I hate being sick.

There's a couple viruses going around at the moment: a cold/flu like one and a gastrointestinal one. I seem to have caught both simultaneously. Seeing as how we're packed in in conditions that would make a sardine think it was on vacation, it's no surprise, and I'm shocked and amazed that there weren't widespread sickies being taken this week. Then again, how would I know? I wasn't there.

Monday night after work I went for a walk out through Safehaven, around the golf course and back home again. I still havent gotten around to measureing it, but I would venture a guess of about three miles, and about 45-50 minutes.

Tuesday at work my legs felt a little bit sore, but I figured that was because of the walk the night before. Around 10 that morning I also felt a little tickle in my throat, and by lunchtime, the ache in my legs moved into my hips. I felt pretty run-down but was starting to realize that I was coming down with something. Great. Last time this happened I had to leave work early, but this time I stuck it out til 5:00 and came home and crawled straight into bed. I could barely keep my eyes open. I got up for awhile and did a cold & flu inventory: Knorr soup cubes? Check. Cold-eze Zinc lozenges? Check. Halls Defense? Check. Thera-flu nighttime hot lemony drink? Check. Cold-FX? Sure why not? I drank a theraflu hot drink around 9:00 and was back asleep by 10:30.

Wednesday morning I awoke early, and felt like ass. No, make that deep-fried ass. I txt'd my colleague to let him know I was going to be out sick (boss was off-island) and at 8:00 I popped three caplets of Cold-FX. Cold-FX is a herbal-hooey-snake-oil that's advertised by Don Cherry on the radio back in Canada. My friend Tina tried it last year when she caught a cold and said yes it actually worked. It wasn't the proverbial 'cure for the common cold' but it sure kicked the symptoms ass and shortened her downtime. With that in mind, I picked some up last time I was home for just such an occasion. Cold-FX isn't cheap. I think it was $14 (CAD) for a 3-day supply, but apparently that's all you really need. If it worked, then I'd buy more next time I was home or have someone send some down.

On the back of the package it has a description of what's in Cold-FX and it reads like a snake-oil pitch. Scientifically produced extracts and all that sort of thing. Basically it's a refined North American Ginseng caplet. The Recommended dosing for immediate relief is three capsules three times a day on day 1, two capsules three times a day on day two and one capsule three times per day on day 3. That's what I stuck to.

By 11:00 on Tuesday I felt human again. I went to Foster's and got some soup, turkey and a newspaper. I came home and made some lunch and then took a nap. While I felt human, I still had the rundown, achey no-energy feelings. I also had a wicked headache building. At 3:00 I went to find some advil, and couldn't find the bottle, so I grabbed a couple tylenol instead and went back to bed. I took the next batch of Cold-FX at 4:00 and at 5:00 I broke out in a cold sweat. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I had the ceiling fan going on full and the a/c blowing directly on me, but I couldn't cool down.

Sure enough, my stomach decided that it wanted to be empty and didn't want to wait for the natural processes to take care of that. 40 minutes later, after crawling back and forth to the toilet a dozen times, I just lay down on the nice cool tiles of the floor. That way the trip back to the toilet would be shorter! Don't you love the way your brain processes logic in times like this? Another 40 minutes passed and finally I passed out, in bed this time. Or rather, on top of it. The cold sweat receded and I woke up because I was cold. I pulled the fish blankie over me and went back to sleep again.

I didn't know what caused it... the soup? the turkey sandwich? the banana? the Cold-FX reacting with the Tylenol? Rather than chance it I figured I'd try the Cold-FX again at midnight, and add in one variable at a time until I figured it out. I didn't get sick again that night, so it wasn't the Cold-FX on it's own. Thursday I called in sick again and at noon made some soup. No sickiness. I took the next batch of Cold-FX at 4, and then checked out the FAQ on their website: Cold-FX should not react with any OTC cold medications. Good. so I'll try the theraflu again, since that had 500mg of acetaminophen in it. No sick, slept peacefully.

Friday morning I went to work,after taking a single Cold-FX caplet at 8:00. I was functional at work, but holy cow did sitting at my desk ever beat the crap out of me. I skipped lunch altogether, I had a cup of tea in the morning and a couple liters of water throughout the day. By the time I got home from work Friday (and took the second-to-last Cold-FX)I was dead again. I crawled into bed and took a nap.

When I awoke at seven, I was feeling pretty good. I decided to head out for a bit and wandered up to Calico Jack's and met up with John, Ed, Chopper, Zac, Gordy and Matty & Bean showed up a little bit later. After getting there I decided that while I was ready for some solid food, I wasn't ready for the heat and humidity of outside, so I got my dinner to go and got home just in time to watch the last of Footloose that was on Superstation or TBS or whatever. About an hour after that, I started to sweat again and had a lot of little burps... uh oh, not good. Maybe I wasn't ready for solid food afterall... around 1130 I had a cup of Theraflu and at midnight, right before passing out, took the last Cold-FX capsule.

This morning I woke up and didn't feel like I had been dragged behind a couple hourses all night, like you usually do when you're sick. I stayed in bed until about noon just relaxing, and watching a little TV. I got up and made some bacon, hasbrowns & eggs and had a glass of OJ and a cup of tea. Again, before I finished, I started to sweat again, but everything's good.

So I've finished my supply of Cold-FX and I have to say that it works pretty darn good. I don't think I would run a triathalon today, but I certainly feel about 90% better than I did on Wednesday. The Cold-FX was pretty good at suppressing the symptoms of a cold, and it's claim to fame is boosting your immune system to let it fight the cold off on it's own, and I'd have to admit that that works as well. Normally when I catch a cold, I'm down like I've been poleaxed for about a week or so, and in this case, three days. I'll be picking more up next time I'm home in September and keep it around. I just hope that I don't find myself needing it before then! Next time I'll take it in conjunction with cold meds and see if I can get my downtime down to one day.