What? I don't want advice from these crazies. And I won't take it anyway! Nyah!
Lemon, ginger, and honey.
Bring water to a boil, add ginger, and thinly slice a whole lemon into the pot (to get the lemon oil from the skin).
Simmer a couple of minutes, serve, add honey to taste.
What do you need, Ogged? Do you need a drink? A cigarette?
My annual winter ritual: hot tea, naproxen, lots of OJ, gargle with salt water, zinc, chicken soup. Don't go outside.
I don't want advice from these crazies.
That's the spirit.
It doesn't help as much when you're already sick, but for staving off a cold this is the only herbal supplement that's helped me, and it helped a lot.
Have you expressed your scent glands recently?
9: Assuming that's not how he caught it in the first place.
Crush up some dried peppermint and star anise, add a good dash of cayenne pepper, steep in boiling water. Guzzle it. (This is assuming basic upper respiratory stuff.)
He should go to the East Bay and hang out with meeeeeee.
Jackmormon is still dizzy from MB's appearance in the NY Times.
MB? Milton Bradley? Monica Bellucci?
I am with 3. Add to this mix a few dried red chiles as well.
Me too. My plan: spicy Thai soup with various seafoods and the Wire Season 4.
At 80 my late mother had an enormous crush on Baryshnikov. He replaced Placido Domingo, who replaced Pavoratti. Those big fat guys were cramping her style.
Mom was conventional that way, I guess. Sorry, fat boys. A product of her times.
Force fluids and get plenty of rest.
Misha is a wee pocket man. Your mother could have carried him around in her purse. My mother is now in love with Denzel. And is competitive about it. "You can't have him, oudemia. He is mine!"
My mother was 4' 11". A perfect match.
nyquil and dayquil on a loop. lots of water, tea with honey, and cranberry juice. tons, and i mean TONS, of sleep. no booze whatsoever. no swimming.
Misha is a wee pocket man.
Speaking of Wee Man, we saw Jackass II last night. (My brother had it and we didnt have anything else to watch.)
My gf couldn't understand why people would do such stupid, cruel, and dangerous things. On the other hand, I understood completely and recognized/remembered why.
Catherine is lying to you Ogged. She doesn't want you at her place.
Don't listen to these quacks. You need a good leeching, that's what.
Oh, I missed Mischa in the Times! He is a hottie, oh yes he is.
Don't listen to these quacks. You need a good leeching, that's what.
Leeching also showed up on Jackass II.
I never get sick, and if Ogged would avoid meetups and other places where there is contact with people, he wouldn't either.
I'm off now to the miniature and may-not-happen Bay Area Unfoggedcon (3-whenever at Jupiter, Center and Shattuck). You know you all wish you were there.
Wait, there's a Bay Area meetup today? How did I miss this?
Maybe I should put up a post for you hosers.
I tried to rouse interest all last week! Then there was an absolute cock-up of an email round-robin. So now it's being declared by fiat. Come if you can.
He should stay the hell away from me, for one thing. Luckily I'm going to the doctor instead of to Jupiter's, so that will make that easier.
I'm going to ask the doctor to clean my tonsils. I know she won't, and it frustrates me. In Mexico a doctor cleaned my tonsils out with antiseptic swabs, and it was like magic. He even showed me how to do it myself for less than awful cases, and it's worked quite well in the past, but I'm too sick otherwise to do it myself thist ime. So that's an option ogged, if you have holey, unhappy tonsils--swab em over with Cepacol or something. But don't kill yourself by mistake. You could also just gargle a lot. I should have been doing that.
Just a regular old cold. No biggie, really, except for having to fly to DC in a couple of days.
The boy is suffering, Apo, and you're quibbling about details. Typical left-brain Asperger fascism.
Are you slyly suggesting that he's afraid to come to the party and concocting an excuse? That's just despicable.
All Ogged needs is unconditional love and someone to express his scent glands.
Do you want us to call you a waaaaambulance?
I love how "go see a doctor" has not yet been posted. Why bother with medical expertise when you can appeal to the internet with its endless supply of natural cures?
Just a regular old cold.
Then marijuana is the answer.
Doctors charge $200 to tell you to rest, force fluids, and take Vitamin C and aspirin.
Whereas I give you useful advice for free.
@47
If all he's got is a cold, then yes, that's what they'll do. If it's more than that, though, he'll be better off with a doctor. Or do you have Frist-like abilities of diagnosis through the internets?
46: bring ogged's prescription to UnfoggeDCon, just in case.
If all he's got is a cold
Or anything caused by a virus, for that matter. Which is almost certainly the case.
Doctors hate it if you go to them for a cold. And with good reason.
42:The last flight of Swimmer ogged.
"Swimmer ogged was recognized on the Chicago-Omaha flight. A biologist colleague from Pasadena...Have you ever thought about bears? They have so much...funny they never came along further. By any chance were you saving them, girl? And he chuckled in his ruined throat and later died"
I never fly, either. I have known too many casualties of airplane ventilation systems.
42: About an hour before you get on the plane, and I am for serious, give yourself a toot up each nostril with Afrin or the like, and take one sudafed. About half an hour into the flight take another sudafed. (The last time I got on an airplane with a head cold I ended up craving death.)
At age 22 or so my son caught chicken pox before, during, or after an airline trip (I don't know the incubation time etc.) I've always wondered whether he either caught it on the plane or transmitted it on the plane.
That's the spirit.
Baa just wants you to stay indoors with some scotch and Dickens. He's done it before and he's doing it again.
@ 52
I agree with you. I guess I was amused by the entire notion of asking the internet for medical advice.
Newsflash! Tom Lehrer was a handsome fellow!
I watched the first season of The Wire, finally, over Christmas. Damn, that shit was good.
Now I am back and work and I find myself thinking "I hate this job." Except I don't really have any major problems with it. But yet, I am miserable.
I think I should have been a flâneuse.
Chicken soup, vitamin C, an electric blanket, two or three showers a day with lots of steam, and music you can sing along with. Singing good and loud shakes the phlegm out of your sinuses and the upper part of your lungs more painlessly and effectively than anything else I know of, plus you get this swell soul-o-matic gravely gargley timber in your voice, uh, uh, aw baby, yeah.
I hope you get better soon.
42:The last flight of Swimmer ogged.
Bob, at this moment, I love you.
At age 22 or so my son caught chicken pox before, during, or after an airline trip (I don't know the incubation time etc.)
I got chicken pox when I was 8, and it first started to express itself on a flight from Nairobi to Kampala. My dad asked why I was fidgeting so much as we were going through customs, and lifted up my shirt to see "red dots spontaneously popping up all over, you could see [me] getting sick like something out of an old Tom & Jerry cartoon". He hurriedly pulled my shirt back down and told me to avoid scratching until we were through immigration and thus more difficult to quarantine or deport.
Many many years ago, it was suggested that I fight a coldy thing with gelatin capsules containing half goldenseal and half cayenne. Of course I tried it, and while it did work, I was pretty miserable for several hours. With a fever somewhere north of a million, as I recall it. Maybe it didn't work, but the ordinary cold was so mild in comparison to the treatment that I didn't notice it any more.
My preferred remedy from that period was several contac (or other time released cold medicine) along with several beers. The alcohol brings the cold medicine online all at once. One should stay awake and active -- physical work like stacking heavy things is good. The cold gets beaten into submission.
Nowadays, it just vitamin C. I had some good luck with "airborne" tablets earlier this month -- kept a cold at bay for a week or so.
Throw into a blender:
a thumb-sized chunk of ginger
a teaspoon of cayenne pepper
the juice of a lemon
a couple-four cloves of garlic
a little hot water
honey
Blend it up, take a tablespoon of it every hour. You'll feel better pretty fast.
Also, it'll put hair on your back.
since asked
my methods include
- one shot of vodka with powdered chili pepper before going to bed
- a lot of sleep
- a lot of hot green tea
- a lot of hot black tea with honey
- hot cranberry juice
- there are other methods i already mentioned, like some kind of soup which tastes may be weird but actually good for cold cure
- hot chicken soup
- banya or hot tub, but afterwards should be careful to not get cold i mean wear sweaters and else when sleeping, sweating is really good generally etc otherwise pneumonia is like guaranteed
- if all fails and it 's already half pneumonia, antibiotics with mutivitamins with decongestants with a lot of fluids iv
- since nobody mentioned, sex, but you'll infect your gf so may be it'll be good for you, but epidemiologically not appropriate
I love how "go see a doctor" has not yet been posted.
No way of knowing how expensive that will be. Last resort, man.
I am also an advocate of hot, spicy liquids, exactly as in 3, but with the addition of a tiny pinch of cayenne. Hot and sour soup. NyQuil. Water. Pseudoephedrine.
Crushing on Tom Leher! Thanks Ben.
I would have said Buckley's and a neti pot (not combined), but they're not actually working for me at the moment, so I'll be trying bitchphd's method, or maybe I'll just cut my head off.
Good flight, Ogged.
I suggest doing lines of cayenne as if it were cocaine.
delurking to add
Nasal Irrigation (You need a water pick, a little plunger-type attachment for it, warm water and non-iodized salt, and a very non-squeamish (or desparate) attitude.) Not likely stuff to have on hand, but it's accellerated my recoveries impressively. You're forcing saline up one nostril, into your sinuses and out the other. Cleans you out way better than blowing your nose.
occillococcinum (Preferably for the early stages, but also amazing. It's a homoepathic thing, on the expensive side.)
Emergen-C (Just a quick way to get Vit C into your system.)
Hot ecchinacea tea (Herbal immune booster)
Hot soak with epsom salts, but not right after taking other remedies: it draws stuff out of you.
Between these and some stuff already mentioned (lots of OJ, straight unsweetened cranberry juice) I can usually knock out a nasty cold pretty quickly. Or head them off, I guess is more accurate. I used to get so sick I'd have to bludgeon several people to death daily for a few weeks, just to offset the pain. I get kind of irritable when I'm sick.
And the obvious: rest, not too much exertion, don't eat crap like junk food*, or anything too heavy. I've also been messing with one of those hand held massage/vibrator things, put it right on my chest. Not sure if that helps or not, but it feels like it loosens me up, helps drop some of the tension which can't be good for recovery.
Don't discount regular painkillers, whatever you favor. I like ibuprophen. If you can lessen the pain then your system's not laboring under so much stress, again more energy for recovery.
*although you may want to take in a little extra salt to replenish what you'll be peeing away if you're drinking a whole lot of liquids.
Oh, thanks for the Lehrer link, Ben. The kids were appreciative too.
I've also been messing with one of those hand held massage/vibrator things
Yeah, that was first covered way back in 9.
Happy Christmas, Ogged.
It's inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you, a successor to the Kings and Queens of History...
Not just on postage stamps anymore, but now available on Youtube!
(Hope you're feeling a bit better, and don't take any concoctions, just get some sleep...).
Occillococcinum
You've got to be kidding me. Quacks, begone. At least ginger in tea could possibly have some effect.
I just flew cross-country with a head cold. Or what I hope is just a head cold (it's worse than most colds I've had).
This probably settles the question of whether I'm going to DC in favor of not going.
i hope ogged feels better now
i said a lot of hot drinks yesterday, but may be there are restrictions on overall volume of fluid intake for after nephrectomy patients, so hope you took fluids within that limit
first of all do no harm :)
I have a cold now, too. Does anyone know if there's any health benefit to (a) letting the cold run its course w/o otc drugs as opposed to (b) using otc drugs to reduce symptoms, e.g., runny nose? Thanks!
a. if you are a healthy young person in your prime let it run its course, would be a good shake for your immune system
one who never catches cold is cancer susceptible
b. if you are in immune system is somewhat weakened due to age or illness, try to reduce symptoms and avoid complications, i would say
but there are some guidelines i think for flu immunization for example
if you need i'll find links
http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35868
http://thorax.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/62/suppl_1/1
bmj link doesn't work :} sorry
and i have institutional subscription only
otherwise after reading that ogged would heal himself by now :)
one who never catches cold is cancer susceptible
Great god!
what, wrong sentence structure?
susceptible to cancer then
Deleting the 2 in that URL leads to quite a surprise.
93: I wish I hadn't done that on hotel internet.
there's nothing to worry about. new wireless cards pretty much all have promiscuous mode disabled, so it's much harder to sniff your neighbor's browsing habits.
[citation needed]
a reduction in melanoma risk with increasing numbers of recorded infections and fever height
it's much harder to sniff your neighbor's browsing habits
Sounds so dirty.