So on Monday night, towards the end of the Neko Case show, I started to notice that my throat was getting scratchy, but figured it was just because I’d been using the tube more than normal lately, so I did not consider the possibility of increased sickness, having assumed that I had gotten over the virus I had that was making me nauseated and generally digestivally unhappy the week before.
I was wrong. Well wrong.
I woke up on Tuesday with an extremely scratchy throat and the start of a stuffy nose. With every hour I was at work it got worse and worse. My sinuses filled up, my nose blocked completely, my body started to ache, my throat started to hurt, headache, coughing, all of it. By mid-day the phlegm arrived. By 2 pm I asked to go home. On the bus ride I was feeling dizzy and horrible.
On Wednesday I went to the GP and was told that this was the virus going round, and as a special bonus I appeared to have a bacterial infection as well. Yay. So I went to the pharmacy and bot some amoxicillin and then went to the grocery store and got some soup and have pretty much been in bed since then.
It could be argued that I probably could have suffered through work on Friday even though I still felt like complete ass, but I am scared of letting these germs meet other germs, the potential for mutation is strong here. And this shit is bad enough without letting it mate and breed on the #343 bus. And, seriously, I still felt like ass.
Today I am a little better, and even ventured out for coffee but the walk there and back left me shaky and sweaty and weak so I am back in my pyjamas for the rest of the day (maybe the whole weekend) which means missing out on art galleries, and jive dancing and a comedy show in Clapham. And that is not very fair. But I did get some writing done in the few moments that my brain was working and I have managed to get some knitting finished, so it’s not a totally wasted week.
Next week it’s back to the office and back to my vitamin C and Zinc supplements. Anybody know of any other good supplements to help boost the immune system? Mine seems to have gotten especially weak in the last few years and I’m willing to take most recommendations (so long as they don’t taste bad). And I am really, really tired of being sick. I’d rather be healthy and in the office than feeling like this, and that’s saying a lot.
4 Comments
1 March, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Do you take echinacea periodically? I like this throat spray because it makes me feel like I am banishing the germs as soon as I get that itchy feeling; it’s pricey though but can be used in conjunction with normal [cheaper] drops:
http://www.avogel.co.uk/shop/products/remedies/echinaceathroatspray.php
And what kind of vitamin C? It might be more effective to change to try something like this: http://www.avogel.co.uk/shop/products/remedies/naturectablets.php
Also astoundingly obvious, but we use tons of tea tree oil in baths, room sprays, inhalants and lotions, as an immune stimulant as well as an antiviral/bacterial.
The most consistently effective – if socially unpopular – method for me, is eating garlic and some raw onion every day. When I don’t have it I really notice the difference in my lungs and their ability to withstand infection.
Sorry I don’t have anything more original or helpful. I still struggle with doing the most important things like not stressing my immune system with a shit load of sugar! Hope you feel better soon.
1 March, 2009 at 10:06 pm
sweet, thanks for these tracy! I totally spaced on tea tree oil/ my c tablets are just the boots brand that dissolve in water, i will check out the a vogel stuff though and see if it works better for me.
one of my temps swears by garlic horseradish pills, but she gets them sent to her from Australia so they might be a bit tricky to get hold of
2 March, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Might I recommend mixing all those supplements and antibiotics with alcohol? Nothing like a something-tini to take the edge off.
3 March, 2009 at 11:49 am
I always forget about that most important group of vitamins, the tini vitamins