The “Day late because I’m sick as a dog” edition.
1. Tom Yorke – Harrowdown Hill
2. Black Star – Brown Sugar
3. Bob Dylan – I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
4. Chad VanGaalen – Flower Gardens
5. Franz Ferdinand – Auf Auchse
6. Refused – Summerholidays vs. Punkroutine
7. Jill Scott – Be Ready
8. Yo La Tengo – Moby Octopad
9. Ray LaMontagne – Narrow Escape
10. Neon Golden – The Notwist
And because I am actually very very sick, I will probably not be checking the blog very often, since the effort it takes to walk from my bed to the kitchen is just too much for me to do repeatedly. I am, however, happy to read any home remedies for feeling like your lungs and throat are full of crap, a never-ending cough (to the point where I’m pretty sure I’ll end up puking sometime soon), achy muscles, and skin that’s sensitive to even having clothing touch it (which is unfortunate, since I also have the chills, so sweats must be worn). Just don’t tell me to go out and buy anything, since there’s no way I’m making it up and down my sixth-floor walk-up today.
Cure me, feministe!
Brandy… lots of it. Failing that, Triple Sec.
1. Money by Yes // 2. Black Angel’s Death Song by Velvet Underground // 3. Another Sound Mission by Dilated Peoples // 4. Yesterdays by Art Tatum // 5. Resist Psychic Death by Bikini Kill // 6. Forces of Victory by Linton Kwesi Johnson // 7. Bad Liver and a Broken Heart by Tom Waits // 8. King of the Road by James Booker // 9. Never Be Rude to an Arab by Monty Python // 10. The Now by Mr. Lif.
Feel better soon!
Tea+Ginger+Honey+Crushed Up Aspirin+Whiskey.
Sounds like a combination of what my husband and I had (he had the bronchitis, I had the fever/chills).
Oddly enough, sometimes drinking something COLD (and I mean really cold, like a smoothie or a milkshake) can break up the congestion. Also, keep the air in your apartment as moist as possible, because cold, dry air will make the cough much worse. If the aches and fever get too bad, take a painkiller, but read all the ingredients so you don’t accidentally overdo it on Tylenol/aceteminophen.
Word on the tea+whiskey+honey dealio. It’s what got me through last weekend.
Take mucinex separately.
When I’ve been congested, I boil water in my plug-in teapot and put a towel over my head, and just soak in the steam. That will also help with the dry skin, especially around your face and upper body. Aren’t there any feminist allies in NYC who can run you up some cough syrup or something? What kind of movement is this?
I’m sure a few will come out of the woodwork.
Tylenol and Advil together.
I also fell sick this week — although my little cold now seems like nothing to complain about in comparison!
Lots of hot tea and sleep seems to help… Or if you can’t sleep, sometimes watching a funny movie or two can almost make you forget you’re sick.
I may not be the medical doctor type of doctor, but I have learned a few things. Hot decaf tea is great, but something I found to be very helpful is a sports drink like Gatorade. The better you keep your body hydrated and keep your electrolytes balanced the better you body is able to have the energy and reserves needed to pump out lymphocytes and antibodies. Keeping your protein up is a good idea as well for similar reasons.
Actually paying attention to the color of your mucus could be helpful. When one gets some brown or gray coloring to their mucus then you should probably see a doctor about a prescription antibiotic since you may have a chest infection. I had a nasty infection of that sort in grad school and was nearly hospitalized from letting it get too far. Overall though the best strategy I have come up with dealing with being sick is to do light reading or TV to occupy the mind, while I keep the body well stocked with the materials needed to fight the intruders.
The “Take What You Have Gathered From Coincidence” Edition:
Bob Dylan, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (Bringing It All Back Home); Bob Dylan, “Three Angels;” Doc Watson, “The Train That Carried My Girl From Town;” Larry Sparks, “Last Day at Gettysburg;” Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “You Little Fool;” Mississippi John Hurt, “I’m Satisfied;” Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “Lip Service” (an abrupt transition); Bob Dylan, “Freight Train Blues;” Blind Willie McTell, “Talkin’ to Myself;” Doc and Merle Watson, “The Wreck of the Old Number 9.”
Anyone looking for a funny but very good movie should see Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway. Although I think Crimes and Misdemeanors and maybe Manhattan are his best, Bullets Over Broadway is superb and everyone in the movie gives a brilliant performance. Everyone should see it at some point.
Hot water with lemon juice, ginger, honey, and a dash of pepper.
I wish it would work for what I’ve got. I’ve been throwing up all over the place.
Alcohol. It might not help, but if you drink enough, you’ll pass out.
Ugh Jill, I think you infected me via the interwebs. Sounds exactly like what I’m suffering from right now.
I second the suggestions of tea and honey. I hate ginger, but I hear it’s useful.
variation on a theme:
combine fresh lemon juice + sliced fresh ginger + honey in a mug, pour boiling water over it, inhale steam and drink
Sounds like you might have what Marc caught, which is strep throat.
His doctor told him to gargle with Listerine a few times a day and keep it up even after he’s better. He said it will prevent this 90% of the time.
Is going to an actual doctor not an option?
I’d just like to point out an obvious typo: you wrote “Bob Dylan – I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” but clearly you meant “KMFDM – Terror.”
– Sleep, and lots of it.
– Warm soothing drinks, including (I’m not kidding!) hot chicken soup. It’s warm, which can help the congestion, it has protein and other nutrients that you need, and it’s mentally soothing.
– More sleep.
– I second the idea of keeping yourself hydrated, and even plain old water will do. The sports drinks are often too sugary for me to tolerate when I am very sick, and may tend to make the throat mucus thicker. :( As will milk based products. If you have any, Emergen-C has some of the same electrolytes and stuff and should help you stay hydrated and balanced.
- Did I mention SLEEP?!!? Seriously, your body heals itself fastest when asleep. Failing sleep, some *really* mindless TV, but not so bad that you get annoyed.
- The achy skin makes me think you may have a flu-based sickness, and the ONLY thing I’ve ever had help was just being very warm and unconscious. You probably have a fever, and they do say not to get so warm that you are sweating, but the chills say to me to you need to be in bed under as many covers as you can tolerate trying to relax everything. If you lie still, the skin sensitivity will eventually settle down. Trust me — been there.
- Over the counter cough supressant (sp?) without any of the other crap in there except *maybe* decongestant. I personally have liked Robitussen D(??). Tastes nasty, but seems to quiet the coughs down so you can rest. If the tea/honey/ginger/booze combinations don’t work, you may have to resort to chemistry.
– If the cough lasts more than a few days, do please see a doctor if you can. This stuff can develop into walking pneumonia pretty easily. Been there, done that. It was WAY no fun! And the cough sounds like what I had. *worries*
Do you have anyone who can pick stuff up for you and won’t be afraid to come into your apartment? It sounds like you could use a few things brought over, maybe. Wish I was in NYC. :(
I hope you feel better soon. Those bouts with “I’m so sick my HAIR hurts” are no fun at ALL.
Hot tea + hot baths are my cure-all. Or at least my favorite “attempt to feel better if it doesn’t cure a damn thing,” though the hot baths help a lot with aches. If you are able to tolerate a hot bath, be warned that you may feel really, really super-extra weak getting out; I had a bad cold a week ago, and the hot baths helped, but I also had to lie down for quite a while after getting out because otherwise I felt like I’d pass out.
I’m a big fan of hot water with steeped ginger and lemon. Keep away from dairy products because you will suffocate on phlegm. For reals.
Put Vicks on your chest and wrap it up good to keep your chest clear. Ditto on lots of fluids.
Take care!
Gargle with warm salt water, sip chicken bouillon, sit in front of a space heater, and get well soon!
Hot bath should calm your fever and chills a bit, because our bodies produce fevers in part by tensing our muscles, and heat will help relax them.
Spicy food is a wonderful expectorant and can also help with coughs–can you order in some spicy soup? Thai Tom Yum is my go-to soup, for that.
Feel better soon!
Oh man Jill, I’m sorry. I am just getting over this and it does suck. I used lots and lots of hot chocolate, hot tea and soup. Hot showers will loosen everything up and a warm bath will help with muscle aches. Sleep as much as you can, I think a couple nights of decent sleep helped me a lot.
Uh….Jill? I think you might have the honest-to-Frog flu. The chills, cough, and body aches are usually diagnostic.
Not that I’m telling you to head out to the doctor, what with walking down six flights of stairs. Just this: be sure you have plenty of folks on call to bring you easy-to-eat, non-crunchy food, acetaminophen and ibuprofen, shots of brandy, and Pelligrino lemonade.
I hope you feel better very soon. I had a mild case of what you’re describing three years ago and it still haunts my nightmares.
…rather be forgotten than remembered for giving in
Get Well, get well soon, we wish you to get well!
This might cheer you up a little. My favorite part comes about 1:20 in. One of my favorite Elaine moments:
Elaine: “I mean, now we’re celebrating a sick day?”
Guy (visibly hurt): “I think it’s nice.”
Elaine: “What?! What is nice? Trying to fill the void in your life with flour and sugar and egg and vanilla? I mean, we’re all unhappy…do we have to be fat, too?!!”
Almost as good as “We all suffer from a deep malaise.”
And, of course, the dance.
Doctor!
Tylenol, if you have a fever. And a hospital if you have a really bad fever. Sleep, stay hydrated, the things everyone else said (excepting the alcohol; my life philosophy is that rum makes everything better, but that really doesn’t win out in a calculation like this).
I just got over what you currently have. Most of the advice that people have given here seems pretty good. One additional suggestion: Put a heating pad on your chest. If it’s one of the newer style of heating pads that can be moistened, even better. Don’t ask me how it does it, but moist heat penetrates more deeply than dry heat. This will help loosen up all the crap in your lungs. As others have also suggested, a good expectorant like Mucinex or guaifenesin (found in some tussin varieties) should help. Hot showers will produce steam that can also loosen up the shit in your air passages.
A word about fever reduction: Even though you may be sorely tempted to reduce it by using an NSAID (i.e., aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen) or Tylenol, I would try to resist that temptation. Why? Because there’s much evidence to suggest that your body produces a fever to make your body more inhospitable to many adversarial microorganisms, such as viruses and bacteria. Most otherwise healthy adults can run relatively low fevers (below 102 F) for a few days without complications. In other words, letting the fever run its course may actually shorten the overall duration of your illness. Still, if your body aches get pretty bad, taking a couple of ibuprofens every six hours should help alleviate some of your pain. Booze of almost any variety can also help in that department.
Finally, stay away from Republicans. They can only increase the virulence of whatever is causing your current condition. Their “family values” will encourage the virus to reproduce until your entire body is more phage than human, which of course will kill you. Viruses are definitely Republicans.
Backup to my earlier statement about the usefulness of fevers. As the article states, there is still some debate about fever reductions, but the “overall conclusion seems to be that both aggressive treatment of fever[5] and too little fever control[2] can be detrimental.”
Get well soon. And if your body aches disappear everywhere except for your chest, you might have gotten pleurisy as a result of your ailment. That’s also what happened to me in my recent bout with this virus that seems to have spread everywhere fairly rapidly. Go to a doctor if you experience this.
I agree with the boiling water in a bowel, towel over your head approach to the cough (and the robitessin when you’re ready to sleep).
As for hot baths, when you’re really achey throw in some epsom salts (a hand full or two) and let that dissolve in the bath, it gets rid of aches like nothing else.
cayenne pepper tea: meaning as much cayenne pepper as you can stand in boiling water.
it clears your sinuses….
You might have the flu, but then you might have bacterial broncitis or atypical pneumonia…and if you have either one of those then what you want is antibiotics, so I’d see a doctor if you can.
Do feel better, Jill. The chinchillas send whisker kisses, which are said to have extraordinary recuperative properties.