Big and pretty contagious cold - self obs

[Millie_Mack]

Part 1: how I got it and how it started

Almost a month ago I got sick with a pretty bad head and chest cold. I got pretty busy and didn’t share my experience. So here it is.

I spent the summer at my parents house. On Sunday afternoon my dad mention that he was having a headache and chills after he felt a stuffy nose all day. On Monday he woke up with a fully developed cold. Runny and stuffy nose, frequent sneezes, scratchy throat and wet cough. On Tuesday my mom woke up sick as well. 

I thought about trying to catch it on propose so I could take a few days off work and have a little fun because I hadn't had a cold since 3 years ago. But then I realized that it was kinda stupid. Also, it seemed pretty bad to be a fun cold.

Anyway, on Wednesday afternoon I started feeling my throat a bit sore. It wasn't bad, just like when you raise your voice a lot. That was the first sign that I was getting down with the cold. On Thursday I had the same sore throat and a slight runny nose. I needed to wipe my nose because it was not stuffy to blow. It was on Friday when I woke up obviously sick with a fully developed cold.

When I woke up my throat was very sore, it was painful to swallow. My nose was wry stuffy, I blow my nose the whole time while taking a shower. A few minutes later it was very stuffy again. It was an important day I work so I had to go. I didn't felt bad but I had annoying symptoms, runny nose, sore throat, scratchy throat. I had to blow my nose like every half hour. By lunch I started with a light wet cough. I tried to be careful, I wore a mask the whole time, washed my hands frecuently and used hand sanitizer everytime I blown my nose or even touch my face. 

When I got home from work I was exhausted. I had a headache and I was kinda dissy and having chills. I was having a low fever so I tried to go to sleep.

While lying down my nose got completely blocked, and I had to breathe through my moth, wich trigger coughing fits. I was so sick and tired that I felt asleep quick.

 

 

[Hankyrick]

Nice self observation. Was you using tissues to blow your nose?

[honkmaster]

Great obs. I hope you feel better.

[Millie_Mack]

Part 2: the worst of it

I thought that Friday, the third day was going to be the worst one. Because usually when I’m sick the third day is always when the cold is fully developed and is the day when the symptoms are the worst. But this sickness was unusual. On Saturday I woke up with my nose completely blocked. I couldn’t get any air through it. During the night, I put on a diy hankie over my pillow so the snot could just flow from my nose and land there. (A diy hankie is a part of an old piece of clothing or an old rag that I use to blow my nose and catch sneezes when I’m sick. I don’t use them when I’m not sick cause I just don’t need them. I don’t have allergies and I’m not a sneezy person. I mentioned that the diy hankies are old rags but they are incredibly soft. I usually make them with old pijamas, so is a nice soft and gentle fabric). I had my mouth open the whole night so I could breath, in the morning my throat was sore and also very dry. I had a big coughing fit after waking up. It was a wet hacking cough. I spend the day in bed, coughing, sneezing and blowing my nose. As I mentioned, I’m not a sneezy person, when I’m not sick I sneeze like once a week or less. But that day, I sneezed like 60 times. I way laying down with a bunch of pillows so I was almost sitting so I could breath easier and keep my nose from blocking completely. For about three hours I was sneezing so frequently that I keep a diy hankie in my hand in front of my face to catch the sneezes and blow all the snot. I sneezed in doubles and triplets. I also had so much false starts and a constant teasing tickle in my nose that was not going away. I rubbed my red chapped nose trying to help the tickle but I just spread the snot instead of helping, more than once it just trigger a sneeze. My blows were very wet and gurgling. 

I tried to take a nap but I couldn’t  my nose was bothering me a lot. So I induced a series of sneezes with a tissue to soften the snot. After a huge blow the tickle calmed down a little and I was able to breathe a little bit through my nose.

I knew that it was going to be a rough night so I tried to prepare for it. I made a cup of warm ginger tea with lime juice and honey. I rubbed vicks on my feet and put on fuzzy socks (I don't know if it helps with something but I needed to try). I also rubbed a generous amount on my back, chest and neck. I sprayed in my bed, pillows and pijamas a eucalyptus, spearmint and peppermint spray that suppose to help to reduce congestion, but I was so plugged up that I was not able to smell anything. I warm up a towel and put it on my face for a while to help the congestion. And finally, I lay a fresh diy Hankie over my pillow to catch the rivers of snott flowing from my nose while sucking on a honey cough drop. 
 

Sunday was a little bit better but mostly the same as Saturday. Sunday morning was my last time with a fever after the one on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. I stayed home from work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because I was still very sick. The congestion was better after Monday, I was still producing industrial amount of snot but instead of a completely blocked nose I just had a runny nose that I could be clearing out with huge gurgling blows. But the cough stay until Thursday, After the coughing fits the phlegm was getting caught in my throat leaving me with a scratchy phlegmly voice that wasn’t going away not matter how much I cleared my throat. I nursed this big rotten cold with medicine and remedies because it was very bad and I was feeling awful. When we got the medicine we also got four big tissue boxes, but we ran out of tissues before kicking out the sickness anyway. 
 

We tested negative for the virus that should not be named, but I’m not sure that it was a regular common cold. It was so bad that I think maybe was a wicked summer flu. If I knew that was that huge sickness instead of a regular head cold  I wouldn’t have think about catching on propose. How I said, I didn’t tried to catch it on propuse just thought about it, but it came to me anyways.
 

I mentioned in the tittle that it was contagious because my dad was the one who came down with it, and both my mom and I caught it from he. Then one on my dad’s coworkers caught it and my dad directly or this other guy passed it on to three more people in the office. On Tuesday a coworker and friend of mine texted me that she has getting sick with a huge cold like mine, that she thinks she caught it from me on Friday. She took the rest of the week off and had the same wet and hacking cough that I had so I’m pretty sure that although the precautions, I managed to spread the same evil virus to her. When I got back to work on Thursday I found out that two other people were out sick with a bad cold. On Friday my boss left early because he was getting sick and starting to have a cough, then I found out that his wife got it too. So as far as I know 12 ended out sick with this thing, who knows how many more caught this big and pretty contagious cold. 

[Likesn]

Thank you for sharing this with us and giving us so many juicy details. I must admit, I've never heard of rubbing Vicks on one's feet as a way to treat a cold. Maybe it was meant to help you clean your body by sweating? That would also explain the socks part. I've heard of people wrapping themselves in blankets and warm clothes not only as a way to keep warm but as a way to "sweat out" the cold. Some of them even told me it worked. Anyway, I'm glad you're feeling better now.