Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

-- on the PBS television program, Charlie Rose, 2009-10-20

Ugh. Woke up with a head cold, but otherwise not feeling as achy and wrecked as yesterday. Decided that even though I only felt coldy, not fluish, I shouldn't try to attend a social event this evening -- I figure folks are being more careful than usual about respiratory illnesses, and for good reason.

When I get a cold, I try to beat it back quickly enough to prevent it from developing into a cough. The first several days are all about snot and sneezing and headaches, and then I either get better or I get a cough that annoys the $#%@ out of me for a couple of weeks. (Or months.)

This one has turned into a rather-more-than-just-annoying lung-and-windpipe issue less than eight hours after the first nasal symptoms showed up. I've not been vaccinated against either H1N1 or the seasonal flu, so I really hope this is just a randomly atypical cold, not a flu that my athsma and diabetes have me at risk for. So far I'm still not feeling fluish, just having trouble breathing, so that hope is still alive and maybe I can deal with this with menthol, horehound, dextromethorphan, garlic, orange juice, and albuterol. Wish me luck.

Tomorrow night: HCB rehearsal, getting ready for Darkover; something more important than watching a movie with friends. Gotta weigh how much risk I think I'll be to my bandmates, contagion-wise, versus the importance of going through some extra stuff not in our usual repertoire (and, of course, the whole do-I-feel-well-enough-to-drive thing).

I did get out this afternoon for cough drops and OJ (but didn't realize I'd need to stock up on cough syrup -- I'll have to take inventory and see how much I've got on hand). The can't-breathe-lying-down and breathing-tickles-and-then-coughing-hurts stuff started after I got home from the supermarket. (And wow, if you get beets at the salad bar and then wind up with an inexperienced checkout clerk, things can get really inconvenient when you get home. *pout*)

I guess the one good thing about having athsma is that I already have albuterol in the house when something else, such as a virus, attacks my airway. But damn, I'd like to be able to lie down w/o that making me feel like I'm having a severe athsma attack. I can breathe w/o coughing as long as I keep it really shallow. I do not want to develop other flu symptoms on top of this. I really do not want this to turn into what others have described H1N1 being like (pleaseletitjustbeastrangecoldnotswineflu). And I don't want this breathing difficulty to get any worse -- I don't want to rack up yet another four-digit emergency-room bill I can't pay, and if it gets bad enough that dextromethorphan and my albuterol inhaler can't keep me breathing at least as well as I am now, that'd be the next step. That my symptoms have progressed this quickly worries me because it's unusual. If I were having this much trouble breathing on the fourth day of a flu, I'd be cautious but not freaked-out. I'd be thinking that I'd be turning the corner soon and just had to make it through one last worst-bit. Feeling like this on the first day has me a little concerned.

But maybe I'll get really lucky and this will turn out to be a fast-forward type of cold, with all the bad stuff happening in one day, and tomorrow I'll feel great ... right? [knock wood] Better to wake up tomorrow feeling foolishly melodramatic for having been so concerned tonight, than to wake up tomorrow trying to decide whether I'm breathing poorly enough to warrant a call to 911.

(And since I know some of my friends will worry, I'll try to remember to post some "still breathing" tweets tomorrow afternoon on Twitter. But hey, if you don't hear from me for a while please remember that I may be merely sleeping, okay?)

Hmm. I should've picked up more vegetable bouillon when I was out. Oof.