Okay, so the Weekender is home sick. Really sick with some kind of headcold/flu from hell.
In the middle of the night, I really wanted to go to the hospital, on the vague assumption that they could help me. Uncontrollable coughing, ultra sore throat, unable to eat and just forcing fluids down. I tried everything, aspirin, sinus stuff, etc etc. I wanted to die. What’s really weird is that my vision put this yellow hue on everything; I felt like an old TV about to blink out.
My question is: what would a hospital do, besides just knock you out that would make it more tolerable? Any nursy-doc opinions?
My guess is that had I went, I just would have exposed myself to worse bacteria, viruses and the faults of our healthcare system and felt even worse..
Anyway, without breaking the medical rules of the Forum, I was curious what they would do. IV? Oxygen tent, whaaaat?
Well I went to the hospital about two weeks ago. They gave me Coricidin and told me to boil water with Vicks Vapor Rub in it on the stove, over low heat to moisturize the air (in winter, heating tends to make home air dry and it is more irritating to your throat).
Thanks Cran. Kinda confirms my guesses, which is not much more than you could do at home… And yeah, dry air is killin’ me. I work in a trailer with terrible ventilation with workmates who run the heater all morning until its so hot they turn on the AC. It drives me absolutely crazy. So counter-intuitive.
I’m a schooled herbalist. Normally I can shake a cold in a couple days using theraputics I spent a lot of money and time to learn.
I caught a “cold” last Nov.
The first couple days I treated it myself with bed rest, nutrition, and herbal tinctures.
A week in I started taking over the counter meds.
A week and 1/2 in I’d lost my voice too so I consulted a Dr. and she confirmed that I was doing everything correctly.
The next day I went back and she gave me some Rxs for heavy duty pharmaceuticals.
The following day she shrugged her shoulders when I walked in the door (I was gagging on mucus that wouldn’t flow down my throat) and suggested I visit the local emergency room.
At the ER they hooked me up to an IV for hydration and shot of steroids (as my immune system apparently had gone wacko?).
The next day I started a 6 day Rx of steroids and things got nicer but it still took me a couple weeks before I had a voice and well over a month & 1/2 before I stopped waking at night coughing.
A couple guys who work with my husband caught a cold about 2 weeks after me and they were put on steroids on their first visit to a Dr.
Sometimes it’s better safe than sorry. A few years back, I developed what I assumed was the flu while on a trip. After a long night of finding it more and more difficult to clear my lungs, with my fever rising and rising, I had my hubby take me to emergency and ended up sucking on an Albuterol bong for two hours (they weren’t going to let me leave until I was able to blow a 7 on a peak flow meter), and went home with all kinds of meds (an antibiotic, prednisone, an inhaled steroid and an Albuterol inhaler) because it turned out that what I had wasn’t the flu, but some kind of nasty bacterial infection that, among other things, was causing severe bronchitis.
Redwolf
Edited several times to avoid appearing to give medical advice
There’s one trick hospitals have that’s very difficult to duplicate at home, which is cool mist. (Cool mist humidifiers do exist, but they’re really humidifiers rather than the fog that’s required to loosen up your lungs.) If you have a high fever and can’t breathe, steam will help you breathe better but will cause your fever to go higher, which might be really bad. Cool mist will lubricate your respiratory linings and bring down the fever at the same time.
Plus, as others have pointed out, sometimes you need medications that you don’t even know about and that aren’t available OTC.
I can tell you that they’re not going to knock you out.
Also that they’ll send you a truly incredible bill for emergency services.
My guess is that had I went, I just would have exposed myself to worse bacteria, viruses and the faults of our healthcare system and felt even worse..
This is very likely, yes. The chances of acquiring a drug-resistant bacterial infection are better than excellent and the chances of being the victim of a medication error or other hospital-induced injury are pretty darned good, too. Viruses, on the other hand, aren’t much of an issue.
I work in one. Actually, I work in a mostly administrative building, with occasional forays into the hospital itself. I do not ride the main elevators, stand near people, go through waiting areas, or touch anything in the place, not even elevator buttons and door knobs. Upon returning to my office, I duck into the ladies room and wash my hands, then exit using a paper towel to turn off the faucets and open the door.
The Weekenders didn’t mention a problem with his lungs. He called his adventure “some kind of headcold/flu from hell”.
Its possible. As ill as I was, I had absolutely no congestion in my lungs. All the Dr.s I saw confirmed it.
My husband wanted to take me to the Dr.'s office a lot sooner than I was willing to go.
My mantra was, “Its just a cold, dear. A cold is virus caused. They’re just going to tell me to do exactly what I’ve been doing to stay comfortable until it runs its course.”
But as Redwolf pointed out, a ER has access to tests to see what’s going on. The same tests might take days to get results from in a Dr.'s office.
In Redwolf’s case it wasn’t a virus.
If they know the kind of the bacteria the better they can blast it with the specific antibiotics needed to get rid of it.
(I don’t care how nasty an antibiotic might be. If I need an antibiotic to kill something before it kills me, give it to me now. I’ll deal with the possible iatrogenic adventure later.)
In my case it was a virus, but my immune system was going overboard.
From the description, i’d say either tonsillitis or a sinus infection.
If you have a strong front headache, the last one is very likely. (Might require some antibiotics to fight it)
Help your body fight it, keep warm, and keep eating. (white bread, milk products, bananas and drink lots of orange juice (first 3 will help calm the stomach and is easy to swallow, last one is to prevent dehydration (fluid + sugar)))
A hospital would hopefully take a throat culture-- if it indicated a bacterial infection, some basic antibiotics would help. If it’s viral, you’ve just gotta wait it out and use some of the basic supportive measures that other people have already mentioned (fluids, etc).
If that yellowish vision thing persists, I’d suggest getting it checked out. Or check the light bulbs in your house…
Well, among other things, a hospital can evaluate your condition and can determine if you are sick, so sick you need supportive therapy, or critically ill, and having determined this, they can provide you with appropriate care.
It can be hard to self-diagnose, particulary where flu may be involved.
People often don’t give the flu the respect it deserves: it kills a hell of a lot of people every year, and not all of them the very young, the very old, or the infirm.
Anytime you have a serious doubt about your condition medically, getting seen by a doc is always a good idea.
–James
P.S. CYA disclaimer: not meaning to give medical advice here, at least not above and beyond “if you’re sick please see a doc.”
I tincture my fresh herbs in Everclear. Dried herbs get tinctured in Vodka because its more dilute with water.
Self assessment is a very difficult thing to do, so when self medicating I really need to ask myself if the tincture is making my health better
or if its just making me feel better about being ill.
The steroids a doctor/hospital can administer may be a major advantage.
Dr. William McKinley Jeffreys, a professor of endocrinology at Case Western Reserve University, did some research years ago (cited in his textbook, Safe Uses of Cortosol), based on his observation that the severe symptoms of influenza are similar to those of adrenal crisis.
He hypothesized that adrenal output of cortisol is depressed during flu, and he tested that hypothesis with blood tests and ACTH stimulation of the adrenals in flu patients.
He discovered that a bout of the flu can be dramatically shortened and the severity lessened by supplementing with oral cortisone during the illness. I doubt that the practitioners in hospitals know exactly why, but they do know that steroids (pharmaceutical analogs of the body’s natural cortisol) can be helpful for such patients.
Wow, I didn’t know they still made Coricidin.
Too bad they don’t still dispense it in glass bottles, or you’d be the proud owner of a great little guitar slide!
