One final piece of advice for fellow sufferers of the Creeping Crud of January 2007:

[xiphias]

So, like many of y'all, I'm down with a Creeping Crud with the following characteristics:
1. A bad cough. This is its primary and most significant feature.
2. An intermittent fever, never getting to dangerous levels, although occasionally getting to the "Wooo, wobbly" levels, and the "lying awake at night coming up with really GREAT ideas for a TOON game, that I can't remember ANY of any more" level. And also getting down to normal, just to mess with you. Oh, and I also woke up having sweating enough that it was dripping out of my hair.
3. Body aches and pains, probably from the fever.

And that's it, mostly.

The problem is that the cough is nasty. Cough suppressants barely touch it. Expectorants don't do a thing. And while there is no nausea with this Crud, you occasionally cough so hard that you start retching. A sore throat presents, simply because of the stress of coughing so much. You can't sleep because of the coughing.

So, I've been trying to find ways to deal with the coughing, especially if it can get me to be able to sleep.

I've sort of found something, somewhat.

If I lie face down, with my head and arms hanging over the edge of the bed, it seems to suppress the coughing. It's hard to sleep in this position, but not as hard as it is to sleep while coughing.

I've got my massage table set up next to my computer, and when I start to have a bad coughing fit, I go over and lie down on it, with my head and arms hanging off the top edge.

Um.

It's not a GREAT solution, but it's the only thing I've found that does anything at all. So I pass it along to anyone else suffering from this crud. If you're anything like me, at this point, if I'd suggested gargling with a live chicken, you'd be willing to try it. . .

Comments

[kyra-ojosverdes.livejournal.com]

If you can handle codeine and a doc will prescribe it for you, it is a pretty effective cough suppressant. I've had it prescribed for me at times of "cough until I retch, then keep coughing anyway."

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I haven't really been feeling up to calling my doctor to get a script. Maybe I'll ask Lis to see if she can do that for me tomorrow. If I haven't kicked this by then. Which, of course, I will have done, since I'm totally going to be healthy in just a couple more hours. Really I am.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought, too. Be prepared for at least a week more of this, man. I'm sorry to be the bearer of the bad news. :(

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I swear by codeine, but my doctor will never give it to me unless I'm basically better, and the cough is reactive or just from post-nasal-drip irritation.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

shanex has got it, too. It must be thriving in your current near-tropical environment.

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

A former coworker of mine swore by Mucinex. I've never tried it myself. I was given something once... damn, I wish I could remember what it was called. It's in these little pearl-type things, and you bite them open, and it's like lidocaine for the back of your throat. Good stuff.

The body aches make me think flu. Did you get a flu shot this year?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Ayup. It feels like a flu, but, evidently, not the one that they prepped for.

Oh well. Ya pays ya money, ya takes ya chances.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

According to the paramedics who came the day I started coughing red, there are two strains of flu this year. They only vaccinated for the less-bad one.

[sarianna.livejournal.com]

I've got the same thing, according to the lovely folks at Rapid Care, but am praising $deity that I didn't get the coughing portion (version?) of it. Not yet, anyway.

Blah. I want the cold to show up and kill off all the cruds in the air.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Be prepared for the fifth-day surprise. The coughing is going to irritate your throat so much that you will cough up red. That's from breaking capillaries in your throat. It will be scary but if you expect it, it may be a little easier to cope with.

I'm sorry to hear that you've caught the Martian Death Flu. What worked for me was lots of orange juice, cranberry juice, and chicken soup. Danny also made a fair bit of chicken ramen, which goes down easily. And go to the doctor and get Robitussin with codeine. It will help you sleep and soothe the cough somewhat.

[ron_newman]

Have you had a throat culture? When I got sick like this right after Thanksgiving, I asked for one almost as an afterthought. Six days later, I got a phone call telling me I had Strep B and I should immediately start a 10-day regimen of doxycycline.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Oh bother. You have a different Creeping Crud than the one that worked its way through our house. The symptoms for ours were nausea, exhaustion, congestion, random body aches, and more nausea and exhaustion. So now I'll brace myself for this one to show up.

[fibro-witch.livejournal.com]

Wow that does sound bad. I hope you get over it quickly I want to see you at Arisia

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Number 2 for me was more like "Read all the Sandman books before bed (yes, I started pretty early) and then instead of sleeping enter a state of freaky delerium including vivid dreams about, yes, Delerium and Dream and so on." Not really recommended.

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

When I've had really bad coughs, I've found Halls cough drops (or store-brand clones thereof) to be remarkably effective at suppressing the cough for a short while. Often, with really bad coughs like yours, this short while is only the time the cough drop is actually in your mouth, but it's still better than nothing.

Hope you feel better soon!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- having coughed a couple off the cough drops onto the computer monitor, I'm being less enamoured of them.

[shanex.livejournal.com]

I'm in Boston. I'm home sick with this right now.

-ATW

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Much of the crud seems to have moved up into my sinuses. I strongly suspect that if I lie with my head over the edge of the bed, my face will explode.

It is, perhaps, a measure of how sleep-deprived I am that I'm going to try it anyways.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I also found out that lying on my back with my knees bent helps a little. Like, bent a LOT. Like, with my legs going up and down.

I wedged myself into a corner in my front hall covered in blankets to keep my legs in that position while I slept, and it helped a little.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

That sounds a lot more doable--thanks for the update.

I just talked to one of the teachers here who's got the same thing, and she says, even though the weather's not cold it's probably still uncomfortably dry. If the heat were on in my apartment, I'd put a pan of water on top of the radiator...as it is, I'll probably try the little plug-into-electric-outlet vaporizer thing again even though it didn't help last time.