This "cold". Week 3 and feeling it will never end. Still coughing up gunk.

[lborgia]

I've got so many drugs I'm rattling - antibiotics,puffers, eye drops, I've been coughing so much my throat is raw as if I've got a new bug. Have had temperature, green gunk, conjunctivitis, my breathing is still tight, and my eyes are still not fully cleared after a week of drops.

If this is what the queen has had, I'm not surprised she bloody opted out.

Btw, know 5 others who have it, just not the breathing probs.

Thanks for amy advice, light at end of tunnel etc.

[frostyfingers]

Badders you really are being challenged at the moment, hope dishwasher arrives and goes in easily.

[Badders123]

A humidifier at night helps if you have one.
I feel slightly better today but now have a banging headache so have retreated to bed.
My washing machine broke this morning and I've managed to order another one and am getting it delivered tomorrow.
I've also done some dishes and made dinner tonight which is the most I've done for days.
Poor ds is coughing a lot and feeling quite sorry for himself.

[Olympiathequeen]

Frosty.... dare I say I also feel a bit better today? The fever has finally subsided (11 days) and on day 16/17 (?) I actually feel hungry. Desperate for salty stuff! Still coughing of course but that's going to drag on for sure and not much is coming up.

I found out last night that sucking an anaesthetic lozenge taking care not to inhale and choke myself settled the desperate dry tickling in my throat long enough to drop off to sleep and once asleep managed a few hours til the co codomol wore off.

Also otrovine nasal spray cleared my nose so that I could breathe through it and keep my mouth closed which helped prevent it becoming even more dry and irritated.

Chest still cracking away when I breathe and easily breathless and exhausted, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel.

Spoke to window cleaner and he had it over Xmas so it's very widespread.

[frostyfingers]

Just checking in to see how you all are. I have to say (with amazement) that I do feel better, I still have the banging headache but it must be improving as ibuprofen is just about covering it rather than the co-codamol. I'm also managing to eat a little so don't feel quite as weak and feeble. I've actually been out of bed since 8.30 this morning and am still coping although I've been sitting down all day. Today it is four weeks since I was first unwell so I really really hope that the corner has been turned - fingers crossed. Best wishes to all of you still struggling, I'll be glad when it's spring that's for sure.

[CheeseFlavouredDiscs]

I feel your pain, my pelvic floor died with the 6 week cough too. I finally got over the damned cough and then got ill again with a sore throat type head cold a week later.

If anyone is having trouble coughing up the sticky phlegm/mucus then stop taking the phenylephrine that's in most cold/flu tablets as it will only make it thicker. Start taking guaifenesin which is an expectorant that will loosen and thin the mucus, making it easier to cough up. It does mean your ears and nasal passages will be full of gunk though, but you can deal with that once the phlegmy cough has gone.

[lborgia]

You are so right olympia (permission to ignore bold for names. .), I'm definitely on the mend but weak as a kitten!

And then the cough came back last night. My pelvic floor is in tatters

On a brighter note, the temp has finally dropped this evening to about 70 degrees.. it was 90 of during the night last night. .i think the high temps and pollution isn't helping my case.

I'm off to sleep, hope you all have a better day, and hope the steroids do their job Badders. ..

[Badders123]

Poor things :(
Well I'm choking on phlegm - it's gross
Ds1 is coughing like mad too
Hoping the steroids help him
Ugh
I'm back in bed and intend to stay here til at least 2 pm

[Olympiathequeen]

It's when your temp swings up when you think it should be settling that you realise how awful it really is orange

[OrangeSquashTallGlass]

Today now makes the third time I've had to abandon my class to vomit from a coughing fit! I'm so so over this cough.

[Olympiathequeen]

Iborgia. Glad you feel as though you've turned the corner, but I suspect in a few hours extreme exhaustion will hit. I woke up after 5 uninterrupted hours sleep and felt brilliant for 5 minutes, then I the coughing started up again. I do think my temp is coming back to normal at last and I think antibiotics won't do anything. I've no pain over my sinuses but still producing tons of snot, so this virus is a mucus thing. I read it can lead to pneumonia but apart from all the crackly breathing I can breathe deeply without pain.

At least the gps are saying it's very widespread so it's not my imagination that this is the worst cold I've had in my life.

So we're looking at 3 weeks minimum to start to turn the corner. I can believe that. .

Frosty. Don't worry about cocodomol hurting the gut, thats ibuprofen, but it does make you constipated sometimes. Not in mine as I actually have the opposite! Lovely.

My sis had this bug plus a vomiting bug at the same time as the kids and her DH so it could have been worse! She did lose half a stone though.

I've managed to get hold of some codeine phosphate as my last resort for the coughing tonight. Nice that it also makes you sleepy!

[Badders123]

It's lasting weeks I'm afraid
I'm still coughing up green gunk and now it's coming out of my nose too 🤧😩 and I'm on Day 34 😩
Antibiotics just don't seem to work - I've had two lots!!
Rest
Fluids
Painkillers
Soup
😷
Get well soon x

[blueskyinmarch]

Hello fellow coughers. I came down with my virus on Christmas Eve. No sneezing etc just straight to a groggy cough. It was going away but last week I had a resurgence. I can't sleep for the constant need to cough up horrible dark coloured grog. I still feel like crap but not really crap enough to go to the doctor. It is really wearing me down. I had signed up to start back at Pilates classes today but I am still in my pyjamas coughing away. I think I will need to give it a miss. I wish the cough would just fuck right off and leave me alone

[Badders123]

I'm doing the school run and then back to bed 😷
Felt quite sick last night but I'm not eating much either
I'm also on my period which is helping marvellously 😩

[frostyfingers]

Morning all, I managed 2 whole hours uninterrupted sleep which was bliss but my headache is still banging away. I know co-codamol is a killer for your gut but frankly it's the least of my worries right now. I'm not really eating at all (small handful of grapes and 4 cream crackers yesterday) so I've put in an order for prune juice. My son will do the shopping but needs a very precise list so I'm trying to get my head round that which is hard. The doctor yesterday reckoned that I'd had at least 2 consecutive illnesses - first a variation of the Christmas lurgy, followed by this tonsillitis with quite possibly something else in between. She assures me that I'll feel better by the end of the week but I'm not holding out much hope. Luckily I don't have the sinus problem - that is vile. Medication time beckons and then thankfully back to bed, half an hour out is about my maximum!

[Badders123]

Mine is def in my sinuses now 🤧
Ugh
Glad you are feeling better!!
Hoping I get a better night tonight

[Judydreamsofhorses]

I have found my people. I started on 9 December - I remember because we put the Christmas tree up - and have never shaken it. I had a week of feeling truly like I was dying, and was actually off work, went back for the last week of term, and then up and down all over Christmas. I saw the GP last week and was told it was now sinusitis, so got a course of amoxicillin, which is now finished and made no difference at all. SO rubbish.

[lborgia]

I see the light! I finally slept through last night, and really have starting feeling better in the last 24 hours. ..

frosty - you have a son who can drive, why do you need to go food shopping? ?

Ideas- fresh soup (if you can afford it), squash, lemons, fresh ginger and honey. Couple of slices of fresh ginger in your lemon and honey really makes a difference.
Your favourite things, whether it's pork pie or maltesers..at this stage you need calorific stuff. Christmas chocolate got me through my weakest moments.

BTW , all those taking Co codamol - make sure you have a laxative or at least some dried apricots/prunes. ..even one dose can slow your gut down. Taking it several times a day you'll not be able to go for days. .
And they are incredibly strong - if you don't have asthma try alternating with nurofen. . Then you can takesomethingevery 4 hours. ...

And water. ..Lots and lots, mostly hot, tea, anything. .i found hot marmite brilliant for my throat.

Olympia,suddenly getting new symptoms seems to be part of it, but if you've had a temp that long and it is"new" in the grand scheme if things, you may well have a secondary infection - not necessarily your chest but sinuses?

I need to do some laundry and I have both kids home as it's the summer holidays here. ..must try not to go full guns otherwise I'll be back in bed .

Good luck all

[Badders123]

I am back in bed
Taken ds2 to his hospital appt and made a start in dinner (not that I'm having any!)
Ds1 has perked up slightly since his dose
Of steroids
Queen-I cough til I retch too - it sucks
The Dr we saw today said that EVERYONE she has seen today has had it - or still has it
It's a virulent bug for sure
It's in my sinuses now
Which is great fun 😖

[Olympiathequeen]

Badders. Just stay off sick, you are fit for nothing with this

The house is a tip and I've moved into the spare bedroom for the duration. It's wrecked. Acres of snot coming from god knows where. Used 2 boxes of tissues and starting on the loo roll.

DH supposed to take up the slack but so long as he gets me the drugs and cups of tea I don't give a toss.

Day 11 of unremitting fever. 38.7 this am. How can that be? It didn't even start with a fever!

Familiar with the cough, cough, cough, vomit 🤢 I know my chest is not infected as no pain and can breath deeply.

No appetite, no taste, yet stomach feels as though it's eating itself. So hungry but feel sick.

I did find something that helped with the dry part of the cough. Small amount of hot water, honey, turmeric and ground ginger. Did seem to stop the pointless coughing. May be a fluke tho

I too am worried about overdose as I can barely hold out 5 hours between doses of co codomol let alone 6.

[Badders123]

Ds2 has a hospital appt today that I can't cancel...grr
I have no appetite either

[WelliesAndPyjamas]

Oh, poor you :-(
All five of us had this in the weeks running up to Christmas. It was grim. And we had the puking bug right in the middle of it too.
It finally ended though. There is hope on the horizon!

[frostyfingers]

Try and rest when you can, or at least do the minimum. Luckily I only have one DS at home now and he drives himself to school. House looks like a tip and there's very little food but hopefully I'll be up to a shop soon. I have no appetite so it's hard to think what to buy. Hopefully next week we'll all feel better. I'm just up to take my next dose of pills and then bed again - Radio 4 is a lifesaver, even though I can't concentrate it's useful having the chat in the background.

[Badders123]

Poor you - co codamol is great 👍 and tonsillitis is hideous
Poor ds is on a weeks worth of antibiotics and 5 days of high dose steroids 😞
Dr signed me off for a week which I hope will help - although now of course I will be looking after ds!
Dh away next week - I'm dreading it!

[frostyfingers]

Just back from the doctors - I cried, pathetically but she was very sympathetic. No further ailments have emerged it's just a particularly shitty bout of tonsillitis and I still have a temperature. She's advised taking more co-codamol, she said max dose for a week to 10 days will be fine and if it's the only thing that helps then for gods sake take it. Back to bed now. Good luck to everyone, whichever version you have!

[Badders123]

Rest
Fluids
Painkillers
Unless you have an underlying health condition (like asthma or diabetes) antibiotics won't help - I've had two lots!!
I'm only taking ds because he is asthmatic and has had pneumonia in the past
And I need a sick note - I'm on my knees here - 32 days and counting....
Love to all with this awful bug