Seemingly longest lasting, snotty cold (Self Obs, M)

[Yep]

It all started on this past Friday (5/20/2022). The wind was blowing pretty hard here, so, I thought that my runny nose was just from allergies. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. As of today, it’s a full on cold!

I had to get a COVID test this past Friday because one of my co-workers tested positive. When I walked into the clinic, I filled out the paperwork and waited to be seen. The nurse then called me over and got stuff set up to swab my nose. Before starting, I asked her if I should blow my nose first. She said, no, but, you might have to afterwards. She was right. After swabbing my nose, she grabbed a couple of white Kleenex tissues from the green box, handed them to me and said, “here, now you can blow your nose”. I took the tissues, folded them over and blew my nose soft at first (it was a little bit wet), then let out a surprising honk (I try not to honk in public, if I can help it). I apologized for honking and she just said, “it’s ok, usually everyone has to blow their nose after that”.

After that, I just left to run my next errand which was at Great Clips to get a haircut.  Well, just like a previous self-obs, I had to blow my nose there too.  As I was sitting in the chair, getting some shampoo in my hair, I started to sniffle wetly.  I asked my stylist if she had a tissue.  She said, "Of course" and grabbed a cube box of Kleenex and told me to take as many as I needed.  I grabbed two tissues, folded them over, put them to my nose and gave a wet, juicy blow (that honked a little bit).  As a force of habit, I opened up the tissues to look after I was done blowing.  Well, it's a good thing that I only opened up the tissues about halfway (there was a ton of sticky, clear snot), because I realized that my stylist was looking at me, waiting for me to finish.  I apologized for that being gross.  She just said, "it's not big deal, I have to do that too at least a couple times a day!"

Since then, I have been blowing my nose at least once per hour, in public and in my house.  I have been blowing my nose in pretty much anything I can get to quick enough (Puffs Plus tissues, Puffs Ultra Soft tissues, toilet paper, paper towel, napkin, black bandana, blue bandana, in my hands (in the shower)).  The snot has ranged from yellow and sticky to clear and sticky.  There has been very few super watery snotty blows.  The blows are more on the gurgly side, and there's definitely LOTS of honking involved, due to the congestion!  No matter how hard I try to just blow soft, it has always ended up with loud honking and TONS of SNOT!