stupid cold

Sick and the snow

Friday during lunch the college closed early due to snow and everyone got to start the weekend early. I was home by 2:30 p/m/ and safely tucked inside from all the snow. Yay.

Friday evening I felt that telltale tickle in my throat that said “Yep, you’re getting sick–probably that thing that knocked out a co-worker for a few days.”

Late Friday the tickle becomes more of a barb and I seek solace in a bottle of NyQuil. It mostly works.

I think about going to the Canada Games Pool on Saturday. It’s not that bad, I think. I can do it. I go to the store and earn about half my exercise goal (30 minutes) on the watch Activity app. That wasn’t so bad, I think, though the urge to nab has arisen suddenly.

I have a nice bubble bath. I nap. I do not go to the pool.

Today I wake up and the barb is gone or at least sufficiently buried to no longer feel like a bar. My sinuses are stuffed but it’s hard to tell if it’s from my ongoing sinus issues or due to this cold or whatever it is. I again muse over going for a workout. As a bonus, most of the snow has already melted away and the sun is out.

I have another bubble bath. I nap once more.

I do not work out. I give up on meeting my activity goals. Whatever streak I have is ended and I hear a little imaginary sad trombone play.

And now just past 7 p.m. I fight the urge to go to bed early, my strength ebbing away as I type. It’s too early, I think. I need to write. Or read. Or explore my vast Steam backlog. I can’t go to bed, not just because of a little cold.

But the bed looks so comfy.

Boxing Day 2016 or as I like to call it, Slushy Rainy Snowy Horrible Stay Inside Day

This morning I was greeted with this from the deck:

Boxind Day 2016 and still more snow
Boxing Day, Snow Day–who can tell the difference?

Still more snow. And as forecast, it warmed up just enough to change to rain so sidewalks are now slushy messes and roads have rivers running curbside, topped with layers of slushy snow that might fool you into thinking they’re solid until a vehicle drives through and sprays you from head to foot with a delightful slurry of ice, water and mud.

The forecast over the next four days calls for rain or a chance of rain, so presumably at least the new stuff will wash away, leaving the crusty old stuff still lingering until New Year’s Eve, where 3-7 cm of new snow is forecast. Snow on New Year’s Eve–what could possibly go wrong?

On top of this, I now have that feeling in my sinuses and chest like I’m coming down with a cold. Just as my sore back is finally on the mend. Typical.

I make no promises that I won’t spend the rest of 2016 complaining about the weather and my possible cold. Good night!

Sick of talking about being sick? Nope!

Today I returned to work, though it’s safe to say that I am not exactly 100% yet. I felt like I was spreading my illness every time I touched something. And really, I probably was. Apologies to everyone I may have gotten sick through all of my egregious touching. That sounds dirty and in the germ sense it totally is.

Last night I opted to forgo another ftom-behind-the-counter decongestant tablet in favor of the more all-encompassing solution of Nyquil Complete. Unfortunately the decongestant part kind of stopped working around 3 a.m. This meant about three hours of mostly not sleeping, combined with more mouth breathing and yucky dry mouth. I had the foresight to go to bed extra early so it could have been worse.

The day was characterized by intermittent coughing, general tiredness and everything continuing to taste like cardboard.

On a scale of one to ten coughed-up lungs, I rate today six coughed-up lungs. It could have been worse but boy howdy, it could have been better, too.

I promise the next blog post will not be about my sinuses, mouth or any other part of my body or its current condition.

Day 3 of The Best (Worst) Head Cold Ever

Last night started with me experiencing the chills, not out of fright, but due to my stupid cold/flu/germs from outer space/whatever it is. That didn’t last, though, as by midway through the night I was hot and sweaty instead. Oh, and my nose was so stuffed up I couldn’t breathe. Or sleep. Not sleeping when sick is not a good way to speed recovery.

I managed to catch an hour or so of uninterrupted sleep around 7 a.m. when I finally dozed off, likely from exhaustion. When I awoke I discovered that I’d been breathing through my mouth (the only handy breathing orifice), said mouth was parched and my lips were almost chapped from. They still feel funny this evening.

I went to ye local drug store and got a not-over-the-counter decongestant. While it hasn’t completely unplugged my sinuses, it’s partially done so and more importantly, they are staying partially unplugged when I lay down, meaning I should be able to sleep tonight without being a mouth breather and get actual rest.

To balance this positive news, I am now coughing and sneezing a lot more.

I am not a fan of this head cold. No sir, not a fan at all.

This head cold of mine

This head cold I’m currently fighting is like what you get if you crossed a head cold with Africanized bees. I’m tired, I’m achy, my sinuses are so plugged up it’s like my nose went on vacation. If I get a little cold (ho ho) I start shivering as if I’m standing starkers on an ice floe.

And today it feels like it’s moving into my chest, so coughing and wheezing are what I can likely look forward to for the rest of the week.

I don’t like this. Please send a healthy body for me to occupy ASAP.

On not sleeping, candy hearts and other things both sweet and sour

There’s nothing quite like the sensation of laying down to sleep and finding yourself unable to breathe. This happened a few nights ago when my über-cold left my nose completely stuffed up. I had to breathe through my mouth, which made me dizzy. I eventually fell asleep probably due to exhaustion. When I awoke in the middle of the night one of my nostrils had kindly opened up enough to permit semi-normal breathing.

Worst cold ever.

Also the last post I’m making about it. Colds are pretty boring to read about and if I could capture the misery of the past week in a way that was truly entertaining, I’d be rich. Hmm. I may have to think about this.

Onward to the rest of what should hopefully be a healthy remainder of 2013:

Valentine’s Day is coming up. My favorite manufactured holiday when I was a kid because of the candy. I was especially fond of chocolate-covered marshmallow hearts. Mmm. Now I prefer the day after when all the candy gets marked down 50%. I usually treat myself to something small that I can work off without too much guilt/effort.

Running: This is probably still about three weeks off. I’m going to start stretching exercises to make sure my tendon is ready. The first run will be a short test that will also serve to calibrate my new iPod nano. The best thing about it, apart from the electric green case…

iPod nano green

…is that it incorporates the Nike+ sensor/receiver so I don’t need to attach any extra hardware to my shoe (or the iPod). An added bonus is no more infernal clickwheel to deal with, especially one that refuses to function in the slightest bit of rain, making the end of a jog unusually difficult to, well, end. The test run will be done at a track to ensure maximum accuracy for the calibration. In the meantime I’ll try to return to the pool/gym at least a few times each week until the runs resume. Excelsior!

Diet: My weight has steadied out around 156-157 but should start going back down soon as I start packing a modest lunch to work and resist the siren song of the donut. My goal is to be back to my usual weight by my next physical, probably a few months from now.

This site: I have found a few themes I may be able to hammer into something serviceable for my needs. This is a long term project so I’ll probably work away at it a little at a time. I am planning on having a revamped site up before the end of the year.

Self-diagnosis: The grand tradition of being your own inept doctor

As I enter my third day of being truly and awfully sick it came to mind that I wasn’t sure if this was just a bad cold or the flu, so I did what any like-minded person would do: I searched the web.

WebMD’s guide compares the symptoms of each and the results are inconclusive:

Symptoms Cold Flu
Fever Rare Characteristic, high
(100-102 degrees F); lasts three to four days
Headache Rare Prominent
General Aches, Pains Slight Usual; often severe
Fatigue, Weakness Quite mild Can last up to two to three weeks
Extreme Exhaustion Never Early and prominent
Stuffy Nose Common Sometimes
Sneezing Usual Sometimes
Sore Throat Common Sometimes
Chest Discomfort,
Cough		 Mild to moderate;
hacking cough		 Common; can become severe
Complications Sinus congestion
or earache		 Bronchitis, pneumonia;
can be life-threatening
Prevention Good hygiene Annual flu shot or FluMist
Treatment Only
temporary
relief of symptoms		 Antiviral drugs (Tamiflu or
or Relenza) within 24-48 hours
of onset

I haven’t had a fever, though I have had periods of feeling too warm/too cold. I have had an on/off headache (a bit of one right now, in fact) and weakness…well, let’s say the idea of replicating Saturday’s 20 km walk is not exactly a tantalizing prospect at the moment. The only things I have to treat the symptoms right now are Nyquil and sodium-encrusted noodle soup. I’ll take what I can get.

The problem with doing the thing I most want to — lay down and doze — is that my sinuses are so clogged up that reclining makes it nearly impossible to breathe. Perhaps a nice warm bath would help. Or some miracle pill invented by science.

Get to work, scientists! And deliver direct to door, please.

The coincidental timing of colds

At the end of each semester at the college I work at there is a break of 10 days or so where the college is pretty much shut down. The winter one began a few days before Christmas and I was looking forward to some quality loafing off time. A few days in I developed what turned out to be an awful head cold that lingered on until just before the break ended, meaning I was sick for nearly the entire time. My loafing turned out to be enforced rather than voluntary. I did not like this.

I blamed the germ carriers on mass transit, as I always do.

This past Friday, within a few hours of getting home for the weekend, I developed a clone of the same head cold. As I write this I am experiencing its unpleasant effects in all their glory. I do not like this.

I again blame the germ carriers on mass transit.

In each case it’s as if the head cold was lying in wait until I had some quality free time, then struck as if to say, “Nuh uh! Your free time shall be filled with misery and runny noses!” And lo, it was.

I am also reminded that when I was running regularly I seemed to get sick a lot less often. I hope to resume this month to put that theory to the test. In the meantime, I shake my fist at you, head cold. I shake it weakly and while stifling a cough, but I shake it all the same.