Fighting a summer cold

How much ambition do I have today? Zero. Nada.

I've been fighting ragweed allergies this week and I think they've now turned into a cold. By tomorrow or the next day, it might manifest itself into bronchitis as I'm already wheezy and spitting up phlegm.

I took a Saturday afternoon nap, which isn't unusual. What is unusual is that I slept for three and a half hours. Also, I missed watching the Yankees win on TV. I knew they were playing but if I had watched them, I would have fallen asleep in the chair. So I decided to fall asleep in bed.

Tomorrow, we have a full calendar of events so I'm really hoping to feel better. But if not, there is always the walk-in clinic.

I planned on writing some more about my hacking cough, fever, runny eyes so you know exactly how I feel...but if you've ever seen a commercial for Dristan, you understand how I feel.

When I was growing up, I think my dad was addicted to Dristan. Now I don't think they even make it any more. Household medicines have changed over the years. We used to have either aspirin or children's aspirin. Now there's Tylenol and Advil and a bunch of knock-offs.

For colds, we use to take either Dristan or Contact. Both of them would dry out my sinuses and generally ended up with a nosebleed. I don't think they make Contact either...at least we don't buy it if they do.

I've never been very good at swallowing pills, so I always try to find the smallest pills I can take. Today, I went to the pharmacy to buy a multi-vitamin. I asked the cashier what was the smallest multi-vitamin he had. He opened a box and took out the pill bottle. Then he unscrewed the lid. Of course, there was a seal on the top of the bottle.

"I don't know," he admitted.

So I bought the bottle he held in his hand. It not only said it was a multi-vitamin but also formulated especially for men. I can't imagine what special ingredients it might have contained just for men, but it was enough to sway me to buy them.

When I got them home and popped the seal with a sharp knife, the pills were huge....three times bigger than the little red vitamin pills I had been taken. So I thought there must be something interesting in the vitamins. Of course, you're way ahead of me on this one. Most of the pill is simply inert ingredients. I guess it won't kill me, but I would just like to take a small pill without having to gag every morning. And the vitamins stink. I won't be smelling them before I take them.

The other bad thing for me about having a cold, or a cough or a runny nose...is that my dad seems to catch everything that is brought into the house.

So my outlook for this cold goes like this...I'll probably go to the walk-in clinic tomorrow and I'll probably have to take dad to the walk-in clinic later during the week.