Possible cold relapse (Old obs)

[Italiangirl]

So, back in December 2022 I caught a really bad cold.

It started right after Christmas and came with awful congestion and a really bad dry cough which lingered until the start of January. 

I thought I'd finally got over this cold when I moved abroad at the start of January, but about a week later I think it relapsed.

It was really weird because I wasn't feeling sick or feverish, but I started getting this really dry/phlegmy throat which made me let out a few  productive coughs here and there to try to clear my throat.

I didn't get a sore throat, it was just really dry and sometimes it felt phlegmy, but after a few coughs I felt better.

Then, a few days later, this phlegmy feeling went away but the dryness and the discomfort in my throat stayed and a really stuffy nose and a persistent dry cough joined the fun!

I was very congested, I had to blow my nose lots and I was like: "Oh my God, my cold is back to kill me!"

No sneezes if I can remember correctly, maybe there were a few but I definitely wasn't sneezy or anything.

It was really cold outside (especially in the evening) and that gave me a horrible runny nose: I didn't have any tissues so I was left sniffling as discreetly as possible. Every time I got back home in the evening I had to give my nose a really long, wet and productive blow into some toilet paper.

Eventually, I "gave up" and went to buy some tissues as the tp was fairly rough on my poor nose.

At this point, my stuffy nose made my voice sound very congested, even though at times I didn't even feel that stuffed up.

This was really uncomfortable as I hate having a stuffy voice in public, but I really wanted to talk to my flatmates anyway.

So, that evening I used some nasal spray to relieve the congestion (hoping it would make me sound less stuffy) and then I went to the kitchen.

Unfortunately, I still sounded very congested and it was really embarrassing!

I'm sure my flatmates noticed but they didn't say anything, even though one of them actually struggled to understand what I was saying at one point.

I could see they were slightly cringing (not in a rude way) at the way my voice sounded when I spoke, maybe they were wondering if I was sick.

At some point they offered to make me a cup of tea and I gladly accepted as I hoped it would soothe my dry throat.

As I said, I also had a bad cough at the time so I often had coughing fits.

Every time I had to cough I turned away from my flatmates, I coughed into my elbow and I apologised.

My throat was very tickly and there was no chance I could hold that cough back.

Also, I often felt like I needed to blow my nose but was too embarrassed to do it in front of them so I tried to sniffle as little as possible, but sometimes the snot threatened to run onto my lips, so I sniffled as discreetly as I could.

Oh and btw, my flatmates didn't catch my cold even though we were pretty close to each other.

Anyway, this possible relapse only lasted about 4/5 days and then it went away.