Humidifiers are Awesome
I usually get a bad cold in the fall and spring - part of being a teacher. I rarely need to take a day off for these because they are more annoying than debilitating and then they're over in 7-10 days. This year I barely got my fall cold - just a bit of runny nose and one day that I was really tired.
So I've been waiting for my spring cold...and it hit harder than usual. For one, it did NOT start with a sore throat and progress to a stuffed/runny nose. Instead, it started with a tickle waaaaay down in my lungs that would trigger a weird machine-gun cough whenever I laughed or talked too loud (which was all day...again, teacher). Nothing came up and no other symptoms, plus it seems everyone has this cough right now with nothing worse happening to them. I had parent/teacher conferences that afternoon, so after an 11-hour day I was pretty wiped out, but okay. I went to bed early and didn't think much of it.
When I woke up the next morning I knew I was in trouble. Luckily it was a half day (to make up for the parent teacher conferences the night before) so I toughed it out all morning, requested a sub for Friday (and got everything set up for said sub), then went home and didn't get out of bed until the next afternoon. The only reason I got up then was I had a fever and figured I'd better go to a clinic and make sure this wasn't bacterial (it wasn't).
But after Friday (the worst day) I felt better and better until now I have almost no symptoms at all. I'm weak from being in bed for three days, but otherwise only a tiny amount of nasal congestion remains. And I think what made the difference was the humidifier. I have been running that thing next to my bed non-stop since Thursday and I cannot believe how much easier it was to breathe and sleep than all my previous colds (even though they weren't as severe). I've had this thing for years - why in the world did I only get it out when I thought I was sick enough? It's not like the distilled water costs that much. From now on I'm getting it out for even the tiniest sniffle. 6-10% humidity is normal around here so even my little $30, 8 year old humidifier helps.
So I've been waiting for my spring cold...and it hit harder than usual. For one, it did NOT start with a sore throat and progress to a stuffed/runny nose. Instead, it started with a tickle waaaaay down in my lungs that would trigger a weird machine-gun cough whenever I laughed or talked too loud (which was all day...again, teacher). Nothing came up and no other symptoms, plus it seems everyone has this cough right now with nothing worse happening to them. I had parent/teacher conferences that afternoon, so after an 11-hour day I was pretty wiped out, but okay. I went to bed early and didn't think much of it.
When I woke up the next morning I knew I was in trouble. Luckily it was a half day (to make up for the parent teacher conferences the night before) so I toughed it out all morning, requested a sub for Friday (and got everything set up for said sub), then went home and didn't get out of bed until the next afternoon. The only reason I got up then was I had a fever and figured I'd better go to a clinic and make sure this wasn't bacterial (it wasn't).
But after Friday (the worst day) I felt better and better until now I have almost no symptoms at all. I'm weak from being in bed for three days, but otherwise only a tiny amount of nasal congestion remains. And I think what made the difference was the humidifier. I have been running that thing next to my bed non-stop since Thursday and I cannot believe how much easier it was to breathe and sleep than all my previous colds (even though they weren't as severe). I've had this thing for years - why in the world did I only get it out when I thought I was sick enough? It's not like the distilled water costs that much. From now on I'm getting it out for even the tiniest sniffle. 6-10% humidity is normal around here so even my little $30, 8 year old humidifier helps.