At a very low ebb

[pegkerr]

I'd like to do a post musing about Rowling's latest revelation about Dumbledore (although I hardly need to, I suppose, since the blogosphere, including my friends list, has been roiling for the past couple of days and goodness knows an enormous number of bytes have been slaughtered on the subject).

I want to post, but I just don't really feel up to it. Maybe I will later.

(It's been fun seeing all the new icons appearing on the topic. My favorite, however, is an older one at cesario's journal (credit sporkyadrasteia), based on a line of Kingsley Shacklebolt's from Order of the Phoenix):



I'm still coughing. As of tomorrow, I'm starting the fourth week now. I really don't think I have a bacterial infection/sinus infection/pneumonia (what I cough up is perfectly clear). I just keep coughing. After weeks of this, my gut just hurts. I can keep it at bay for a little while with cough drops (man, I'm getting sick of the taste of those) and tea. But only for awhile. It keeps coming back.

I slept for a couple of hours this afternoon, and I've been pottering around in my bathrobe. I need to finish my reading and start writing that paper for that Fantasy Matters conference. But my brain seems to have disappeared. Really, I feel as if I have been operating at about 60% capacity for the past two weeks (and at about 10% the week before that.)

How much longer can I expect this to go on?

Comments

[naomikritzer]

Regarding the cough -- coughs can become self-perpetuating (like any other irritation with a scratch/itch/scratch/itch feedback cycle) and sometimes require a serious barrage of medications to knock down to nothing. (Years ago, Ed and I visited an out-of-town friend who had a cough so horrifyingly awful I seriously wondered if maybe he had TB. No TB, and in fact he was over the virus, but his lungs were really irritated and the terrible cough was ensuring that they stayed that way. His doc gave him a super-powerful cough syrup and the cough was gone by the time we left town.)

Ed once coughed for a month, finally went back to the doctor, and came home with some prescription cough syrup, a steroid inhaler, and possibly also a nasal spray. It took all those things together to get the damn cough to stop.

[modmoviegirl.livejournal.com]

I was going to agree with this, I get it every year. It's bronchitis, just a non-communicable non-bacterial one. Whenever I get it, it's like a tickle in the back of my throat - is that yours? I'd say expect another month of this nontreated, but if you can get to a doctor, ask about benzonatate or, even better, azithromycin - that got rid of my cough in a DAY.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Hm. Of course, you could always look on the (very dim) bright side and assume you're getting better stomach muscles out of the deal.

I've been there, though, and I hate it so much.

Cute icon. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

I didn't get quite as sick as you did when I caught my version of that nasty bug that went around. I'm feeling tip-top, but I still have fluid in my lungs that rattles when I'm lying down, sets me into coughing fits if I don't prop myself up. So, I'm not sick-sick either, but something is lingering for me too.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for a non-medicated cough syrup to knock the cough out, may I recommend Buckley's? It's Canadian but you can probably find some around. It looks thoroughly nasty and tastes thoroughly nasty but when your cough gets into the evil stage of just irritating your lungs and not actually coughing up gunk, it can be quite handy. You shouldn't get drowsy off of it. Your lungs and throat will feel like you just ate an entire pine tree, but it will soothe the irritated membranes to a degree that may allow you to get used to not coughing.

[sraun]

If you're still sporadically coughing stuff up, you might try some Mucinex/iguafanesin(sp?). I take one tablet, 10-40 minutes later I have a serious deep chest coughing jag, and then I'm pretty clear for the next 6ish hours.