Caught a cold

[Cauldwell]

I seem to have come down with a spring cold, and since it's beginning to seriously kick my ass I thought I'd share

I first noticed a bit of a sore throat back on saturday morning, but since I felt otherwise fine I put it down to the change of season.

Sunday morning I my throat was also sore, but again I felt okay apart from that. I had a wonderful lazy weekend at home eating cheese, drinking wine and watching some DVD's I'd bought. I got drowsy after drinking the wine, dozed off, and then woke up with a sore throat again but put it down to snoring.

Naturally that night I wasn't sleepy, so I ended up pulling an all nighter before my 7am start.

By 8 I already had that 'something furry and nasty has died in the back of my throat/ I'm getting sick' feeling, although it managed not to progress any further while I was at work.

By about 7pm I started to feel much worse with a dry perisitent cough leaving me slighly breathless due to my asthma. I felt slightly feverish even though my temp was normal and I was tucked up in bed by 10, coughing openly and inducing ticklish sneezes into a pink bandana. I knew I should call in sick, but didn't really want to ring people that late and figured that I could just open the store and then go home. I slept really fitfully with nonsense dreams and a headache, I'm pretty sure I was waking myself up coughing.

This morning I felt terrible, dragging myself out of bed and into my clothes while leaning against the wall coughing.

When I got to work the first thing my co-worker said to me was "you sound like you're getting a cold' - great! the only thing more embarrasing than being sick is being called out on being sick

I didn't go home though, because by the time we got everything done I figured going home an hour early wasn't worth it.

Unfortunately for me I'm not at all sneezy with this cold. In 9 hours at work I stifled once, almost completely silent except for the "Cheeew" as I breathed out, and had a really intense false start where I tried to hold it back, thought I'd failed and got my hands to my face before the tickle left me frustrated and rubbing my sinuses.

But oh! the ride home made up for it. With a tickly dry nose, I found that almost immediately the sun was in the right position to set off sneeze after glorious sneeze.

First my eyes watered slightly and I'd blink, my breath hitching as I backed off the gas and my eyes closed for what seemed ages before I let out a strong and vocal "Ahhhh Issshew!" pitching forward with my head nearly in my lap only to open my eyes and find myself hitching again. My record was 3 in a row, but by that stage the force was starting to give me a headache and I was a little worried about hitting someone.

I've probably managed to induce 20 sneezes since I finished work, but my main symptom is a terrible dry cough and a headache. I don't feel stuffed up but I'm producing really wet gurly blows and my nose is already getting chapped

The worst thing is I have to go to a meeting tomorrow, so it's not like I can stay home sick! I just hope we finish early.

"Ah Chieeew!"

[March Hare]

Huh, spring cold..? Oh, wait. Right.

Well well, darling, that was an excellent obs. Especially the bit about the ride home. There is something about the words "sneeze after glorious sneeze", that just... unh-huhn. Thanks for sharing so faithfully!

[smooshi]

Huh, spring cold..? Oh, wait. Right.

Exacly what I thought.

Bless you and hope you'll get better!

[lovelylovexoxo]

Bless you Hope you feel better soon hon

[Cauldwell]

Thanks for the nice comments guys, and you're welcome. It's nice to be able to share with people who appreciate it

Well I'm much worse today. As soon as the meeting finished I rang in for the rest of the day, so now I'm curled up in trackpants with a mug of tea and my faithful box of tissues. My cat thinks my short day is great!

This morning I felt like I was at that "I sound worse but I'm heaps better" stage, but unfortunately that was the sleep talking. By the time I got to HQ I was starting to feel quite congested and I grabbed a bottle of water to try and keep the coughs at bay for the meeting. I didn't trust myself to speak without either starting to cough or sound completely disgusting. Fortunately it was my boss doing all the talking; us others were there to watch and learn.

The other girl in the room, Renee* had a bit of a cold as well as was sniffling quite wetly. She asked if I was sick too and explined that her whole site had been sick for the last 2 weeks and now she'd got it. Renee was quite shy about blowing her nose, preferring to sniffle or resort to trying to blot/wipe her nose with a tissue. Normally I'd be the same but well....

I'd stuffed my bag with tissues at home, about 6 at first and then doubling up "just in case". Before we even got the phone-call I'd completely used up a tissue and I knew it was going to be a loong session. You see it was a video conference call, so I got to feel embarrassed about my condition in front of the 4 people in the room, plus feel totally self-conscious about the other 15-odd people watching. Well I guess at least they weren't exposed to my germs

Luckily the other sites had the majority of the airtime as I deperately tried to dodge blowing my nose by sniffling quietly, and breathing through my mouth to stop the tickle. 3 times I thought I was going to have to sneeze, but managed to hold it off. About 10 minutes in my nose began to run horribly so I had to quickly reach into my bag for a tissue as I ducked out of shot for a much-needed blow. After this I got over being camera-shy, since the congestion was just too bad to ignore and I was begining to feel spaced out enough not to care.

Toward the end Renee got less shy too so at least I got some nice views of her clutching a tissue in her hand and dabbing at her nose

About 3/4 in I'd used up about 6 tissues and desperately needed the bathroom so I ducked out after our turn on the mic. Sitting on the throne in private I really set to work trying to clear my nose, and actually managed to breathe through it for a little. Looking at my ashen face and pink-chapped nose it was a little harder to force on that game-face, but I did.

It's taken me about an hour to try and write this; I feel slightly feverish and spaced out and I've sneezed about 6 times each louder, more intense and throaty than the last. I'm hopeless at spelling sneezes, but if you know the scene in 'you've got mail' when she sneezes though the intercom? Yeah exactly like that. I'm blowing my nose every minute. I think the decongestant is kicking in.

Ugh! I feel terrible and I have a nasty feeling I'm going to end up with bronchitis if I'm not careful

[norcal tinkfan]

Sounds like an awful cold. Hope you feel better soon!

[Dusty15]

Oh Cauldwell, that sounds like a bad one <3 I hope you feel better soon but thanks for sharing such a lovely, detailed obs

[BananaTree]

oh get better soon

[Cauldwell]

Pretty much all better now except for a crackling voice and the occasional cough.

It really did end up being quite the spectacular sneeze-fest for that 1 day, which is really, really rare for me.

And since I live alone I really enjoyed just letting them loose to my heart's content and not feeling guilty

[sexyhankysneeze]

do you use bandanas much?

or are you more a tissue person?

[norcal tinkfan]

Glad you're feeling better!

[blum]

Thanks for sharing