the common cold. Antihistamines can leave you more susceptible to infection at any time, supposedly, by drying out your nasal tissue. Because they also tend to dry up mucous during a cold, they aren't a good thing to take if you have a lot of sinus pressure (it's just going to sit there). Unless you have terrible allergies, try not to take antihistamines during a respiratory illness: they're the thing that will interfere with proper drainage. But if you must take them, either for allergies or to get to sleep, saline nasal spray and sinus rinses can help restore the moisture. IANAD, but I have been sick a whole lot in my life, and basically spent my teen years in doctors' offices. This is the stuff I've learned, after a lot of research and being on practically every common medication at least once. The most useful thing for most people is to learn the difference between antihistamines, decongestants, and expectorants, and to figure out what your symptoms actually call for, rather than taking a pre-mixed cocktail. Look at its ingredients and see what it does and doesn't have in it. It's OK to take NyQuil and add Mucinex. It also helps to know what acetaminophen and ibuprofen or naproxen sodium each do: if you are achy from an illness but have no fever and are at least 20 years old, it's probably better to take ibuprofen or another NSAID than to take acetaminophen. Meanwhile, if you have a fever but aren't achy, the reverse is true. And if you have both, and are very sick, you can actually take both Tylenol/acetaminophen/etc AND ibuprofen. They work differently. It's not something you should do every day, but it works in a pinch. Finally, if possible, it's better to take a prescription sleeping pill than an OTC one that's an antihistamine. If your nose is so runny that you can't sleep, however, you might appreciate what the antihistamine does to you.
• Also - beeswacky is right, that will help a lot (or you just won't care whether it does or not: THANKS BOURBON!). Skip your sleep aid if you drink this kind of hot toddie. The best doctor I ever had recommended this for colds. And Quackwatch is really interesting and good. And "Gypsy Cold Care" tea, made by Traditional Medicinals, is also nice. With a teaspoon or so of honey! I've been drinking it every time I've been sick, for at least a decade: it's not that it cures anything, it's that inhaling the menthol vapors while you're drinking it is really nice. However, people who buy it may have noticed over time that while TM used to tout the tea as a cold remedy (IE, "drink this when you're sick"), they now tout it as something to drink when it's cold outside or when you feel chilled! So obviously, it can't be much of a "remedy." Most herbal teas are going to be good choices when you're sick and want something hot to drink. Hot spiced cider is good as well, as long as you're careful of your sugar intake in general. Don't drink OJ all day and cider at night!
• Bananas to verbminx for exceptionally helpful and interesting advice.
• I've recently started using a neti pot (nose kettle) to flush my sinuses. Mrs roryk has been using one for some time and finds it very good for sinus pain. I'm not sure of the benefits yet, though I think it does help to clear my sinuses. If nothing else, it's an exceptionally good laugh to watch yourself using it.
• Yeah, thanks indeed Verb.
• Neti pots are also used by tweakers, snorters, or whatever they are called these days. Nose stoners.
• Also, how to clear your nose without drugs. Originates from a somewhat suspicious (to me, anyway) source, but I've tried it and found it quite effective.
• I'm with Beeswacky on this (although I like a few cloves in mine). And lots of raw garlic when you first feel the cold coming on most of the time means, I find, you don't get the cold at all.
• I like the bee's advice, as well. My grampa used to make me hot toddies when I'd get sick with 151. It takes the edge... somewhere.
• Not that 151 was what made me sick, but it could...
• I used to get tonsillitis quite often, but I stopped getting it when I started swishing with Listerine (or the generic equivalent) every day when I brushed my teeth. When you have an active sore throat, gargle with it several times a day, and it helps you get better quicker.
• Mr. BlueHorse recommends a 1/2 inch of whisky in a washtub for whatever ails yer. 'Tis the season. Unfortunatly
• When you have an active sore throat, gargle with it several times a day, and it helps you get better quicker. Isn't that the equivalent of a salt-water gargle? Something about fluids moving across a semi-permeable membrane or what not? ...a 1/2 inch of whisky in a washtub... That's a lot of whisky, GramMa.