“You sound like you came down with a cold” (long)

[nothin2sneeze@]

So I’ve almost recovered from the first proper sneezy, blowy cold I’ve had since 2019 or so. Can’t say I’ve been too upset about it, especially considering the all the concern I’ve gotten because of it, teehee… I had one of those colds that sound worse than they feel (the best kind amiright??) and grab the attention of everyone around you, hence the title. 

It started after a trip to New York City to visit family over Thanksgiving. With this being the first long trip taken during peak traveling winter season, without masking indoors, and constantly being out and about and staying out pretty late each night, I suppose I had it coming lol.

Anyway, what started as a sore and swollen throat on Thursday and Friday progressed into the sore, swollen and gross feeling in my nose (for reference, my nose is smallish and a classic button shape) on Saturday with powerful, and I mean POWERFUL as in EXPLOSIVE, body bending, head snapping sneezes that hurt my throat and chest coming out and sounded deep, barking and raspy. These were usually isolated singles maybe every 30 minutes or so? There wasn’t much snot that day, mainly sneezing and a little coughing. Strangely, I only felt a little tired.

Sunday was more sinus and ear congestion, swollen and sore nose that was really runny and required a lot of blowing. My nose and lips had gotten a little chapped too from blowing and breathing out of my mouth so I put Carmex on em. Grew more congested throughout the day and still had those rough painful sneezes (sounded like “hhhhhuh-EHSCTCHEEWW”) with these slow build-ups that left me staring off blearily into space for ten seconds with my mouth open and chest hitching before the blissful release. I had also developed this raspy barking cough that was a little wet at times and started to become more persistent, and was coughing some intense fits occasionally by the end of the day. If I remember right I think I ran a temp in the low 99s but STILL did not feel too bad and was able to make myself soup, tea, etc and bundle up in blankets and a heating pad and my kitty and simply enjoy my symptoms. 
 

Monday and Tuesday were more of the same, less mucus but it was thicker, and bad fits of coughing that were a little painful and sometimes ended in me gagging and wiped out. Had me worried for a minute that I’d actually contracted whooping cough or something 😅 but thankfully I’m fine now. Anyway. I was sneezing less but I was more tired and coughing a ton, so I took those two days off of work. Wednesday I worked from home and had a virtual therapy appt at noon. I was still audibly sick-sounding and was feeling feverish and looking pretty out of it so it didn’t take long for her to notice and say something along the lines of “You sound like (or “sounds like”?) you came down with a cold”, and I told her I’d been sick for week. She mentioned RSV was going around which thinking back, I think I did have, with all the coughing and whatnot. Anywho, I was feeling yucky enough to where I couldn’t fully enjoy her concern (it’s also simultaneously awkward for me to be sick around people too, idk) in the moment but definitely melted like a popsicle once I thought about it later, lol. 
 

Back at work on Thursday and Friday I had a lot of coworkers asking how I was feeling, offering to help, etc especially after they heard what my cough sounded like. ‘Twas very sweet of them. I’m a social worker, and things get stressful af at my job so it’s nice to have a reminder that colleagues have my back. 
 

Anyway, now it’s Sunday and I’m just a teeny bit congested and coughing a lot less. Overall, this cold hasn’t been too bad. Saying sayonara to the germs until they come back around again (hopefully not too soon but hopefully NOT after three damn years either. seriously, Cold Universe, sheesh). Okay, bye for now!

[Trynasneeze]

Bless you, nothin2sneeze@! Sounds like what I'm battling right now.. hope you're feeling better

[Melody]

omg thats really sweet of your therapist. Glad you enjoyed your cold!