This was so dumb. Here I was with a long weekend and I was laid up for three days on the sofa with a cough, fatigue, and a low-grade fever. I didn’t have real grand plans, but it would have been nice to have some productive time at home. It was too cold to go anywhere. All I was good for was as a heating pad for cats.
The enforced idleness wasn’t so bad. I rarely get sick, and when I do it is a sign to slow down and rest. One of my favorite ending lines to a Lawrence Durrell novel is “I felt as if the universe had given me a nudge”. This viral thing I had was a nudge, and I paid attention.
How do you take care of yourself when you are sick? Does the universe nudge you or wallop you?
Trail Baboon 
I try to get a nap as soon as I feel something coming on. I think that sometimes helps lessen the severity, but I could be making that up. Cancel or postpone everything remotely possible on the calendar.
Then if it’s a regular virus I gargle with salt water, make some garlic-lemon-honey tea, and curl up in my favorite chair with a good book. Drink lemon-ginger-echinacea juice, eat light. I only take a cold remedy if it helps me sleep, because I want to really know how bad (or good) I am feeling.
Usually the universe just nudges me, but If Ithink long enough there’s probably a Wallop instance.
OT: I’ll be away most of today and tomorrow. See you Friday, Baboons.
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Oh, and then I have a lot of chicken soup, preferably matzo ball soup.
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
When I am sick, staying in bed dozing, reading, playing games on my iPad, watching HGTV shows and mocking the shows are my best strategies for beating the bug. I have an immune system that does not fight off respiratory viruses effectively, so I have learned that I cannot mess around with them. I just have to rest or it is a parade of sinus infections and walking pneumonia.
I don’t like it, though. There are so many other things I would rather be doing.
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I have been quite bored these last few days. I plan to go in to work this afternoon.
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You’d think this would be an easy question to answer but the last time I can remember being sick in the sense of running a fever, etc. was 1980. It’s not that I lack for infirmities. They’re just not the sort that can be remedied by a day or two on the couch.
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Usually I have too much work to do so I can’t be sick.
We like the zinc lozenges if we feel a tickle coming in our throats.
We learned some ‘energy’ exercises just the other day; they’re supposed to be good if a cold is coming on.
Just before Thanksgiving I got the flu. That sort of snuck up and walloped me. I slept for a couple days on and off. Plus hot then cold then hot again.
I remember milking cows and it was all I could do to get through milking. Back to the house for a nap. Back down and finish chores. And I think sometimes ‘sweating it out’ really is useful.
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I never get a flu shot because I never get sick. That said, I got sick this year, so I think that next year I will get a flu shot.
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I’ve never gotten a flu shot until this year. When I had pneumonia this past spring, my doctor told me that the flu shot actually helps with this kind of thing as well. I’m not sure why that would be, but pneumonia was awful so a free shot from my work was a small price to pay that she might be right!
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I had surgery on an eyelid almost two weeks ago. Last Thursday I went back to the medical center (two hours away), bringing my face with me so they could assess how well things are healing.
I was concerned about a sizable lump forming on the left side of my head. The doctor asked, “Do you sleep on your left side?” Well, yes. It turns out there is a bunch of liquid under my skin near the surgery site. When I sleep on my left side, those liquids drop and pool up to form a lump.
I forgot to ask what I do now. If I sleep on my back will my face return to normal symmetry? Or should I maybe sleep on the right side to grow a lump on that side to balance things out?
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Sleep on your back.
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Or you other side.
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So lump aside… how is the eyelid?
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A grad school friend had a very British grandmother who would slap mustard plasters on her grandchildren’s chests whenever they got colds. Robin said once the mustard was so hot she was burned.
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Our daughter has had the ‘month-long’ cough and then a low grade fever for the last 2 weeks. You wouldn’t know she was sick besides the fever; she didn’t even nap. (darn kids, you don’t know what you’re missing. And put some socks on!)
Yesterday her temp was finally normal again. We sent her to work today. She was even ready to get out of the house.
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where she working?
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She works with ‘PossAbilities’ and a program called ‘PWOW’ – ‘Program Without Walls’. They go out in the community and do different things. Today she was at Salvation Army flding napkins and doing silverware.
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I never get sick except for an occasional cold once during winter. Sleep is essential and the lemon/honey combination. I started taking something recently which has been a game changer for immunity, energy and clearer thinking. MUSHROOMS! A fun company called Four Sigmatic makes these mushroom extract drinks (mushroom coffee, tea or chocolate) and other goodies, and they’re amazing! They’re a mix of different medicinal mushrooms (which are highly researched and proven).
I asked for some for Christmas and it’s nearly gone, so I’m going to have to order more. Just a teaspoon in hot water, add to coffee or smoothies and feel the mushroom love. Really excellent products and their web site is a hoot.
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i get my mushrooms from this place in amsterdam. they send out the love too
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The snow plow came past last night and blocked off the driveway. I had to shovel out so I could get the car out of the driveway. I think I will go to the walk-in clinic later this afternoon. I am unhappy with my cough. This is starting to feel like a wallop, not a nudge.
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Renee, this flu is not one to be taken lightly. A friend of mine, who lives in northern Minnesota, posted on FB yesterday that one of her closest friends, a woman she has known since they went to high school together, passed away yesterday from complications of the flu.
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Doctor thinks I have the beginnings of pneumonia. Glad I went to the clinic. This is more in the nature of a wallop.
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I had pneumonia last year – nasty. Take good care of yourself.
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My reaction to illness is to ignore it as long as humanly possible, hoping the illness will get fed up with me and go away. Every now and then this actually works. Luckily I’m fairly healthy so I don’t have to test my theory often!
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I made Bremer Huhnersuppe last weekend-creamy chicken soup from Bremen, Germany with loads of good veggies used in making the stock- with an enrichment of crayfish herb butter. It made a wonderful supper tonight and just as effective as the zpac I got from the doctor.
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I’m usually not sick enough to stay in bed. I think the last time I had a fever, I had a volunteer shift and was the only reviewer available at my site that week, so I just went anyway. I didn’t really realize I had a fever till I got home and took my temperature. But I felt better the next day, as I recall.
The last real wallop I had was probably twenty years ago. Had a bad bug with terrible body aches and high fever. I felt like my legs were breaking. I spent a day or so mostly lying on the couch moaning and pressing the small of my back into a heating pad because my back ached so badly. It was a bad flu that year.
Mostly, though, I employ the same strategy as VS, just try to ignore it, make some tea and get on with my day. And like Ben, use the zinc lozenges.
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