The illness thread

[Chris]

hey all.
I woke up this morning feeling very ill. I felt as if my balance was off. I felt sick immediately upon standing up. My sinuses have been clogged and been draining. I am just getting over a bad illness which has affected my voice. Possibly larangitis. I worked through it though cause we need the money. Anyway I wonder if something is amiss with my balance fluid in the inner ear. been doing some research online and heard about Meniere's Disease. I am not sure I have it or not. Cause I can't go to the doctor cause I dont have health insurance. Basically I am in a bit of a shitty state now. I havent tried to get up in the last few hours I am currently in bed, home alone, with a phone, a laptop, and a bottle of gatorade. I have already taken some sutafed. I dont know if I should get some dramamine or not.

Basically this sucks. I have heard other people's accounts of Meniere's Disease and mine is not as severe. Basically I feel a bit dizzy when ever I move my head. When my head is still its fine. I can read ok. I havent got the spins or anything. (yet- knock on wood)

any comments?

[bishop]

lots of real diseases share symptoms of regular illnesses.. my mother sometimes gets all hyped up like a hypocondriac when she's sick - always turns out to be nothing.

i'm not sure if this is still a prescription drug, or OTC, but if you can find some flonase, i'd recommend buying some.. it's a very good nasal spray that clears deep in your sinuses. (i have very bad sinuses) possibly take something like a claritin/zyrtek before going to sleep could be a good idea too.

for me, whenever i get some sort of cold it starts out with clogged sinuses and post-nasal drip. if i should happen to sleep on my side at all during the night, i'll wake up with poor balance, and splitting headache and clogged ears. the dizziness is most likely due to your sinuses being all clogged up.. get a nasal spray and/or some claratin/zyrtek.. once you start to break it up, you'll start feeling better.. good hot showers are good for breaking things up too.. it's gross, but if you start feeling that "snap, crackle, pop" feeling in your sinuses - make your way to the nearest location to blow all of that shit out..

[Chris]

Yeah I have been doing that too. I will ask if she can go and get me some of that. Got to get myself some strength to get up and get a shower.

[bishop]

fyi.. sudafed is totally useless. i don't know what it's supposed to do, but it doesn't alleviate congestion at all.. and if your throat's sore, you're better off sucking on a bag of zinc cough drops.

[Nono]

My sinuses have been clogged and been draining.

Is what they're draining green? Or at least dark yellow? If so, your sinuses are infected. (A brilliant diagnosis by Dr Nono, eh? I'm trying to rule out allergies here.)

If your sinuses are infected, cleansing them will do you the same good as cleansing any other infection. See if you can get some saline solution: 99.1% distilled water, 0.9% salt. (The mixture is important to avoid screwing things up through osmosis. Careful the pharmacy doesn't try selling you that shit people use for their contact lenses -- it has other things in it.) If you can't buy it, make your own, being as careful as you can with the mixture.

Next thing you'll need is a small soft-plastic bottle with nozzle to administer the stuff. Maybe to obtain this you'll have to buy a commercial sinus-cleansing solution. More expensive, but you'll get the squeezer, and in the meantime the commercial stuff will help. (If you can't get a squeezer you'll have to snort the snuff our of the palm of your hand.)

Back to the saline solution: Put a little Listerine in it. (You'll see through experimentation how much you can stand.) You now have something that will bathe and disinfect the mucous lining of your sinuses, plus detach the green shit (pus) and make it easier to evacuate (blow out).

Blow your nose as best you can and take some drops to open those sinuses up. Now lie on your back, tip your head back and squeeze half the contents in one nostril and half in the other. Relax, it can't hurt you -- it's like gargling, but up your nose. You'll get used to it. Try to fill your sinuses with the stuff.

Leave it in there for a minute to do its thing. Then block your nostrils with your fingers and make gentle 'blowing movements' to shift the stuff around inside. When you think enough is enough, go and blow it out (sink, toilet, wherever). Repeat the process until no further pus exits. Do this before bed and when you get up in the morning.

This complicated and amusing process will give your sinuses the best chance of fighting the infection. But if it drags on, especially with fever, you owe it to yourself to get a prescription for the right antibiotic. And whatever you do, finish the entire course, no matter how good you're feeling -- otherwise you risk breeding a resistant strain, and then you're fucked.

Last step in the process, go out and vote for someone whose policy it is to introduce universal medicare. :)

[PatrickHenry]

Chris, when draining sinuses remember that four of them are below the air passageways of your nose. This means that turning it upside down, ie. lying on your bed with your head over the edge, downwards, will drain the material into the passageways where it can be blown out with some force from the lungs...

Also I would recommend a visit to a practitioner of Chinese medicine. Often their diagnoses and prescriptions are more accurate and less costly than an MD...

[Chris]

thanks to you guys.

I decided I needed to take a shower. So after the shower i felt like shit. Threw up. Then drank a bit more gatorade, ate a bit of chicken soup. This was at about 430pm its now nearly 7 and I am feeling a bit more hungry and have to piss, so I get up and piss, and start to get some food and then.... threw up again from motion sickness. All that chicken soup is out of me now and I hadnt eaten all day. I cleaned up, got the bottle of gatorade out of the fridge, and a box of cheerios and am now back in bed going to try and be stationary for some time so the food and gatorade can pass through my stomach. I do feel a tad better after i get sick, but I still get that wierd dizziness and imbalance feeling. One thing I forgot to mention (of forgot that I did mention) was that when I was dry heaving this morning, some fluid drained out of my ear. My grandmother in law says it may be an ear infection. SO what I am going to try and do is stay stationary, take some dramamine and sleep it off, and hope I can go back to work tomorrow.

[Chris]

Yes it is green, sometimes dark green. It has been since last monday when I was battling another illness (IMO)

[The Fyrdman]

Personally, I'd suggest spending one day one nothing but water and sleeping as much as possible. Next day eat fruit, preferably blended with a little yohgurt (or unpasteurised milk if it's possible to get your hands on it). You could also try hot water with honey and lemon. During this period, make sure you keep taking a good multi-vitamen (preferably one without iron since your a man), cod liver oil capsules (1000mg) and kelp tablets. After those first two days are up, re-introduce meat or fish, but keep off the grain based foods. Grains are unnatural foods for humans, and are hard for the body to process, creating unneccesary stress during your illness.

Every time I've done this, I've been well within a couple of days. I don't actually get sick anymore unless I've been on a massive drinking binge or gorged on sweets. A natural diet for humans, rather than the crap most people eat, keeps you in top condition.

[Chris]

So i guess cheerios isnt good eh?

Will see if I can stomach some oranges and grapefruit.

[The Fyrdman]

Aye, cheerios would be out. Before you try citrus fruits, how jippy is your digestive system? If it's coming into play, praps bananas, strawberries, papaya and so on would be preferable. If it isn't, oranges are very, very good. Important though, don't drink carton orange juice as a substitute. Juice sends your blood sugar shooting. Try smoothie instead.

[underbear1]

I have had bad sinuses since childhood, one simple means to get them to drain without drugs, is take a washcloth as hot as you can handle and use it over your forehead and eyes. Sounds like if your ears are already infected to the point of balance problems, you should see a Dr. for some anti biotics, the vomiting is from the balance problem,(usually.) Good luck.
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