Colds--Another Thing Sucky About January

My special lady is entering her second week of a bad cold, which has kept her from work until yesterday and finally required a doctor's visit. As expected, the doctor said "yep, you have a cold!" Now, I'm no fancy big city doctor (as I hook my thumbs in my suspenders), but my usual regimen for dealing with colds consists of:

1) Bedrest. As much as possible.

2) Can't sleep? Nyquil. Down it like Janis Joplin if you have to.

3) Bundle up when you sleep to induce fever.

4) Drown it with three things: water, hot tea, and chicken soup. Have so much of it that you're sick of it.

I've been told to think of the immune system as the world's most efficient killing machine, ordinarily destroying germs before you even notice, and when the germs get an early foothold (in the form of a cold) that's when the killers go into action. Being asleep let's them do their business undisturbed, the liquids help them drown the cold germs, and the fever helps boil the buggers away. Until there's some cure, that's really all you can do with a cold.

However, this one doesn't seem to be going away--and it's frustrating to have to miss work when it piles up, and not be able to do anything fun (besides TV), or eat or drink what you really want to. Chicken soup is no substitute for pizza and beer on the fun scale.

Meantime, I get to put my caregiving to the test with soup and tea prepping--here's hoping we get this thing knocked out!