Now that its cold and flu season, how do you guys cope? Do you get a flu shot, put on the mask and gloves, and act like anyone who has a runny nose has ebola? Or do you have more of a fuck it attitude, if you get sick you get sick and whatever who cares? Me personally, I tend to get a sinus infection each year, which usually starts off as a a run of the mill cold but turns into my sinuses being jam packed with snot for the next month. Last year I got to enjoy pneumonia and a sinus infection simultaneously, fun times. I was able to cough up black shit out of my lungs, and green shit from my sinuses in one breath. Because of this, I'm the person with the bottle of Purrel, I'm the person who won't shake hands, I"m the person who covers his hand with his hoodie when he opens a door (yes, I know that borders on crazy). In general, I know these behaviors are eccentric/crazy, but I've yet to see someone give me a good reason not to do them. I could shake hands with sick people, hell I could even touch my eyes, but if that causes me to end up with a horrendous sinus infection how is that worth it? Focus During cold and flu season what do you do to prevent getting sick? Anything your friends consider eccentric or is it all pretty run of the mill stuff. Is there anything some sick people do that drives you nuts? Alt-Focus Whats the sickest you've been that was due to a cold/flu/pneumonia/seasonal illness? Unfocus Flu shots, yea-nay-maybe? If you get them why, if you don't why not?
I don't get the flu shot, and I just weather it out if I do get sick. (But I also don't interact with the elderly or infirm... if I did, I'd get the flu shot.) But I don't go to work if I feel sick, and I fucking hate people that make a big deal of going to work when obviously sick, only to infect those around them before being sent home. You're not a hero, you're a fucking moron. I don't often get sick, but if I do, I NyQuil up in bed with gallons of ginger ale and water, and sleep. I live alone so there's nobody to suck up to or act like a baby for. Tough it out, quietly, and recognize when you need medical help.
I generally don't get sick, and the few times i have gotten really sick I got the flu shot, so now I don't. I got shit lungs, and normally get bronchitis in the fall, so in about a month i will probably end up with it. The sickest i can remember is when my wife was pregnant with our kid, think it was in February 2013. I had lost 6 pounds in body fluids in under 12 hours. I and spent all night on the toilet with a bucket on my lap. I was so dehydrated it took about 30-45 minutes to run a iv. They finally had to run the iv just past my elbow by my bicep. When they were trying to find a vein on my hand and they couldn't get it in the vein and pull the needle out i wasn't bleeding. Oh, and I am afraid of needles that was a fun 30-45 minutes.
I never get the flu shot. I am the oldest asthmatic that I know, and I fucking detest this miserable malady. I'd rather have syphilis. I mention this, because cold weather makes it so much worse, and my house is so ancient, back then an air filter was a hasty prayer in front of a sheet of mold.
This is a timely thread. My 9 month old nephew (aka Patient Zero) just gave me some heinous plague after he sneezed on me. Thanks to some solid science and a flagrant disregard for my now-fired GP, I'm taking a low dose of Tylenol Cold to kick this. Unlike the two colds I had in the first trimester where I went entirely drug free and it took 3 weeks each to kick them. I don't get a flu shot because I don't get the flu. I get colds quickly which devolve from head cold to chest cold in a matter of days, and then I cough like an emphysema patient for 2 weeks thanks to chronic bronchitis. It's hot. Seriously. Sexy. Tylenol Cold + a solid expectorant cough syrup + Neo Citron is my non-preggo routine. I tried Cold FX once and was sick two weeks longer than I would have been without it so now I don't go prevention, I just drug up and weather the storm.
Since I meet with clients daily and shake a ton of hands, I absolutely get a flu shot. $25 is worth it to prevent feeling like shit for two weeks. I havent gotten seriously sick in years though, I would imagine its because my parents let me play in the McDonalds playscape ball pits when I was a lad. My favorite medicine is Nasonex. I get allergies in the Fall and Spring like a motherfucker, so a little spritz up the schnozzola makes it much easier to breathe.
I'm one of those lucky people that gets really sick maybe once every two years. Otherwise, I'm usually ok. I don't get flu shots. It's not that I don't particularly think they're effective (though some years they're not) but I don't like needles and I typically don't get sick. This year, I did promise to get one because the wife asked. So I'll be off somewhere to get one in the coming weeks. Otherwise, I think I don't get sick a lot for several reasons: 1) I was sick a lot as a kid. I mean a whole bunch. It would appear my immunities are pretty good. 2) I drink an assload of liquids. I drink buckets of water and decaf coffee. That's pretty much all I drink. 3) I work out 5 times a week. 4) I wash my hands constantly. I would not be surprised if I washed my hands 20 times a day, not because I'm a germaphobe, but because when you walk dogs all day, and drink fluids like I do, you're having to wash your hands a bunch. And, probably most importantly: 5) While I'm out in public a lot, due to walking dogs, I'm not around people very much. I might eat out once a week, and I don't have a job where I'm interacting in close quarters with other people. The one thing I am careful about is when I go to apartment buildings to walk dogs, I do not touch my face after going through the common areas.
Hell ya I get the flu shot. I work in a clinic so pretty much come into contact with whatever virus circulates around the city. It used to be required for my job (as a nurse in the ICU). The first year I started working as a Nurse Practitioner I didn't get one and got miserably sick....twice. I can't say it was the flu because I didn't go to the doctor, but it sure as shit seemed like it. Fevers to the tune of 102-103 for close to a week then the residual crud that lasted a couple weeks after that. I do get mild common colds a time or two a year, but most people do. I am not crazy crazy germaphobe, I think the best way to keep from getting sick is to let your immune system develop and to live a healthy lifestyle (enough sleep, exercise, healthy diet, good old fashioned handwashing) Here are my go tos.....Pseudoephedrine - NOTHING else works as well to dry up all the snot. Make sure you get the real stuff behind the counter and don't get controlled release, it doesn't work as well. Tessalon Perles for the cough. Nyquil to knock my ass out so I can sleep.
I absolutely hate being sick, but not for the reasons most people think. I get that everyone "hates" being sick, but I turn into such a little bitch about it. I can hear the bitchness leaving my body and can't (or don't bother) stop the shit that comes out of my mouth and hate myself more than anyone listening to it ever could. I'm sick once a year if at all and generally take steps to avoid contracting anything that may infect my bitch glands. 1. I don't interact with children. Ever. Got a kid? That's awesome. Don't bring that disease vector into my home. There is nothing for them here and my house is full of sharp objects and drugs. 2. I wash my filthy dick beaters after I get off public transportation. I just know Jack the crippled bum wiped his ass on the pole I'm now using for support. 3. Vitamins err day. I don't care that they don't actually do anything. They make me feel better and make me believe they fight off disease, so I keep taking them and hope for the best. When I do get sick, I can generally feel it coming on a day or two ahead of time, so I have a shot at getting my supplies in order. 1. 750ml bottle of Tito's. Yes, I know drinking lowers my ability to fight off the sickness. I don't care and you're not going to take it away from me. 2. Tylenol Cold Muti-Symptom Day/Night oral. For some reason most cold symptom relief just fucks my shit all up. This one doesn't and removes most of my symptoms without my feeling like I'm tripping on DXM. 3. NyQuil - When you absolutely positively do not want to be awake for the next 12 hours, this shit is a wonder drug. Never gotten a flu shot, but everything I've read says I shouldn't. I'm not in the traditional risk range and I don't work with the infirm. I have been guilty of working when I'm sick, which I know isn't nice, but its gotten better now since my pay isn't dependent on the hours I'm actually at work.
I don't get the flu shot. I have no children, don't interact with them much, and generally have a pretty strong immune system. I don't know the exact link, but once I got my tonsils out when I was a kid, I went from "normal sick levels" to "rarely ever sick". I missed maybe 2 days of school from being sick through middle school through high school. In college, I only got knocked on my ass by cold/flu once. These days, I usually get one annoying, but harmless, cold a year, when the weather first turns cold. I can usually fight it off to an acceptable level. The only flu-like sickness I got was Christmas 2 years ago from my cousin's germ bomb of a daughter. They waited until midday to tell everyone that the cute toddler had been sick for a week and suddenly, Christmas night, my mom, my sisters, and I are all feeling like crap. Fortunately, I just had a weird stomach ache, vomited once, and was fine the next day after sleeping for 11 hours. My old roommate on the other hand was basically Bubble Boy. He would get sick on a monthly basis. When I first started living with him, I got paranoid every time he fell ill, thinking I was next, but then we realized it is just his shattered immune system. His now-wife would even come over, hang out, sleep over and leave the next day, scot free. The best was when he hooked up with a girl the second night of Spring Break our Junior year and proceeded to be seriously ill and bed ridden the remainder of the trip. She was basically the monkey from Outbreak.
This is essentially what I do when I get some bad shit going with my lungs or whatever. I had pneumonia for the first time in my life earlier this year, and honestly I have never felt so weak, miserable and willing to just lay down and let death take me. I later found out I apparently got pneumonia from D68, and I can attest it sucks ass. Take some vitamins, drink some fluids, sleep. It's what you should do at that point.
Men are the biggest babies when it comes to getting sick. Perhaps this is a generalization based on my research of group of 1. My husband just whines and whines, you think he is 5 seconds away from death. But when I ask if he has taken any medicine he looks at me like I am crazy. Apparently he would rather whine about not feeling well then actual feel well. Me, I just want to be left alone. Sure, I would like to have somebody run to the store to fetch me what I need, but otherwise I am like the sick animal that just wants to slink away to die in peace.
Two reasons why I quote this. First, men love acting like they're dying and whining when they're sick. It is the only time they (we) can get babied, and not have to be "the man." I do it and its always fun. Second, my gf does the second aspect. She'll get a headache and thinks water and deep breathing will fix it because "I shouldn't have to take a pill for every little thing!" Cue 2 hours later, when it hasn't worked, she's suffering worse and because we can't fix our minds with positive thoughts. I give her advil and boom 20 minutes later, she's good to go. This happens once every three weeks, she won't just take the advil. I'm getting a flu shot, but if I just get a normal cold. I go into war mode. 3 different types of throat lozenges, Cold-Eez, 2 different types of herbal teas, Ny/DayQuil and Emergen-C.
I'm not sure I can respect a man who considers "war mode" to be a plethora of pussy-ass holistic remedies and a dose of dayquil. To me, war mode is 12 hour pseudoephedrine(the real shit), advil, dayquil, and coffee all day and the maybe some chamomile tea and nyquil at night. War mode should be able to stop a child's heart.
Chamomile tea is one of the herbal teas, so calm down there. Mint tea is the other. Shit helps. I don't get any symptoms I need advil for that isn't redundant with DayQuil. Can you even get pseudoephedrine anymore? I thought they took it out of everything, because fuckers were using it to make meth or some shit. I used to be able to get that in Coricidin-D, but they adjusted that shit as well.
I know that, but its my only herbal. And yes, but you have to go to counter and show them your license. This somehow proves that you won't turn it into meth.
Well I'm going to check and see what the situation is in Illinois. For awhile I know it was only behind the counter, then it wasn't. I haven't seen any signage for "Ask for the..." anymore. Then again, I remember that shit doing nothing but getting me high as fuck or knocking me out. Both of them being awesome.
The 12 hour pill is a godsend if you want to be able to beathe. Mucinex D is also tits but it makes your mouth taste like you ate cat shit.
Meth quiz It doesn't prove you won't turn it into meth. It allows them to know your name and address to not track you down after you turn it into meth.
Sure you can still get it. Just behind the pharmacy counter. And you'll need to hand over your license because you can only get 3.6 grams per day or 9 grams per month. And they track it. And you have to sign and agree you won't be making meth with it. Edit: Taken are of, I see. I hardly ever get sick and I don't recall ever being sick where I've had a fever or been laid out for days. I have some sinus issues, but like Juice said, Nasonex is the shit and helps a lot. I do have some inner ear issues where once about every 3 years I'll get vertigo. I'll get out of bed, take about two steps, do an imitation like I'm trying to balance on a surfboard, turn around and try to walk--or crawl if not successful--back to bed. Usually if I sleep for a couple of hours I'm good, but a couple of years ago I had that shit for about 6 months. I don't plan on getting the flu shot. My son had the flu two years ago. Even if he had the shot, it was a different strain than what he had. I'm not opposed to ever getting it. It just doesn't cross my mind to panic about it.