Martin's Musings

Called in sick and stayed home from work today. Got a bad case of the sniffles. Really, I’d be much better were it not for the fact that I’m sneezing a lot and blowing my nose constantly. Nyquil is helping me sleep at night so I’m not tired, and my achiness is gone. It’s my damned nose that’s trailing. And that’s making me feel worse. Yuck. If I was going to stay home from work on a Friday, I’d rather do it when I could actually enjoy the day. Today isn’t going to be much fun at all. Maybe I should go to Shaw’s and get some chocolate cake…

I guess it’s my turn. Again. Some horrible cold has been making its way through the office over the past couple of weeks, and I suppose when the people I work closest with get it, it’s only a matter of time before I do too. So, today I felt gross. Didn’t sleep well last night and I’m tired. Got a runny nose. I’m achy. No appetite (never ate lunch). I’m irritable. And I’m actually looking forward to watching American Idol tonight. You know the symptoms, and you’ve read about them here before, so I won’t go into it again.

Why did I think that because I had a cold in December I was immune now and for the rest of the season? Isn’t that how it works? And when is this cold snap going to pass???

Ladies and gentlemen, after enduring four days of a cold, I have found the miracle cure. Believe it or not, it’s chocolate. Yes, chocolate. I’m not sure if it’s the sugar rush or the cacao or what, but ever since the early afternoon when I started breaking off pieces of a chocolate moose we had sitting around near the office kitchen (yes, that kind of moose), I have felt significantly better.

I started with just a shaving from the ear. And then I went back and had a little chunk. Later, I was slicing into the nose. This was good chocolate. And it certainly did the trick.

In previous years when I’ve had a cold, I’ve credited my miracle (eventually) speedy recovery to all manner of sweets — cake, for example. So in all seriousness, I think it may just be that my body was in some form of withdrawl and needed a taste of what it’s used to. Is that crazy? I mean, I know for a fact that my body was rundown and that’s largely to blame for why I had the cold to begin with. And in the past few days, I haven’t been eating much of anything. So even though I did have a runny, stuffy nose and a cough and aches, etc., my body was out of sorts in other ways. Now granted, I don’t think that if I went on a diet and stopped eating cake and candy, that my body wouldn’t be able to handle it. On the other hand, I’m sure that if I did some digging around medical web sites, I could find something to back up my claim.

I’ve asked multiple people — pharmacists at CVS, friends, my mother — and everyone always has a different answer for what to take for a cold. In the past week, I’ve tried Sudafed, Cold-EEZE, Nyquil, and plenty of orange juice. While I was starting to feel a little bit better this morning, none of those things had the effect on me that the chocolate has had. No kidding.

Granted, I am still coughing intermittently, and I don’t feel perfect, but my breathing seems to have returned to normal and I’m hoping that after a good night’s sleep tonight (God willing), I should be raring to go tomorrow. Woo hoo!

Do medicate yourself. Do be smart about what medications you take and when. For example, don’t take non-drowsy Sudafed at 9 p.m., an hour or so before you plan to go to bed, and expect to sleep well through the night. Also, don’t switch medications mid-stream through a cold because you think doing so will have “shock value” for your body and will speed up the recovery time.

Lessons learned. I hate having a cold.

(But seriously, is there a proven cold remedy?)

i have a cold. it’s that beginning of december, change of seasons, no flu shot would save me from this, inevitable, winter’s actually here cold. you know the one. it has all the usual symptoms: stuffy/runny nose, cough, sore throat, general congestion, clogged ears, tiredness … yuck. and i’m not the only one here in my office who has it: one person has called in sick and stayed home, one other person has similar symptoms and is here, there’s coughing and sneezing elsewhere in the office, and a general sense that everyone’s going to get it sooner or later “so stay away from me.”

admittedly, i feel better today than i did yesterday (thank you, Cold-EEZE and O.J.), but that could be because i didn’t sleep well saturday night and i was just exhausted driving back from another weekend in new york. then again, i did write all of this in lower case without even realizing it until a second ago, i’m putting the wrong revision date on printouts i’m circulating (10/12 instead of 12/12), and someone here just commented on how well i had coordinated my sweater and scarf today, which i swear i didn’t do on purpose, so maybe i’m less here than i thought. thankfully, i drove in today, so not only can i spare my fellow T passengers from getting what i have, but i can also get home in 15 minutes should things get worse.

ugh. it’s going to be a long day.

In addition to a 2006 Extreme Ironing calendar (no kidding) that came courtesy of my old friends at Rowenta, I also received some valuable info in the mail today about staying warm during the winter.

It seems that taking hotter, longer showers will not keep you warmer. According to Dr. Stephen Webster, Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, the shower may make you feel warm, but not for very long. More importantly, as soon as you step out of the shower, your skin begins to lose moisture because hot water removes natural oil from the skin, making it dry and itchy. You’re supposed to bathe in lukewarm — not hot — water, and limit the shower to five or 10 minutes. Now you know. And as G.I. Joe used to say, “Knowing is half the battle.”

That info was much more valuable than the anti-fungal liquid, medicated foot cream, and hand balm it came with. For all of that, I thank the kind folks at Flexitol.