Feel like crap; still wanna ride...

[davkatreb]

Damned upper respiratory infection has been dogging me all winter. It's been keeping me off the bike, actually. Sinus pain, periods of uncontrollable coughing-About a week and a half ago I woke up and couldn't even talk. Good times.

So what do yinz do to conquer that sort of mess, the better to keep on riding?

[althegud1srtakn]

i'm guessing you've already tried mucinex or something similar? other than that i dunno

[davkatreb]

No, not really. The stuff works?

[jh4rt]

You should try this stuff... or some other sort of inhaler based "steroid". The stuff really works. You have to go to a doctor to get it, though.

[althegud1srtakn]

No, not really. The stuff works?

depending on what you've got, yeah. just don't take too much of it. it's kinda like chapstick and eyedrops and a million other things in that if you over-use it your body has a hard time re-adjusting to you not using it

[davkatreb]

I go back to my G.P. in a week or two to get my blood pressure rechecked. Saw him last month and he read me the riot act for not riding. F*ck him; I do commercial electrical work all day long. Doubt he could keep up with me for eight hours, not to mention I get up at 0230 and travel acouple hours just to get to the party. White coats-WTF do they know about work?

But anyway, I'm gonna lay it all out for him. Don't plan on letting him leave until we've worked out a satisfactory solution.

[jerman]

Davka, I swear by the Zicam stuff. It is really just a couple forms of Zinc but man it really works. If I feel myself getting ill I take it and it really shortens if not stops a cold. If you are already ill, It will speed up your recovery process.

[wigger thomas]

Put some brandy in a big snifter and inhale a lot of the fumes [snift?] while sipping slowly.

[davkatreb]

Put some brandy in a big snifter and inhale a lot of the fumes [snift?] while sipping slowly.
Way ahead of you. It handles the symptoms nicely, but does little to get me fit to ride.

[plume_mtb]

got a cold coming on from last night into today. Rode any way, hard and fast for 30 miles. Felt better while I was on the bike but now I think it could go either way. I wish I did have some Zicam now. I second it working really well.

[wigger thomas]

Sinuses can be tough. Infectionns tend to hang on for a long time. Perhaps some kind of a saline irrigation. Check with your Dr. on the details. I know a coworker had good results from that.

Have you considered it may be allergies?

[bdee]

Been dealing with the chest thing (my girl is too) since the start of the year. It went away completely then I got the Flu again 3 weeks ago. All told it kept me off the bike for ~ 14 days this year. I still cough after harder rides, I had no idea I could produce this much phlegm/mucus. Woke up this morning and coughed up one huge ball of wax, so to speak.

Another vote for Zicam - I started taking it right when the Flu hit in Feb. ~ 2.5 days later the worst (104 deg. fever, aches, chills, bad headache) was over. I was just left with the chest cold part for a while after.

Here's one weird thing - anytime I drink so much as one beer it loosens me up like mad. I'll be coughing crap up for a while if I have a beer or two. As a result I've been partaking very little in boozy festivities. Stacy has the same thing happen to her (wine, not beer) - it's friggin' weird. It's like we are now allergic to alcohol..

[tryandgetme]

Been dealing with the chest thing (my girl is too) since the start of the year. It went away completely then I got the Flu again 3 weeks ago. All told it kept me off the bike for ~ 14 days this year. I still cough after harder rides, I had no idea I could produce this much phlegm/mucus. Woke up this morning and coughed up one huge ball of wax, so to speak.

Another vote for Zicam - I started taking it right when the Flu hit in Feb. ~ 2.5 days later the worst (104 deg. fever, aches, chills, bad headache) was over. I was just left with the chest cold part for a while after.

Here's one weird thing - anytime I drink so much as one beer it loosens me up like mad. I'll be coughing crap up for a while if I have a beer or two. As a result I've been partaking very little in boozy festivities. Stacy has the same thing happen to her (wine, not beer) - it's friggin' weird. It's like we are now allergic to alcohol..

caffiene does the same to me now. 1 can of red bull, 2 minutes later I'm coughing bad for 3 days.

I got a bad chest cold once when I was about 12, ever since then I've had this little annoying allergy type cough that gets worse with excersize. I've gotten used to it, I've trained myself to ignore the cough reflex when in public and such. I've just lived with it. The doc has no idea.

[S. cerevisiae]

If you've got a sinus infection it really sucks to get rid of. I once had to have my sinuses packed and treated for a bad one after breaking my nose.

One of the things that will work for cleaning (literally) ones sinuses out is a sinus rinse. MeilMed makes a good one. It's a self-contained kit that has the proper salts, instructions, and a sterile squirt bottle. Get some distilled water and go to town. It will clean any extraneous crap out, and help with your immune system fight back.

Definitely get your physician on the case too. You could need a nice strong intestinal fauna killing antibiotic.

I'd lay off of the sauce some. Distilled liquor is wicked hard on ones immunity.

[-Devil-]

me and several co-workers fought with sinus infections this winter ...

for all of us .. it took a steroid shot, and strong antibiotics to knock it out ...