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[bubosquared]

Aaarghshefuy.

Fucking. Fever. Nose clogged up to my sinuses. (Dear sinuses, I hate you. You've made my life a living hell since I was 11. I thought you'd finally been subdued, but obviously not. You fuckers.) Shivering. Aching. Not good. Not going to work. Argh. Must stay up until 9 so I can call in. Debating wether or not to go to bed after.

Uuuuuuuuurgh.

Comments

Re: feel better soon!

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

The thing with meds is, I have a sort of aversity to them. I mean, I really hate taking them unless a doctor says "take them or you'll end up taking more powerful meds." I think it's bcause I've had to take them all through puberty for my sinuses, only to them find out a three month course on herbal(?) meds would've cleared something they were considering surgery for. Also, I don't want to grow a habit or anything. I'm sort of paranoid about this.

I slept a lot, had some coffee (to get rid of the headache), took a shower and went for a walk. That helped a lot. (What's echinea?)

Unfortunately, I do not like tea. At all. :/

Re: feel better soon!

[icanreadyourmnd.livejournal.com]

echinecea is an herbal supplement, originally (they say) from the Native Americans (but why does Europe have more synthesized forms of it?) that prevents colds or helps to get rid of them when you have one. You're only supposed to take it for like 3 months at a time and then take a month break - your local pharmicist can probably help there. It's why I missed going to Frankfurt cause my "local pharmacist" in the Hauptbahnhof usually sells me several packs of chewable echinecea.

The other European vitamin I love is what I call 'plop-plop fizz-fizz' vitamins. There are trhee brands I have. Two from Germany: Kruger (without the unlats over the 'u' cause my email doens't do that) and Huxol and one from London: Redoxon. Basically, they're flavored sugarless vitamin tablets that you put in 8 ounces of water and they dissolve in a fizzy way and you drink it. What I've learned over the years is that if you drink your vitamins they go directly into your blood stream, thereby helping you quicker than the tablets that have to be digested and absorbed.

And then there's BlackCurrent Juice, which I've found so far in Germany and London but nowhere else which has more vitamin C than orange juice....

And the hardest meds I ever take are Tylenol Extra Strength or Tylenol Sinus Extra Strength or Tylenol Allergy Sinus Extra Strength. I don't know if you have that over there but they're over the counter and they do the job and that makes me happy. I hate going to the doctor. In fact, since moving to LA and therefore a different climate I've gone off teh East Coast asthma meds I was on. I'm still allergic to horses, cats, dogs and dust but because the climate is drier and warmer I don't have to worry about the asthma attacks I used to get because of the cold (which would trigger said attacks). And I hate to be on meds that screw with my metobolism and sex drive.

OK - no tea. kill the tea. :) ginger ale? do you have that? cola too is good - anything bubbly will do. it helps, really (take it from someone who spent the first 15 years of her life sick every other week).

The thing with sinus' though is you really do have to be careful. I had a friend die because she tried to treat her sinus problem herself; the infection spread throughout her system and well, it was bad news. I just get real nervous when people tell me they have sinus infections; colds, flus, anything else, I'm okay with - cure thyself (as I do:)(I *live* with my vaporizer).

And herbal is good - check out the echinecea and vit c. plop plop fizz fizzes (they're actually selling 'em here in the states now but they cost an arm and a leg - I usually buy A LOT when I'm in London or Frankfurt). :)

I'll shut up now.....

and feel better, okay?

Re: feel better soon!

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Hm. I think they may have that in the Dr Vogel line that also has my sinusitus cure. I may look into that. Thanks.

Oh, I know those! My mum takes them a lot. I don't like the taste, but yeah, they do help a lot. They don't have those in the States? Oddness. I think they're the most common form of vitamins here, rather than actual pills or tablets. Quite a few pain medicins also come in this form. (Again, hate the taste, but they do work so much faster than tablets.)

I'll see if I can locate blaccurant juice somewhere. I drink about 1.5 liters of OJ a day, sometimes more, so I do get lots of vitamins from that, but I could always use more. (Also, isn't blaccurant juice supposed to stop infections? Does that go for skin infections, to? And wait, that's cranberry juice, ne?)

I don't have much sex drive to screw with, but my metabolism is sacred, man! I stopped taking my iron pills because they made me ill to the point where I couldn't eat anything some days. Seemed to sort of beat the purpose, to me.

You know, I don't know if we do have ginger ale. The translation of this is "gemberbier," which really doesn't ring a bell. And um. I can't drink anything bubbly. My parents never used to let us drink lemonade or whatnot with dinner when we were kids, and I never got used to the taste. Makes my eyes water. *wry grin*

Don't worry, I'm v. careful with my sinuses. The thing is, I know what's wrong with it. There's something wrong inside my nose -- I don't know what it's called, but something's too big and blocks a) my nose, making it hard for me to breathe through my nose on a good day and b) the passage to my sinuses, makingit hard for the dirt to get out, hence the frequent infections. It's not quite a chronic thing, just a recurring thing. (Hence also the talk of surgery -- which I'm not not all that averse to anymore, because I'd like to experience the wonder of actually breathing through my nose.) Until I decide on surgery or not, though, I'm sticking to herbal cures instead of anibiotics, for fear of breeding resistant bacterias. (Three courses is my max, though. If it's still not cured after that, I head to the doctor's.)

And thanks. ^_^

Re: feel better soon!

[icanreadyourmnd.livejournal.com]

Actually they do NOW have the 'plop plop fizz fizz' (line stolen from an old Alka Seltzer commercial: "plop plop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!) vitamins in the states; they just cost more than they do in Europe which is why I stock up when I'm over there and just fill in with teh oens here when I run out. I like the Redoxon ones cause they're blackcurrant flavoured.

You should have seen my reaction this weekend when I found TEMPO TISSUES for sale in a Ventura County supermarket. I *love* Tempo!!! I used to buy a 48 pack whenever I was in Europe to tide me over (and carry those little packs everywhere). The tissue quality is so much better! People with nose problems know teh best tissues! :)

It's cranberry juice that's good for bladder infections; I once got rid of one (took longer but it worked) with just cranberry juice and tylenol. Blackcurrant juice - I don't know - I jsut know it's got a hell of a lot of vit c in it and it tastes good too. I'm still trying to find somewhere here to import it for me - I have to get to Trader Joe's again soon (they import a lot of different stuff). I'm also missing that Lindt chocolate with cognac. You can't get that here either; or the Italian chocolate with expresso inside. Yum. :) I don't eat a lot of chocolate but it's nice to have a bar of cognac chocolate in the fridge for those inbetween times...

Do you have adenoid trouble? I had those taken out when my tonsils were taken out back in 3rd grade (and then I actually got to go to school for weeks at a time instead of every other week). Can't they just do that as laser surgery these days? I remember my tonsil/adenoid surgery was done and then I was taken home to eat ice cream for a few weeks.

If you're coming to live in NY, you may want to get that surgery done. The air sucks in NY with the humidity and smog and sinus infections are rampant with the weather changes. You want to protect yourself as much as possible.

It's funny - I had to think about it when you said 'lemonade'. Lemonade there is like 7-up; lemonade here is a non-bubbly lemon drink, with or without pulp (like orange juice). So like that time I went to a British style pub here in LA and had Shandy (which I love) and my companion rad the menu and was freaking about "euw. beer and lemonade!" and I had to explain that in England lemonade is like 7-up... ANYWAY.

Ginger ale - well, if you don';t have it, you don't. YOu can always drink it flat though (no bubbles). When I was growing up and constantly sick,. I drank a lot of coke syrup (prescribed by the doctor). And I know people still drink flat ginger ale for tummy troubles. Just a thought for when you're over here....

I understand about sticking to herbal cures. I'm pretty much the same way. I do take a lot of Tylenol but otherwise, I'm a 'doctor, cure thyself' person. I also don't like gettign antibiotics cuase then I wind up with a female infection and I'm still not sure which is worse: the infection or the treatment. So I just avoid the whole thing.

Re: feel better soon!

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

I think it's the adenoids, yes. I'm not sure. I'm definitely having this taken care of over here (and if my knee gets worse in the next year or so, I'll have that taken care of as much as I can, too); I don't fancy having to rely on American HMOs or whatnot.

The thing is, it's a bit of a fight between my desire to be able to actually breathe for the first time since I can rmemeber, and my (strong) reluctance to have anything done to my body, medically speaking.

Yep, antibiotics are the thing I'm most strongly "opposed" to, so to speak. We had a rather level-minded doctor and my mum was always sceptical about need for antibiotics, so I've grown up with the "If it's not necessary, don't." attitude. I know a few people who've bred strongerr bacteria because their doctors prescribed antibiotics at every turn, and I'm not taking risks.