Upper Respiratory Infections (viral)

[DianaCox]

OK, you'd think I'd know the answer to this question, being such a know-it-all otherwise, but I don't.

I am getting a URI. Charles has had it for going on 10 days now, and late last night I felt myself starting to succumb to it. It is not a cold. It is not the flu (I had my flu shot - quadravalent vaccine, which was supposed to be effective this year). It is something else, and I assume viral.

I know how viral works, more or less - the main thing you do is endure them until you get well, while taking care of yourself well enough to (1) not infect others; and (2) not get a more serious bacterial infection on top of it.

But WHAT ELSE can I do to get better faster, and as least-miserably as possible?

My symptoms:

• Last night, I started feeling a roughness in my trachea - like I'd spent the night smoking and drinking and maybe screaming a little.
  
• This morning, I started feeling a little pressure in my ears, and I feel a little lightheaded and warm.
• This afternoon, I'm starting to get a sore throat, and a slight occasional cough.

Yes fluids - miso soup is great. I even just stuck some Zicam up my nose (though I don't think this is a rhinovirus). But what else? What do people take?

• What should I take every few hours to keep the symptoms down, especially if I start coughing? (I can and will go get some codeine cough syrup if necessary, but until and unless I need it, what works best?)
• Sore throat - what do you use? What works best?
• Decongestant - what OTC stuff is the most effective?

Charles is an annoying stoic, and hates taking medicine - but for this one, even he was willing to go through our medicine cabinet for whatever we had on hand - he ended up using Alka-Setzer daytime capsules and (because that's what we had on hand), with a Benadryl back in the evening at my recommendation. Still, he has not managed it well, and refused to go out for more medicines (like Robitussin, which I think he needed), and I'm going to send him to Walgreens if I start feeling worse - but for WHAT?

I don't get fevers much, so I don't want to take an NSAID unnecessarily, and I especially don't want to take acetaminophen. But I am sure I'm going to need something for cough and sore throat, and probably a decongestant for my ears.

At night, I'm happy to add Benadryl too - it is a very effective sleeping pill for me.

In the past, a bad URI has led to reactive asthma - I'm ready for that - I know where my inhaler is, and I will not resist using it (Charles has one too, from his last URI - he gets them a lot, and I rarely catch them at the same time - but he refused to use it, despite having paroxysmal bouts of coughing, because he wasn't wheezing - in his opinion - on the inhale).

So - what do you all recommend works best?

 

[southernlady]

Zinc lozenges for the throat, Vick's vapor rub for congestion.

I know there are other things but sometimes old fashioned really is best.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

The kind folks at Cleveland Clinic anticipated your problems:

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/Documents/Head_Neck/Viral_URI_patient_info_2007_trifold.pdf

 

[DianaCox]

Meh, the Cleveland folks are still recommending Tylenol? (Oh, it's from 2007)

And nothing about sore throat, or zinc for making the suffering shorter.

I've made Charles a shopping list - and told him to supplement with stuff he's willing to take - his cough continues. Could it be his lung lining waking up and trying to clear out the crap after he (allegedly) quit smoking on Wednesday?

 

[brooklyngirl]

I was super prone to URI/bronchitis and sinus infections for many years. Vicks vaporub on the chest and on the bottom of the feet with socks on for the cough. Sugar free halls drops for the cough and for the throat soreness. Robitussin or Vicks 44 for the cough, and I always needed an inhaler to really clear it up, so I'd always start my advair as soon as I felt the rattling/wheeze in my chest.

 

[ProteinSnob]

2nd Vicks vaporub on the bottom of the feet with socks. Sounds bizarre, but it works! I use it on my kids with asthma.

If I can, I take Nyquil and sleep (the "good" Nyquil that works is behind the pharmacy counter in my state).

If you go to a 24 hour pharmacy (and it's not the 1st of the month when all of the pain meds refills and government programs reset), the night pharmacist usually knows what is going around and can recommend something. She/he gets all of ER patients and other miserable folks at 3am.

 

[DianaCox]

Sending him to the pharmacy today ... the coughing is starting in earnest.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I'm sorry.

 

[Sandy]

Hands down Zicam, which is a zinc product. Taken at the very beginning of symptoms and taken according to package directions, which is every 3 or 4 hours depending on which preparation you use, will significantly decrease symptoms and duration. You already have suggestions for symptomatic relief. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[Elizabeth N.]

Get eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils. Boil up a pot of water. Take the pot off the stove, throw in several drops each of the oils, toss a towel over your head and make a mini steam tent for inhalation therapy. It will sting. You will cough and snot and slobber. Keep steaming as long as you can stand it. Then have a good, but careful (not too forceful) honk and blow. Do this three times a day for a good week, even after you start feeling better.

Keep your neck covered 24/7 with a scarf, a lightweight one if the weather is warm, but still keep it covered.

These are old housewife remedies still prescribed by docs daily in Germany .

 

[k9ophile]

Get eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils. Boil up a pot of water. Take the pot off the stove, throw in several drops each of the oils, toss a towel over your head and make a mini steam tent for inhalation therapy. It will sting. You will cough and snot and slobber. Keep steaming as long as you can stand it. Then have a good, but careful (not too forceful) honk and blow. Do this three times a day for a good week, even after you start feeling better.

Keep your neck covered 24/7 with a scarf, a lightweight one if the weather is warm, but still keep it covered.

These are old housewife remedies still prescribed by docs daily in Germany .

OMG! This is as good as your Hunk of Critter recipe. You should write a book of common sense cooking and cures.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

@DianaCox

You hangin' in there? What did your DH purchase for you?

 

[DianaCox]

I'm actually holding steady so far. I feel ill, but not terrible - yet.

• Cold-Eeze lozenges
• Robitussin-DM (dextromethorphan and guifenisen - for cough and chest congestion)
• Robitussin-CT (as above, plus phenylephrine)
• Chloraseptic lozenges
• Sudafed
• Vicks VapoRub
• Alka-Seltzer Plus Severe Sinus Congestion & Cough Day & Night Liquid Gels (for Charles)

We're prepared for the viral apocalypse.

 

[JackieOnLine]

hope you continue to not feel horrible. sometimes, that's the best we can do.

 

[DianaCox]

I'm probably jinxing the hell out of myself by writing this out, but with treating the symptoms and resting (and zinc'ing? Zicam and ColdEaze), I seem to be holding at a slightly cruddy level. I don't feel weak, my chest - while congested a little and I have an occasional productive cough - doesn't feel that burning tight feeling that was starting three days ago. My throat is just slightly sore, but I expected worse by now.

I went out and got my new crowns this morning (and warned the DDS who wears a mask anyway), and when I got home, I wanted to keep moving and go to Costco - but it is raining (YAY!) and Charles said I should continue to lay low for another day or so. I think maybe CHARLES still isn't feeling well enough coming into the third week of his being sick.

But I think he's been cig-free for a week (do you count puffing on e-cigs? if so, he's not cig-free ...). I hope he's getting used to it - I don't know, because I agreed to not mention it.