Cold and Flu Essentials

There is this growing concern about the Covid-19 virus. As of today March 5th 2020 the CDC is not positive on how the virus is spread from person to person. Please see more details at CDC by clicking here. I highly encourage everyone to go read the CDC information as it will be updated with the latest information. The CDC also talks about home care steps such as cleaning door handles and other surfaces.

After seeing and reading what people are stocking up on in preparation for becoming sick I thought I might shed some light on the matter. For instances while it’s a great idea to buy Costco size packages of toilet paper and water that type of preparation is really aimed at natural disaster prepping.

Preparation in anticipation of being sick is another hemisphere all together. I want to share how I best treat the symptoms of a cold and flu. While I previously posted a very detailed outline in the past on this matter I just want to highlight the essentials and medications this time around.

Essentials:

#1. Non perishable foods

  • I personally keep my house stocked at all times by having packages of jello, top ramen, chicken noodle soup, tomato soup, bullion cubes, lemon lime soda, ginger ale, Gatorade, and oral IV tabs or packets. Keep foods simple and easy to digest and cook. Our taste buds are altered when we are sick and our palates tend to favor saltier so the soups are easy on the stomach while being palatable.

#2. Hand sanitizer for every room.

  • If the person that is sick can’t be isolated and must use shared living spaces such as bathrooms then hand sanitizer may just stop the spread within a house hold. Hand sanitizer is important to use after blowing your nose, sneezing, or coughing and before touching any surfaces. I suggest keeping hand sanitizer anywhere that is a shared surface such as near sink handles, the refrigerator, and door handles.

#3. Isolation

Per the CDC “Household members should stay in another room or be separated from the patient as much as possible. Household members should use a separate bedroom and bathroom, if available.”

For couples both the sick person and non stick person are going to have a better nights sleep if they sleep in different rooms. The CDC web site is a fabulous resource and I encourage the use of their website for up to date information.

I have had great success over the years with using a guest bedroom as our sick room. I have avoided catching many different illnesses by placing Eric in his own room.

Medication Overview

I buy all of my medications in the strongest forms possible. So buying mixed medications such as Theraflu and DayQuils isn’t normal for me because it doesn’t always offer the strongest form of a medication. For instance

Theraflu

Active Ingredients:

Dextromethorphan HBr, 20 mg, Cough suppressant

Guaifenesin, 400 mg, Expectorant

Delsym

Ingredient (in each 5 mL): Dextromethorphan polistirex equivalent to 30 mg dextromethorphan HBr

Mucinex

The delsym and Mucinex offer stronger strengths on their own vs buying it pre mixed in the Theraflu. However For a lot of people buying the pre mixed medications is convenient and affordable. The best part of pre mixed medications is that it is used in equal proportion and there aren’t excess medications left over, you use exactly what is needed.

I organize my medications into bins and this is my upper respiratory bin which covers cold, flu, and seasonal allergies. I just restocked medications and checked expiration dates in preparation for any more illnesses to come.

#4. Medications and tools

This is a quick list of some of what I keep stocked and have found works for me. It is really all about being as comfortable as possible while enduring the symptoms.

  • Thermometer
  • Gel tablet NyQuil and DayQuils
  • Tylenol and Ibuprofen

I take two Tylenol and ibuprofen as outlined on the bottles when fevers are present until the fever breaks.

Runny noses;

  • Mucinex, netti pot, afrin nasal spray (not to be used longer than 3 days as rebound congestion will occur), Vick’s lotion infused tissues, chap stick and lotion for raw nose and face, antihistamines, pseudoephedrine. Never take two decongestants at the same time.

Cough:

  • Mucinex DM (if Phlem is being coughed up), Cough suppressants extended release 12 hours (robitussin or Delsym), cough drops, your favorite tea and honey to coat a sore throat. Salt water gargles can also be soothing. Liquid NyQuil, I have found that the liquid form can coat and sooth a sore throat and Vics vapor rub.

Optional items such as a humidifier or essential oil diffuser are added comfort measures. I have found the use of certain essential oils with menthol to be very soothing when congested. Steam showers with menthol bath bombs are also very soothing.

Essential oils with menthol include

  • Eucalyptus
  • Peppermint
  • Spearmint

I have used the Now Clean the Air essential oil mix.

ingredients: Peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, hyssop oil & rosemary oil

It works better than I could have expected. I personally have an oil diffuser that works with just the essential oil and no water. To be clear this is solely a comfort measure and has no curative properties whatsoever.

Eric and I are both fighting an upper respiratory cold right now. Unfortunately it started while we were traveling last week in Jackson Wyoming and were staying in a studio hotel. Eric became very fatigued but showed no other symptoms and didn’t tell me the severity of his symptoms. Since being home I immediately started showing symptoms and Eric has become reinfected after not sleeping in separate rooms. So it is very important to keep the healthy person and sick person in different rooms and to not share bathrooms. It’s important to tend to the sick persons needs and reduce their need to enter shared spaces such as the kitchen. Reinfecting one another is easy to accomplish so be careful.