And on the 28th Day, He Rested

[canyonwalker]

Friday wasn't a day of literal rest. I was very busy with work, pushing through until 6:15pm (having started before 8am), and even then choosing to leave a few things undone until Monday. But Friday was a rest from coughing and taking pills.

I picked up an upper respiratory infection probably on the way to Vegas for SKO last month. Being in a smoky casino-hotel for 3 days certainly didn't help. By my first evening back home I was already sick. "This could be the start of another two weeks" of a cold, I lamented. Unfortunately it was worse. My symptoms wound up running four whole weeks.

Yesterday, Day 28 since the start of significant symptoms, was finally the first day I didn't need to take any medicine to quell my cough.

Four weeks. Four freakin' weeks. And bad enough early on that I had to go to a doctor and get prescription medication because the coughing was so bad I was struggling to breathe. I haven't had a respiratory illness that bad since childhood, when I was a 4-pack-a-day second-hand smoker.

Comments

[some_other_dave]

Apparently you're far from alone!

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/cough-bay-area-respiratory-illness-cold-18938882.php

[canyonwalker]

My course of treatment was similar to that author's. I had Benzonatate pills for 10 days— which did help me— and an albuterol inhaler right away because the doc heard bronchitis with her stethoscope. (I could hear it with my ears— and feel it, too. 😰 Sad that I'm so familiar with it.) I also found carefully selected OTC cold medicines, guaifenesin and especially pseudephedrine, helpful. Those I'm an old pro at, having decided to figure out cold medicines by trial and error as much as reading about them in a university library when I was 22.