Traveling with a Cold

Caught a mild cold in Ireland. No biggie. It did however sweep over the household in all of it's mildness. A few sneezes and sniffles, but no more. There were no aches and pains. No severe bouts of exhaustion.

Then, we got on the plane. The sneezing and coughing in a confined space laden with dry, recirculated air is not pleasant. Symptoms were exaggerated, as is my memory of it all. Upon descending on our approach home, my annoying but tolerable sinus pressure hit a high point where sharp pains started attacking my eye. It felt like needles were plunging into my eyebrows, and all I could do was apply pressure to relieve the pain. Incredulous, I was really to drive to my doctor when we got off the plane. MetaDaddy said I should just chalk it up to flying with sinus pressure. Grr.

When we got home, the "mild" cold actually got worse and I started experiencing exhaustion and various other symptoms, surely not aided by jet lag. That night we went to sleep at 7, and after waking several times due to congestion, I woke up for good at 2 A.M. along with MetaToddler. He was seemingly struggling with jet lag, so after spending about an hour with MetaDaddy, I took over for the night (he had work the following day, and I was already awake for the night). MetaToddler didn't go back to sleep until his 11 A.M. nap, and I didn't go back to sleep until 8 that night. Oddly enough, I didn't feel too tired, so I didn't feel like I was unduly pushing myself (despite what MetaDaddy says). Except for MetaDaddy, we all slept a bit better than night. Apparently, I was breathing heavily, on the verge of verbalizing my exhales. I think I heard it a couple of times, but for the most part, I was ignorant to my moans. Poor MetaDaddy!

Thursday went well, until the evening. I suddenly got ridiculously tired, and it was all I could do to drag myself to the dinner table to eat, much less make dinner. Frozen leftovers came in handy there. Mmm...coq au vin, courtesy of MetaDaddy.

While overall I was better, my cough got worse, which is par for the course for me. I forgot what my doctor called it, but when I get a certain kind of cold, I have a kind of asthmatic reaction causing difficulty breathing. It also means I have unproductive coughs, so I cough more often. The result is a severely sore throat after a while, potential coughing attacks where I can't catch my breath, and a cough that lingers for weeks past the initial cold. When I started using an inhaler, it made a huge difference, including reducing the longevity of the lingering cough. However, I don't like the edgy, shaky reaction I get from using it, so I keep it to a minimum. Last night I used it, and sleep went well for everyone, including MetaDaddy.

Fortunately, MetaToddler didn't experience a similar escalation of symptoms like I did. I'm past the worst of it, and should be up and dancing with him in no time.

Good Times!