geez, the hayfever is a little out of control here
Well, that's what I thought was happening.
Extra sneezing, extra sinus stuffiness, extra headaches.
I put it down to hayfever, because I don't get sick, do I?
Besides, everyone knows this has been a really bad hayfever season this year.
It's on the TV news at least once a week, with daily pollen counts and warnings of north-easterly winds given with the weather report. Today's warning is for high pollens AND a north-east wind.
Double trouble!
(The north east winds bring the pollens from the grasses in the hot centre of Australia down into the city, this is bad news for us sufferers.)
Plus, the huge white cedar tree is now blooming profusely and choking up my chest as I walk past it every day on my way to the bus stop.
I must take a photo of that tree, it's so petty right now.
Here's what's really happening.......
I'd completely forgotten that I'd worked next to a girl suffering from a cold last Friday.
(My day off, why did I agree to work?? Why? Why?)
She'd come in, as I had, to fill in for someone else who was too ill to work.
I woke up on Saturday with aching muscles in places where I didn't even know I had muscles.
I could barely move and stood under a hot shower easing the aches, then went back to bed.
I'd been coughing as well, with a sore throat too, but decided that must be from the cedar tree pollens.
Or from breathing in some Baygon fumes as I sprayed the door and window frames.
Definitely going to wear a mask the next time I spray!
I doubled the hayfever medication, but it didn't help much.
Yesterday morning, I went to work, not feeling all that well, but it's only hayfever, right?
Once there, I spoke with a friend, J, who had similar symptoms. We discussed these, noting the sore throat, the "run-over-by-a-truck-aches", the fever and sweating.
She then mentioned others who had the same and that "it" was going around.
Well, knock me over with a feather!
I'd caught a cold!
Again!
Halfway through my shift, I felt worse, and wanted to go home, but with others also working while under the weather, I decided the harm was already done, the germs had been spread, I might as well keep going. I'm using my hand sanitiser after each cough and nose-blow, hoping to minimise the passing on of my germs.
This particular cold appears to be highly contagious, if only more people would remember the old "catch, cover and wash" routine.
Catch the sneeze (tissues), cover the mouth when coughing, wash hands frequently with soap and water (or use sanitiser).
Everywhere now, there are people openly sneezing, coughing, spitting, into the air, onto other people.
Maybe they don't realise they have a cold?
On my way home, I stopped at the chemist and bought some cold+flu medication, which I'm now taking.
This morning, I'm feeling much clearer in the head and the coughing has eased a lot, so I'm off to work again.
No colds for years.
Many, many years.
Now I've had three, just this year alone.
I may start wearing a Michael Jackson style face mask.....
Extra sneezing, extra sinus stuffiness, extra headaches.
I put it down to hayfever, because I don't get sick, do I?
Besides, everyone knows this has been a really bad hayfever season this year.
It's on the TV news at least once a week, with daily pollen counts and warnings of north-easterly winds given with the weather report. Today's warning is for high pollens AND a north-east wind.
Double trouble!
(The north east winds bring the pollens from the grasses in the hot centre of Australia down into the city, this is bad news for us sufferers.)
Plus, the huge white cedar tree is now blooming profusely and choking up my chest as I walk past it every day on my way to the bus stop.
I must take a photo of that tree, it's so petty right now.
Here's what's really happening.......
I'd completely forgotten that I'd worked next to a girl suffering from a cold last Friday.
(My day off, why did I agree to work?? Why? Why?)
She'd come in, as I had, to fill in for someone else who was too ill to work.
I woke up on Saturday with aching muscles in places where I didn't even know I had muscles.
I could barely move and stood under a hot shower easing the aches, then went back to bed.
I'd been coughing as well, with a sore throat too, but decided that must be from the cedar tree pollens.
Or from breathing in some Baygon fumes as I sprayed the door and window frames.
Definitely going to wear a mask the next time I spray!
I doubled the hayfever medication, but it didn't help much.
Yesterday morning, I went to work, not feeling all that well, but it's only hayfever, right?
Once there, I spoke with a friend, J, who had similar symptoms. We discussed these, noting the sore throat, the "run-over-by-a-truck-aches", the fever and sweating.
She then mentioned others who had the same and that "it" was going around.
Well, knock me over with a feather!
I'd caught a cold!
Again!
Halfway through my shift, I felt worse, and wanted to go home, but with others also working while under the weather, I decided the harm was already done, the germs had been spread, I might as well keep going. I'm using my hand sanitiser after each cough and nose-blow, hoping to minimise the passing on of my germs.
This particular cold appears to be highly contagious, if only more people would remember the old "catch, cover and wash" routine.
Catch the sneeze (tissues), cover the mouth when coughing, wash hands frequently with soap and water (or use sanitiser).
Everywhere now, there are people openly sneezing, coughing, spitting, into the air, onto other people.
Maybe they don't realise they have a cold?
On my way home, I stopped at the chemist and bought some cold+flu medication, which I'm now taking.
This morning, I'm feeling much clearer in the head and the coughing has eased a lot, so I'm off to work again.
No colds for years.
Many, many years.
Now I've had three, just this year alone.
I may start wearing a Michael Jackson style face mask.....
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I detest colds.. You can feel worse with a cold than with the flu. Keep warm, chicken soup is a great help. Hope you feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteMy partner has had three colds too this year. Me? None. With much relief, I grew out of hayfever at the age of about forty.
ReplyDeleteI guess i'm lucky because i don't suffer from hayfever, colds or flu and i've never ever had a flu shot. I put this down to a very strong immune system.
ReplyDeleteHope you get well soon. I on the other hand spent most of my childhood with colds. I go to school with a box of tissue. But surprisingly, when we moved to Melbourne, I rarely get one now. I reckon it's the air in Manila...
ReplyDeleteDelores; the best thing is a cold only lasts about 48 hours, the flu is a two week pain in the....and potentially more deadly.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; I've had hayfever all my life. It seemed much less when I lived in Port Pirie and later in Brisbane. Colds are (were) rare and I've never had the flu.
Windsmoke; My immune system is really good too, well, it used to be. I've never had a flu shot either.
Joni Ibarra; perhaps you had childhood hayfever? When I was a little kid every time I got the sniffles, grownups would say I had a summer cold. Of course it was hayfever. Colds don't last more than 24-48 hours. Hayfever just goes on and on and on.
I swear that colds are far more prevalent and far, far stronger than a couple of decades ago.
ReplyDeleteSapphire regularly gets at least four per year and my poor parents have had three so far.
Love the typo re the 'petty' White Cedar Tree - if it is adding to your misery by giving you hayfever on top of your awful cold, it *is* a petty tree!
I hope you feel better soon.
Pilchard had a 'year of the cold' in 2011 after not having one for almost a decade!! It's just bad luck ... Hope you continue to feel better!!
ReplyDeleteI do hope you feel better soon. I agree with Delores - a cold can make you feel miserable out of all proportion to the severity of the illness.
ReplyDeleteKath Lockett; colds are definitely more prevalent. Something to do with people from all over the world now zipping around to all other parts of the world and taking their germs with them. So we catch their colds etc and they catch our colds etc and the germs have a regular party of it all. I think I'll leave the typo. I'm feeling much better already.
ReplyDeleteRed Nomad; maybe this is my year of the cold and next year I'll go back to not getting sick. That would be great!
Elephant's Child; I'm feeling much better now. There's only an infrequent cough left. Such a big change in 24 hours. Yesterday I was coughing up a lung every half hour.
Colds only last 24-48 hours? That's not correct, they average about six days and can last for two weeks.
ReplyDeleteR.H. really? I thought it was the flu that lasted two weeks. I've heard from doctors that colds seem to last longer because there are often several different viruses going around at once and people tend to catch one after the other while their resistance is down.
ReplyDeleteUgh. How horrible. It seems to become a bit of a vicious circle/cycle too, as they deplete you so much that you are susceptible to catching more.
ReplyDeleteI've taken to encouraging members of my family to cough not into their hand but into the crook of their elbow (only effective if the mouth is actually covered by the sleeve though!), as this ensures no germs on hands if you can't get to a tap to wash hands or have sanitizer. Works for us.
Low resistance is why you get a cold in the first place. A cold doesn't usually last two weeks but it certainly can. I've never had one that didn't last 4-5 days.
ReplyDeleteBeing Me; I carry purse sized bottles of sanitizer everywhere now. Especially at the checkout.
ReplyDeleteR.H. I suspect my resistance was low, with the hayfever being particularly bad this year. I've been too tired to cook proper meals. I'm over the cold now though. And cooking again.
I really, really, really detest it when using public transport (not so much now they've decided to discontinue the bus past the top of our street), when people would sneeze or cough without covering their mouths. I hate colds, they always take the wind out of my sails. Hoping you feel better soon. Lemon and honey are good for throats.
ReplyDelete