The Naked Truth » Apparently It’s Not a Summer Cold At All

July 5th, 2005

Apparently It’s Not a Summer Cold At All

Posted in My Life, Wellness by n. mallory | .

Ug.

I feel miserable with the stabbing chest cough, stuffy head, runny nose, stuffy nose, itchy mouth, throat, lips, nose, ears and eyes, coughing headache, and the sinus pressure. It’s worse today than yesterday and I spent all night coughing myself awake though I managed to sleep an hour and a half at one point without waking up. Even my necklace is bothering my itchy throat.

I finally decided it wasn’t a cold and made an emergency appointment with my doctor this morning. I was really lucky she saw me as she normally doesn’t see patients on Tuesday. She said that little dangly thing in the back of my mouth is way swollen, but my lungs sound clear — Thank God! She’s put me on 5 days of Prednisone and I have to go in next week to see how I’m doing. If the attack is the same or returning, she’ll put me on an allergy med. In the meantime, they’re arranging an allergy consult for me, but I understand there’s a lengthy waiting list. Oy.

In the meantime, I’m miserable and I can’t figure out what I’m allergic to. I thought for a bit that maybe it was something in my house which sent me on a bit of a cleaning spree to check for mold or mildew. I even pulled furniture out from the walls and checked under and behind. I did rediscover that my upstairs bathroom is still leaking and I suspect that the cabinet is probably ruined. I wonder if there’s mold behind or under it as a result. (I called the apartment complext this morning and they are sending a guy to look at it.) However, if that was causing my problem, one would think that since I left at 9am, the symptoms would have reduced somewhat.

I haven’t eaten anything new or strange. I haven’t changed shampoo, clothes detergents, or any other product other than I started using an electric toothbrush (per recommendation of my dentist) this morning.

The reason I thought it was something in my apartment was theorized because when I went to a picnic yesterday, I sat outside for a good three hours and felt oddly better, but the minute I went home, the itching restarted. I had tried Sudafed for colds earlier and went out and bought some Benedryl last night but that definitely did not seem to help and it certainly didn’t make me drowsy like I’d hoped.