Cold comfort
I was away in New York for a few days and came back last night with a cold. So this morning I canceled a bunch of things I was supposed to do and just crawled back into bed, hunkering down. When I got up again, hours later, I felt a mite better.
A cold is a funny thing, and I don’t mean funny ha-ha. If you’re not in poor health already, it’s a minor blip in your life. But still, for a few days or longer, you feel miserable. Sometimes I think that if you didn’t know it was a cold, if you didn’t know it was of no real import, you’d think you had some dreadful ailment and would be really worried.
On the other hand, colds vary. Some are a piece of cake, but some bring with them quite a bit of misery. The duration is unknown at the outset—is it going to lay you low just for a few days or will the cough and congested nose linger on…and on…and on?
Each person has a basic pattern, although there are variations on that theme. I tend to have long drawn-out colds, although zinc lozenges have helped modify that in recent years. But when I was younger a month of soreness and stuffiness and hacking away was not unusual for me. A friend of mine recently said that her colds last about two days. Two days! I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that short a duration.
Recently my son and his wife visited, and we were looking at a baby book of his that I’d kept when he was an infant and then a toddler, recording incidents funny and/or touching and/or frustrating. I came across something he’d said when he was about three years old: “It’s a little bit fun to be a little bit sick.” Hmmm. I think he might have been referring to the chicken soup, the hugs, and the unlimited TV.
If he’d just waited twenty years he could have had it all without the cold.
“Cold Comfort Farm” and the Stark Adder family, “I saw something nasty in the woodshed.”
But this has nothing to do with the post unless you need some humor when you are bundled up and confined to quarters.
My experience with the cold virus, when I did not get the extra options, flu, infections and other stuff, was like an old doctor friend told me years ago:
“You can take a bunch of medicine, antibiotics, pain pills and stuff and it will probably be gone in ten days or you can go home, take some aspirin, drink hot tea with honey, stay quiet and rest up and it will last about a week and a half.”
I think that has been my experience, the common cold virus has a life of its own and it has to run its course and then it is gone.
like you neo I tended to over treat my sick kiddos, swabbing them down with cool wash cloths, changing to cooler shirts, flipping to the cool underside of the pillow, finding them some kiddie TV show etc… Youngest one remarked,
“why can t you be like this all the time ?”
“I think he might have been referring to the chicken soup, the hugs, and the unlimited TV.” — Neo
There were, in my childhood family, certain desirable things that appeared when one was sick that were not available to the healthy.
I think I was in my thirties before I decided it was okay to drink Ginger Ale without being in bed with a disease.
Aesop – was it Vernors ginger ale from Detroit?
When I was a kid, the doctors always told the moms to give it to kids. It tasted good cold, room-temp warm and heated. When I moved south, I would pack my car with Vernors when coming back from Michigan. At least now, I can find it a few stores.
Vernors floats in the summer were the best, though Hires root beer floats were a close second.
Knock on wood… I haven’t had a cold in years. But for a few years immediately prior to that, I had the onset of a cold start to hit me every year… which quickly dissipated before digging in for the long haul.
Growing up that was not my pattern. Colds ran their course, short or long and I just weathered it as best I could. Later in life I loaded up on orange juice and vitamin C which usually lessened the symptoms but the infection lasted as long as always before.
What changed? A friend shared with me an old folk ‘cure’ and I tried it and it worked like gangbusters.
Fill a glass with water, super saturate it with as much table salt as you can stand (stirring until it won’t dissolve) and gargle with it throughout the day. I usually gargle – spit, gargle – spit and gargle – spit. It seems to immediately lessen that sore throat feeling.
I rinse and repeat as soon as I feel that sore feeling returning and do it just before bed.
Perhaps there are strains of colds with which this would not be effective but all I can say is it has worked for me. I suspect the cold virus can’t handle exposure to the heavy salt water.
AesopFan:
To this day, I can’t smell ginger ale without feeling ill. I don’t get sick too much in my adulthood but I got sick plenty as a child. And the Ginger Ale always came out. I liked it at the time. But now I just associate it with being sick and unpleasant memories.
I haven’t had a cold or a fever or symptoms for more than say 4 hours in one day, since 2 years ago after first utilizing essential oils in H20, shaken not stirred.
Some of those days were just pollen causing congestion instead of a virus.
People falling all over sick around me, with the coughs. Haven’t had a cough in 2+ years.
I got my first cold in 15 years, March 8. I thought I had one 2 years ago and 3 years before that but I downgraded those afflictions to “sniffles” after this actual cold. I saw a doctor so he confirmed it was “just a cold”, but it was brutal–headaches, sensitive throat, and on and on. I babied myself for the next 4 weeks, avoiding any public settings (including church) as I was scheduled to leave for Israel on April 11 and I was very worried about getting a secondary infection right before or while there. I survived the cold without any residual outbreaks, but this season the cold virus was rough on a lot of people.
It’s just a cold or pollen, “I feel happy…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdf5EXo6I68
Heh, being a little bit sick can be fun, as it gives one a reason to take a break from regular activities, as well as being doted on by a loving mom. Growing up, we got to stay in the hospital room next to my dad’s office at his medical center. Benefits included a doting nurse, an adjustable bed, and going out for donuts at the nearby coffee shop with dad. Yeah, fun!
– – – –
Re: “Cold Comfort Farm” and the Stark Adder family, “I saw something nasty in the woodshed.”
Loved the Hollywood director’s response: “Sure ya did! But did it see you, baby?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30aMdSwg-EE
The Deep State rules supreme.