BS: Lingering Head Cold...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Feb 23 - 07:00 PM

You're lucky. I hardly ever catch colds, but this winter has been a right bugger. I don't know whether I've had about four colds since October or just one big one, but Kleenex are making a bloody fortune out of me. It seems, to use the common parlance, that "there's a lot of it around." The received wisdom is that two winters of lockdowns has made our immune systems forget what to do. Anyway, back to the tissue box. My nostrils can't decide which one of them is going to be blocked all night tonight...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Feb 23 - 07:01 PM

Have made, dammit. Atishoo....

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Feb 23 - 08:03 PM

I haven't had a cold in three years which is odd.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Helen
Date: 25 Feb 23 - 09:05 PM

No, me neither Donuel. I think it is due to social distancing, hand sanitisers and using disinfectant wipes if necessary before touching surfaces (in the public area) which may have been touched by someone else. The masks would have helped too, when we still had to wear them.

I intend to continue using the first three cautionary actions from now on, regardless of the status of the dreaded COVID.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 06:26 AM

I suppose there's not much point socially distancing simply to avoid colds, though it's a bonus if it avoids covid. Most people round here don't bother any more. I never touch a supermarket trolley handle that I haven't disinfected first and I guess I'll be doing that forever. But I can't sanitise every one of upwards of maybe fifty items that I pick up from the shelves. I never touch my face or rub my eyes until I get back to the hand sanitiser in my car (I suppose I could put the sanitiser in my pocket...). Some supermarkets have quietly ceased to provide sanitiser at the entrance. On the whole, I think that's a backward step. Before the pandemic, the main concern was poo traces on trolley handles. One survey I recall found over 50% of handles thus contaminated.

Almost all gents' toilets here have a door handle that you have to pull in order to leave, and that has to come after you've washed your hands. Not good. Strong pinkie needed, and a pull on the handle at its top...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 08:43 AM

When I was using hand sanitiser regularly, I found that the skin at the side of my fingernails dried up and cracked at the corners, leading to painful open wounds which took ages to clear up. A simple task, such as slicing a lemon, left me in excruciating agony to the point where I started wondering if catching Covid would really be that bad.

I will use hand sanitiser if I think the situation warrants it but soap and water is my preferred option.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 09:11 AM

”I will use hand sanitiser if I think the situation warrants it but soap and water is my preferred option.”

Mine too, followed by an application of ‘Lotil’ hand cream, which keeps the skin hydrated and supple, and prevents the sore, open cracks in the skin at the corners of the nails.

On another topic, I see Johnson has been opening his big mouth and putting his foot in it again…

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-biden-brexit-eu-deal-row-b2289792.html

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 09:18 AM

I've noticed rest room doors are being updated with a fore arm L shaped handle that is higher than a door knob.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 10:25 AM

As usual at this point of the winter, I have rubbed the tip of my nose raw. It won’t heal up till Easter.

Bugger it.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 10:33 AM

Too many of the commercial washroom dispenser and general consumer bar soaps have the sodium lauryl sulfate type (there is a group of related products) foaming ingredient and those are what make my hands break out (a coconut allergy - contact dermatitis). The hand sanitizer works better (though I often use a towel to dry any extra rather than letting it evaporate in place.)

The social distancing of COVID has been a great way to help avoid colds. I have enough trouble with pollen allergies during the year, I don't need extra sources of congestion.

Scroll down at that link to find the list of things to avoid if it's a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 10:37 AM

Point taken about sanitisers and split skin down the side of the nails. I've been getting that all winter and hadn't connected it to sanitiser. I'll have to have a rethink...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 10:48 AM

"A simple task, such as slicing a lemon, left me in excruciating agony..."

No problem, Doug. Just drop the slice of lemon into a gin and tonic, drink it quickly and you won't feel a thing after five minutes...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 11:12 AM

Or, if you can't get lemons, a slice of turnip in your g&t.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 11:49 AM

The only lingering thing from my mild covid case is snot. One sinus keeps draining, one nostril keeps stuffing up, one lung keeps needing clearing. All on my left side.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 27 Feb 23 - 10:03 AM

Dorothy, if you do meet up for lunch, please wish Charmion "bonne route" from me. I did not rise early enough to give her a call before her departure.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 27 Feb 23 - 10:04 AM

Damn! Wrong thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Stanron
Date: 27 Feb 23 - 10:45 AM

It's interesting that since I started to take a small amount of chilli flakes in my coffee I have not been bothered by persistent blocked nose. I do however have a lot of runny nose incidents.

Connected? Maybe and maybe not. For the last year I have been sleeping in a reclining chair so my head is always somewhat upright.

Last night I added some chilli flakes to a cup of hot chocolate. Very nice.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 09:11 AM

Well I've got another stinkin' cold and, for the first time in my life, I have a lovely dose of conjunctivitis to go with it. The pharmacist gave me antibiotic drops, but as the thing is usually caused by viruses, they probably won't work. All is misery...

Say one for me...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 09:21 AM

Maybe it is a lingerie head cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 10:01 AM

Have a mushroom.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 10:17 AM

Have a Brexit Biscuit
.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 10:20 AM

One fell off the table and killed a friend of mine.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: leeneia
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 03:07 PM

I'm sorry to hear about your illness, Steve. I hope you get better soon.

A few years ago, I had a cold that would not go away. Cold, cough, then earache, then lingering cough. Finally the urgent care place referred me to a doc who said, "It's been raining. You have allergies." He gave me an injection which really, really hurt, but my cough was gone within hours.

I'm not saying I had allergies the whole time. It definitely started out as a cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 06:09 PM

Much appreciated, leeneia. I'm a-sittin' here tonight with a rotten cold (slowly subsiding), a toothache (caused by biting too hard on a very solid flame raisin in a box of breakfast cereal), and a nice dose of the owld pink-eye, aka conjunctivitis (the drops are working...). BUT: I only get things that you can't die of, it's Wednesday, therefore I have a glass of Negroamaro to hand, and "It's the first mild day of March: Each moment sweeter than before, The Redbreast sings from the tall larch, That stands beside our door..." (cheers, Wordsworth). Though, in my case, it will have to be my bird table, as I haven't got a larch...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 09:35 AM

Beethoven was sick most of his life

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 10:27 AM

Which doesn't link to anything to do with Beethoven (who wasn't sick for most of his life). I should know better than to click on your links.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 11:39 AM

So sorry Steve that you're not well. Hope you get better very soon.
My husband always suffers badly from hay-fever every year, but just now he's started sneezing and snuffling rather early. I'm wondering if the unusually warm, sunny weather has brought some tree pollen or other pollen into the air. There are lots of hazel catkins out around here, and maybe it's that. Piriton/Piritese at the ready!
(It's not Covid, as he has to test himself twice a week, being a school cleaner, and the tests are always negative.)

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 05:34 PM

My eighth day with this head cold.
Am now coming out the other side of the tunnel, as it were.
Sleeping better for it.
It's just the waking hours, drinking fluids and clearing out the sinuses, that are still a drag.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 05:38 PM

Cheers, Eliza. I don't actually feel poorly, but it's just that I could benefit from a head transplant... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 05:50 PM

Beethoven Suffered from Lead Poisoning New tests confirm that Ludwig van Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning. The legendary composer, who experienced decades of illness that left him in misery for most of his life, died in 1827. Researchers aren't sure why his lead levels were so high, but they have some ideas.Dec 6, 2005

The wine at that time was leaded.

ARE Irainian girls being POISONED? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/1/why-are-schoolgirls-being-mysteriously-poisoned-in-iran

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 06:16 PM

"New tests confirm..." Yeah, classic weasel words, no backup. Do your homework. Beethoven died at the age of 57, an age not out of order for his time, and was known to be a big wine drinker. Yes he was ill with several different ailments for several years before he died, including stomach disorders and kidney disease, but there is no definitive evidence that he suffered from symptoms of lead poisoning or died of it. The trouble is that you find a single source that suits your agenda then regale us with it as though it's the unalloyed truth, your typical modus operandi. The real truth is that the causes of his ailments and his death are still very much disputed, as a quick google would demonstrate to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Helen
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 06:20 PM

Pot calling kettle black, Steve: "The trouble is that you find a single source that suits your agenda then regale us with it as though it's the unalloyed truth, your typical modus operandi."

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 06:26 PM

Really? Go on, give me an example! As I've only just posted that, you couldn't have spent long researching my misdemeanours, could you, Helen? A bit kneejerk, eh? :-)

By the way, I could suggest that you do the same googling as I recommended to Donuel, lest you find that you are making a fool of yourself by supporting his Beethoven nonsense!

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 07:42 PM

I sometimes get a bit overwhelmed by mozzie bites in summer, Eliza (horsefly bites don't bother me). I hate putting on repellent, that's the trouble, especially the only one that seems to work (DEET). Last summer I bought some of that Piriton stuff you mentioned, thinking that it would calm down the bites while I was in bed. It worked a treat, but it also turned me into a 12-hour zombie! I found that the two weaker ones, ceterizine and loratidine, did the trick and gave me a good night's kip. I'm not recommending anything here, as we're all different and we shouldn't be handing out medical advice, just responding to your mention of Piriton!

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 02:40 AM

Steve, my husband gets the same effects as you do from Piriton - it turns him into a dozy zombie. My (doctor) sister has recommended many alternatives, but they all seem to make him very sleepy.
When in Africa, I too have been eaten alive by mozzies, and I can't stand bloomin' Deet either! At least I take the usual anti-malarials (Malarone tablets) and have never had malaria.
Husband can't seem to sneeze quietly ("AAAAAAACHOOOOOOOOO!") and his poor nose, (which is flat and small with very open nostrils, like all Africans) just lets in the pollen very easily. He had no contact with tree/grass pollen before he came to the UK, so it's hit him hard.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 04:24 AM

Well I have a typical Lancashire nose and I can't sneeze at less than 130 decibels!

I'm glad you said that about those so-called "non-drowsy" antihistamines - Mrs Steve thinks I'm a wimp because they invariably knock me for six. That's fine as long as I take them not too long before bedtime...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 06:01 AM

Jet engines are 100 decibels so you are indeed a blow hard at 130.

Ah its getting late, the sun will soon be up and my procrastination posting time is running out. You on the other hand have all day to protest too much.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 12:44 PM

Mosquitos and suchlike seem to like the smell of people with certain blood groups. Herself always get bit, while I have no trouble. I've suggested before now that she should change her blood group, but she ain't 'avin' it for some reason.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 12:47 PM

Not personal, eh, so what's this then:

"Jet engines are 100 decibels so you are indeed a blow hard at 130.

Ah its getting late, the sun will soon be up and my procrastination posting time is running out. You on the other hand have all day to protest too much.

That's as personal as it gets. Now either shut up or stick to the thread, right? Just a suggestion...

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 12:58 PM

Oops, my iPad went doolally...

I was trying to say that I get bitten to smithereens by horseflies, aka clegs, every summer round here, but the nasty little itchy lumps go away in about five or ten minutes. On the other hand, Mrs Steve suffers miseries with them for hours if not days. But the bloody mozzies...

You can buy little tubes of hydrocortisone bite 'n' stings cream in supermarkets these days. Not bad. Anthisan doesn't work for me at all, and it stinks!

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 05:32 PM

People who eat bananas appeal to mosquitos. COs is a magnet to mosquitos.
Steve quote   "Not personal, eh, so what's this then:

"Jet engines are 100 decibels so you are indeed a blow hard at 130.
(that was a joke similar to yours)

Ah its getting late, the sun will soon be up and my procrastination posting time is running out. You on the other hand have all day to protest too much.



That's as personal as it gets. Now either shut up or stick..Steve quote

Dear Mr. Shaw,
It's not personal, it is business. It is the business of Authoritarianism or the authoritarian personality. One must always remember that the bully suffers such low self esteem/worth that they gain some small satisfaction by trying to take others down to the hellish level of the bully's tortured soul. It is not a delusion of grandeur that drives the bully. It is a self-hatred and envy that poisons their words and actions.

The ammunition of the bully is personified by the Trump rhetoric.
The name calling, accusations, nicknames and the claims of massive evidence that doesn't exist are the small arms weapons of the bully.
The heavy arms and armor are lawsuits and ability to cause harm financially as well as socially.

The spectrum of this pathological behavior ranges from those who believe it is expected of them to the Stalin-Hitler examples.

One might think that the social psychopath causes more destruction but in terms of quantity, destructive interaction mostly comes from the tortured envy of the narcissist. Psychopathic or psychotic serial killers are far more rare phenomenon.

Taking any of narcissist's bile to heart is a victory for them.
In the larger scheme of sticks and stones a bully is a force of nature like a fart in the wind,
If you have the sniffles you won't even smell it.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 05:37 PM

Go and see someone. .

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 23 - 06:32 PM

Anyway, back on the rheumy misery front, the conjunctivitis has responded nicely to the chloramphenicol drops, but the damn things are giving me stinging eyes and a sore nose and throat, and I'm still utterly bunged up on the sinus front. Woe is me. But O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? :-) :-) :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 06:41 AM

Terrible night. All sinuses and other head passages above the chest, totally blocked. The pain across the bridge of my nose and around my eye sockets, legendary. Nostrils red raw. A throat that feels like I've spent the night gargling with gravel. Sneezing for England. This is no lingering head cold. This is me lingering around a severe rheumy purge. If this isn't man flu, I don't know what is. Kleenex share prices have doubled. I need everyone to feel sorry for me please. I comfort myself with the fact that it's yet another ague that I (hopefully) can't die of. Just be grateful that viruses can't transmit across the internet. My mum would have told me to offer it up for the holy souls. They can just bugger off as far as I'm concerned. They should have behaved better while they were here. Purgatory is the here and now.

Oh woe.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 07:48 AM

Get tested

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 07:50 AM

Oh, Steve! You have my deepest sympathy, and even a prayer to St. Roch (patron of the sore throat).

Been there, didn’t like it either, got the scars to prove it.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 08:38 AM

Get tested, eh? So what supernatural power have you obtained that informs you that I'm not testing? Are you actually capable of making interventions that aren't completely stupid?

Cheers, Charmion. I could use some fresh air but it's horribly chilly here and a sudden change in temperature just gets me hacking away! In the words of the Lord (or at least the Bible writer who made it up...), this too shall pass (or was it a Persian bloke...)

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 08:53 AM

Get well sooner or later.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Stanron
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 09:33 AM

For short term relief only try seven, or more if you dare, chilli flakes on your tongue. Keep them there as long as possible.

If it doesn't work blame Brexit.

Subject: RE: BS: Lingering Head Cold...
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 09:42 AM

Stay tuned for Rebrexit.