Stuffy, not fluffy.
Okay, we've had an unusually mild winter in metro Detroit: our snowfall thus far has been so negligible, I haven't had to wear my boots to work yet. And, despite some cold snaps here and there (usually accompanied by a steady wind), our winter's been warmer than it was when I was a lad, when I had to walk five miles through seven foot snow drifts to the bus stop. Uphill. Both ways.
But if milder winters mean that I'm going to be prone to catching bugs like the ones I've caught this winter, I think I prefer a deep freeze.
I came down with a nasty chest cold on Tuesday, 24 January. I remember the date because I had to go to an urgent care clinic after work on Friday, 27 January: the left side of my face ballooned out over the course of the work day, accompanied by an ever-increasing amount of pain. The swelling and the pain weren't as bad as when I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed in the summer between the tenth and eleventh grades, but still.
Turned out that my left salivary gland was blocked. I was referred to an ear-nose-throat (or "ENT") specialist, one of whose residents milked my salivary glands for the edification of another resident. (That was probably as close as I'll ever come to feeling like a king cobra, and I hope it's as close as I'll ever come to feeling like a guest star on Scrubs.) The stuff from my left side was like mucilage.
After a week's worth of antibiotics and Vicodin as-needed, and my chest cold was as vigorous as ever; the left side of my face only grudgingly went down. (The ENT doc also prescribed the frequent sucking of lemon wedges or lemon drops, from the left side. [Sing it with me: "Suck the lemon on the left-hand side..."] As I didn't want to wear a bib to work, I opted for the lemon drops, which I learned to regard with more antipathy than I ever thought I would.)
After three weeks, give or take, of steady over-the-counter cold medicine (only one week of which was supplemented by the antibiotic), I finally managed to overcome the bug. I figure that I had a solid bug-free week before I came down with my current complaint: a wall-banging head cold/sinus infection. It arrived in earnest on Tuesday, 28 February. (Seriously, WTF is it with Tuesdays this year? Is there a hidden message if I play the Moody Blues' "Tuesday Afternoon" backwards or something?)
The type of Mucinex that got me through my previous illness -- the cough suppressant/expectorant -- doesn't do squat for this one. Unfortunately, since I got off of work so late, I couldn't get the Mucinex for head colds: you have to take a card with the picture of the type of Mucinex on it to the pharmacy to buy it, thanks to all the DIY home chemists cooking meth for fun and profit; owing to the lateness of the hour, the pharmacy at the otherwise 24-hr. discount retailer was closed. (I don't think I make enough to buy it from a 24-hr. pharmacy at CVS, Rite-Aid or Walgreen's.)
Whatever this new bug is, it's got my mucus so thick and sticky that I could re-caulk the bathroom tile with it. And I thought that my last bout was tough.
I'm really seeing the wisdom of hibernating through winter now. *Glub.*
But if milder winters mean that I'm going to be prone to catching bugs like the ones I've caught this winter, I think I prefer a deep freeze.
I came down with a nasty chest cold on Tuesday, 24 January. I remember the date because I had to go to an urgent care clinic after work on Friday, 27 January: the left side of my face ballooned out over the course of the work day, accompanied by an ever-increasing amount of pain. The swelling and the pain weren't as bad as when I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed in the summer between the tenth and eleventh grades, but still.
Turned out that my left salivary gland was blocked. I was referred to an ear-nose-throat (or "ENT") specialist, one of whose residents milked my salivary glands for the edification of another resident. (That was probably as close as I'll ever come to feeling like a king cobra, and I hope it's as close as I'll ever come to feeling like a guest star on Scrubs.) The stuff from my left side was like mucilage.
After a week's worth of antibiotics and Vicodin as-needed, and my chest cold was as vigorous as ever; the left side of my face only grudgingly went down. (The ENT doc also prescribed the frequent sucking of lemon wedges or lemon drops, from the left side. [Sing it with me: "Suck the lemon on the left-hand side..."] As I didn't want to wear a bib to work, I opted for the lemon drops, which I learned to regard with more antipathy than I ever thought I would.)
After three weeks, give or take, of steady over-the-counter cold medicine (only one week of which was supplemented by the antibiotic), I finally managed to overcome the bug. I figure that I had a solid bug-free week before I came down with my current complaint: a wall-banging head cold/sinus infection. It arrived in earnest on Tuesday, 28 February. (Seriously, WTF is it with Tuesdays this year? Is there a hidden message if I play the Moody Blues' "Tuesday Afternoon" backwards or something?)
The type of Mucinex that got me through my previous illness -- the cough suppressant/expectorant -- doesn't do squat for this one. Unfortunately, since I got off of work so late, I couldn't get the Mucinex for head colds: you have to take a card with the picture of the type of Mucinex on it to the pharmacy to buy it, thanks to all the DIY home chemists cooking meth for fun and profit; owing to the lateness of the hour, the pharmacy at the otherwise 24-hr. discount retailer was closed. (I don't think I make enough to buy it from a 24-hr. pharmacy at CVS, Rite-Aid or Walgreen's.)
Whatever this new bug is, it's got my mucus so thick and sticky that I could re-caulk the bathroom tile with it. And I thought that my last bout was tough.
I'm really seeing the wisdom of hibernating through winter now. *Glub.*