Hot shower followed by a hot lemon drink.

Yep - then lie in bed and try to sleep, and when you're not sleeping, spend the time staying hydrated - and sleep as much as possible. It'll go away. Eventually.

oh and to add: I have to be at work all day today and tomorrow. But I will definitely do arse_hat's suggestion tonight.

'pode, when I get slapped by a cold, I go straight for tom yum gai, as spicy as I can handle it, lots of water and 500mg of vitamin C every couple of hours. This last time, I bumped it up a notch by eating jalapenos as well.

I'm not a fan of meds, but TheraFlu is soothing enough to help me catch a good nap when I'm in that achey muscle/painful skin part of fevery ick.

Hope you get well soon, sick sucks.

If you need to be at work and don't operate heavy equipment you could always down half a bottle of Nyquil. You won't feel any better but you'll care a lot less.

Poor 'pode!

Here's what I say: lots of aspirin. Lots of hot liquids. (No caffeine or sugar in the majority of those liquids.)

When you get home, the blistering shower and the sleep sleep sleep.

Vitamin B. Vitamin C. Hot spicy soup.

Also, put boiling water in a big bowl, throw in a peppermint tea back, put a towel over your head, and steam the hell out of your throat and sinuses until the water cools off. Or fifteen minutes. It's very soothing, and I've found helps with headaches. Do this as many times a day as you have time for.

Hope you feel better soon, baby.

Do the hot shower hot drink and hot stew and then put on some thick socks, sweatpants and sweatshirt, crawl into bed under a huge amount of blankets and stuff and have a jug of water, wastebasket, kleenex and good book. That way you should only have to come out of hibernation when you have to take the piss.

Or what Specklammadammadingdong said.

Throw some ginger root in the tea also.

A Japanese-Hawaiian friend once taught me a great recipe for chicken soup involving boiling a chicken, garlic and ginger, then adding bok choy for the last few minutes. Put steamed white rice in the bottom of a bowl, ladle soup over it, and add a big dollop of Sriracha hot sauce. It'll cure what ails you.

Do all of the world's cultures have a variant on the curative chicken soup?

Yeah, ginger root and lemon tea takes great care of nascent colds and early morning flake chills.

Eat plenty, bundle up (keep a core of warmth burning at all times -- if you let yourself get chilly, it can take a while to warm up, and you do your best restoring when you're continuously warm).

Watch funny movies, or read funny stuff, and smile! It goes a long way. Rids y'of yer headache as well.

pseudoephidrine HCl - sudafed. Read cautions & side-effect. Do not take if hypertensive. Best symptomatic relief for runny nose.

Stick the tea, stew and long nap. You'll drown trying to drink the shower.

Uh, "Stick with the tea..."

Here's the info from NIH / medline.

Oh, and opium. Makes a nice mix.

Seconded warbaby.

Also, my roommate just kicked the shit out of a nasty cold with Cold-eeze and copius amounts of vitamin C. He went from sneezing, literally, twenty or thirty times an hour on Sunday, to once or twice on Monday, to not at all Tuesday.

I've also been told airborne is amazing for cutting a cold short.

*marks all as best answer*

Thanks guys, I really am feeling wretched at the moment, so a bit of "poor 'pode"-ing went a long way. I will steam and soup and shower and sudafed this evening. Wonderful.

jalapenos??

Poor pode! :(

Second two cents:

Yeah, Airborne.

Poor poor 'pode. I know how you feels, darlin', I just got over a cold myself. Poor schmoopie pie!

Hansen's Lemon Ginger Echinacea juice is delicious and good for you, hot or cold. I drink it by the gallon when I'm sick. Sudafed if you have to work, otherwise, what everybody else said, and Nyquil at night. Awwwwwww gaspode. I'm sorry you're sick!

jalapenos??
posted by yoga 08 December | 13:41

Jalapenos really aren't that hot (though if you don't go easy on eating the seeds, you may be singing a different tune as they make their egress.) I wouldn't touch a habanero or scotch bonnet, but the restorative properties of capsaicin in moderation are plentiful.

It's estimated that hot peppers contain more than 200% more vitamin C than oranges and the warming properties take some of the burden off of the body in its effort to burn out the bad guys by way of fever, and maintaining a fever is an expensive activity for an immune system. Peppers also help clear the sinuses and soothe sore throats. Combine this with good chicken soup and it packs a punch.

I have (often strong) adverse reactions to many medications so I'm forced to weight the pros and cons carefully before knocking back even something as arguably innocuous as NyQuil, for example. On the other hand, bugs that lay friends out from 7 to 10 days, are usually old news for me within 3 days. YMMV, and all.

Wow FG, I never knew all that! And feel better Gaspode!

I got thru just this weekend with nyquil and dayquil capsules.

Worked fine. I was back at spin class today.

Everyone already dispensed the good advice but I just had to stop in and offer well-wishes. Get better soon gaspode!

Get better soon! I'm just recovering from my own plague...here are some ideas about how to cope.