<p>Hey, not a parent but figured you guys might have some valuable input.
After 2.5 hrs of rehearsal Friday and 7~ hrs of rehearsal plus a concert yesterday, I woke up today with a runny nose, sore throat, and major headache [I’m not really worried about the first two so much as the last one since the headaches I get are usually really bad and right now I can barely put together a sentence]. I have finals from the 16th to the 19th, so I’m just barely hanging in there. Does anyone have any remedies that might work? I have to finish my reviews today too, so just staying in bed is (sadly) not really an option.</p>
<p>Using a netti pot (which where I live, one can get at Walgreens), can help drain your sinuses. Using one sounds weird, but they do help get rid of your congestion.</p>
<p>Lots of garlic in a soup also helps as does drinking lots of fluids.</p>
<p>Too late for this remedy, but remember it the next time: At the first sign of a cold, take extra zinc as well as echinacea. Also eat cashews, though, because zinc depletes your body’s copper supplies, but cashews boost your copper.</p>
<p>Spend time in a steamy shower also will help clear your sinuses.</p>
<p>My son swears by EmergenC (I may have spelled it wrong).</p>
<p>Take Cold-EEZE lozenges (brand, don’t fall for fakes that don’t contain the same ingredients) - one every 1/2 hour or chop them up and take bits constantly. Take a lot of Vitamin C, either chewables or in drinks like Emergenc-C. There are zinc products that you spray into your mouth, or get up your nose - Zicam. I also keep Oscillococcinum sublingual pellets on hand for the onset of colds.</p>
<p>It’s best to take these things at the first sign of a cold, but even 1-2 days into the onset they can help. Sometimes with all of this you still get fairly sick, but these remedies do help us. Good luck!</p>
<p>You aren’t looking for this advice, but to others maybe: Always remember that if you are sick, with a doctor’s note you can postpone your exams until you are well. In some cases, it’s a wise option.</p>
<p>Dayquil, and lots of tea and orange juice.</p>
<p>Be careful if you try vitamin C. I strongly recommend staying under 1000 milligrams per day because some people get diarrhea at higher doses. Diarrhea during an exam is not a good thing.</p>
<p>Make sure you have some Tylenol or Advil on hand, and take a dose before going to an exam. It should help with the headache and the general rotten feeling.</p>
<p>Most studies indicate that large doses of vitamin C won’t do any good at all for a cold. Ditto with many of the other popular products such as Airborne. The best thing to do is to allow your body to heal itself by getting lots of rest (tough to do during finals), drink lots of liquids to keep hydrated, and treat the symptoms (congestion, headache) as best you can.</p>
<p>My hs senior caught a nasty cold also - and it has been a rough week.</p>
<p>Besides whatever over-the-counter medicines work for you, treat symptoms with: extended really warm showers - Shower Soothers are nice to throw on the shower floor; liquids, liquids, liquids - Sprite, juices, hot chocolate; comfort food - soup, mac & cheese, applesauce, popsicles. Eating small amounts and drinking liquid constantly really helps, I think.</p>
<p>My d also found that wearing snuggly pjs, socks, etc. while at home helped. I washed her sheets, etc., each day to somewhat keep the germ quota to a minimum and just for the mental boost of climbing into a clean bed after a lousy day.</p>
<p>chicken soup - seriously it’s medicinal. And if you can get some homemade stuff from a Jewish grandmother… all the better!</p>
<p>A prescription does of Advil is 800-1600mgs, so you can take 4 pills and see if that knocks out your headache.</p>
<p>The zinc really does seem to work to subdue the symptoms of colds, Zicam has worked for us.</p>
<p>Go to the doctor if it gets worse and the remedies aren’t working - especially headache. Sore throat and headache have always meant strep throat for mine.</p>
<p>Sleep. That’s when your body does the major repair work. A lot of sleep today and tomorrow can mean much, much better quality of study hours. </p>
<p>Also, get to the doctor if it’s getting worse. Again, it’s time out of the study schedule but it will pay dividends if what you’ve got is not going to get better on its own.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>Zicam !
Another Zinc product, but I swear by it . Everytime I have started to get a cold for the last several years, put a little Zicam in your nose and symptoms disappear.
My whole family uses it, and we rarely get colds ( or if we do, they go away very quickly )</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, you guys have helped a lot and I feel a lot better in only ~12 hours.
Random tip- sometimes it’s something simple. I didn’t put my contacts in last night, and apparently straining my eyes (albeit subconsciously) seemed to have added to my headache a lot. Now it’s still there, but it’s subsided a lot.
Thanks again!</p>
<p>I swear by lots of hot tea with honey, extra sleep and Airborne tablets (disolve in water).</p>
<p>Airborne tablets are great! It helps a lot. Zicam also helps me with the congestion that comes with a cold (although not so much with the whole “icky” feeling, but that’s me). I try to drink lots of orange juice, and wear comfortable clothes (it helps!).</p>
<p>Zicam nasal spray. Use it immediately at the first sign of a cold. Use it several times a day. You may still get a cold but it will probably be gone in a couple of days. I have been a believer for about 5 years. I used to get colds several times a year. Now, knock on wood, hardly ever anything more than a day.</p>
<p>for congestion relief, I HIGHLY recommend a Neti pot (you can usually get them at CVS or Walgreens). After I use one, I feel so much better. It’s a nice drug-free way to help with symptom relief. If you aren’t familiar with them, google it, or check it out on wikipedia. It’s a form of nasal irrigation, and although people are a bit hesitant at first when they realize what they have to do, it’s really, really not as bad as our imaginations can make it to be.</p>
<p>“NeilMed” sells a sinus rinse kit that uses a small plastic bottle rather than a neti pot. It works just as well.</p>
<p>My husband and I just had major colds, headaches, and swear by the sinus rinses. You will feel so much better immediately, and the cold will go away faster.</p>