The Cold Blues

So, I woke up Thursday morning with a bit of an itchy throat and a slightly runny nose. Since I didn't know how literally I should take my doctor's order to "call about everything from head to toe," I decided I had better give the office a call. I popped in a nice throat lozenge so I could actually speak into the phone and gave ol' Barb a call (I can sense that Barb and I will be very good friends when this is all said and done). I explained my symptoms and was shocked by her concern.

"I'm sure it's just an adjustment thing -- we haven't had air conditioning all summer and this is one of the first nights I've slept with air in a long time." -- I felt like I needed to lessen the degree of seriousness in the conversation a bit.

"Okay well just watch it today and if it gets worse I'd like you to come in for a strep test."

"Okay I will. I have a Halls in my mouth now and it seems to really be helping."

She pauses. "Oh. Well, you'll probably be okay but we'd really prefer that you not use Halls."

My eyebrows furrowed just about as much as they could. Halls. Dangerous. Really? So I got the list (and by list, I mean 2 things) I could use to ease my sore throat that wouldn't hurt the baby and said my goodbyes. Then the madness set in.

The scratchy throat turned into a full on sore throat and my nose ran enough to go through an entire box of Puffs, a roll of toilet paper when we had no more, and after an emergency trip to the store, another box of Puffs. On day two my head starting aching so bad I didn't even want to get out of bed.

My fantastic husband decided to take a cue from his daddy book and make me a smoothie which was exactly what I needed. That and an organized trip to HyVee to buy supplies to fight off the cold old-fashioned style were Friday's main highlights.

The worst part of it all was knowing with two little tablets of Alka Seltzer Plus Cold and six hours of hard sleep it would be gone and knowing I couldn't take them. On Friday afternoon I had worked my way up to a slight fever -- enough to where the doctor's office told me to take a Tylenol (which technically isn't safe for another three weeks) and I started to feel much better.

I suppose the wisdom gained from this cold, which has basically gone away minus a slightly stuffy nose still, is this: I will do EVERYTHING in my power this winter to prevent this from happening again. Orange juice every day, flu shot, scaves, the whole bit. The Tic-Tac and I are going to be in tip-top shape from here on out. Here's hopin, anyway :)