rivka | Small favors.

Entry tags:

health,
pregnancy

Small favors.

I am not, not, NOT getting a cold just in time for alt.polycon 12. I am NOT. No. Not.

But it's good to hear from my midwife that, hypothetically, if I were getting a cold, I could take Sudafed. And Robitussin. And of course, the ever-useless panacea of pregnant women, Tylenol. And chicken soup. So at least there's that.[1]

[1] Thank you for not recommending (a) echinacea, which I have never found helpful; (b) megadoses of vitamins, which I would certainly take if I weren't pregnant but have been linked to birth defects and other fetal problems; or (c) herbal remedies which are not in any way tested or evaluated by the FDA and therefore, for example, have frequently been found in independent studies to be contaminated with heavy metals and/or not to include the ingredients and amounts advertised on the bottle. And which might have undocumented fetal effects. Thank you.

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Poor you!

I am certain MamaBoss (currently in month 4 of incubating hatchling no. 2) woud empathize, as she also seems to have a nasty death cold.

Don't forget a lot of TLC and (although I know it's hard to get at cons) plenty of sleep. And lots of water.

/mother

We can recomment lots of rest, right? ;)

I hope you feel better immediately!

It is so much fun explaining to people, over and over, that no, one does not want or intend to take echinacea.

therealjae tends to recommend euthanasia, which sometimes actually sounds better.

Doesn't it work for you either, then?

I think I may actually be allergic to echinacea -- the few times I've tread things containing it, I got the same reaction, which feels something like a swollen lymph node or tonsil, and is super painful. I've not had that sensation except after a smoothie with an immunity or coldbuster boost and after taking that hall's defense drops with echinacea and zinc. It's possible there's another common ingredient that's the real culprit, but I'd rather not experiment further just now.

It does nothing for my cold, and gives me the Worst Irritable Bowel Ever. The kind of diarrhoea where I can't be certain to get to the toilet on time :/ Hardly something I want to take?!

Am about to email you about alt.polycon btw - if the problems I've had with your email persist I might just have to comment here, although I'd rather not try to make arrangements in lj comments :) Basically, just wondering at what time on Thursday people will be starting to arrive.

I'm sorry you're having trouble with my e-mail - others sending mail from outside North America have also had trouble, but it seems to be inconsistent. I did eventually get the one you sent about your diet, and I think there will be a few things you can eat at the brunch.

I don't know about Thursday. Some people are getting there then - Ryk and Louise, RJ and (I think) Ruthanne, Pat Kight, fmmo - but I'm not sure about times at all. I will probably be at the hotel all day Friday, starting in the late morning. Registration will open up at 1 on Friday, and the consuite hopes to open around 1:30. Opening ceremonies are at 4.

Your best bet would probably be to post something to your journal and to the newsgroup, if you're hoping to meet up with people prior to Friday noonish.

Chicken soup is good. Can you drink orange juice?

I can, and I actually have a whole bag of clementines at home which are calling my name. Although my throat is scratchy, which might make something as acidic as oranges less pleasant than it sounds right now.

Juice smoothie with some sorbet or yogurt to take some of the acid out?

Counter-intuitively, I find that when I have a sore throat, acidic things like orange juice and soda are easier to drink than plain water. Your mucous membranes may vary.

Hope you feel better / don't get sick.

gargling with warm salt water? saline nasal spray? a humidifier? those are all things i find helpful...

Hot (spicy) foods have always made my sinuses feel better. My husband swears by hot-and-sour Thai soup. Which, as far as I know, has nothing more exotic than galangal and lemongrass.

Anything more than regular culinary amounts is a bad idea. At this stage, you may have pesto, but early in the pregnancy, it would not have been wise. Ditto for rosemary.

My favorite standby for colds, hot mint tea with honey should be safe for pregnant ladies. I checked it in The PDR for Herbal Medicine a while back.

I suspect you could waltz into the hotel, announce "I am striving valiantly not to get a cold," and spend the con reclining* in comfy chairs, surrounded by adoring minions who will fetch you tissues and healthful beverages, rub your temples and shoulders and feet on request, and otherwise catering to your every whim.

Just, you know, offering options. (-:

*or whatever the comfort-inducing equivalent of "reclining" is for a pregnant lady ...

I mainly wanted to be in outer space where there was no pesky gravity. Swimming pools are great.

My midwife said I could also have some of the nasal sprays. I almost wept with joy. Although sudafed doesn't ordinarily bother me, it made Baz VERY ACTIVE in utero. FYI.

It would take an awful lot for me to willingly squirt something up my nose. I mean, I know those sprays are supposed to be great stuff, but...

We'll see how the Li'l Critter responds to Sudafed.

I feel that way about any kind of syrupy medecine. I'd rather have the sore throat/cold/strep infection than take liquid medicine.

Pity me! I am taking a liquid medicine for yeast. Three times a day for two weeks is 42 doses.

Not a recommendation, but an observation: echinacea only works for me if I meet two crucial criteria. First, I have to take it immediately upon onset of initial symptoms. If I don't catch the thing in its very first nascency, say the first few hours of sore throat and balloon-head, then the echinacea will not have any noticeable effect. Second, I have to take mega-dosages when I'm taking it. On the order of six times the dosage and treble the rate that the package recommends. Less, and I don't notice any effect at all. In fact, it's pretty close to a square curve: either I don't perceive much or any benefit from the echinacea, or it simply short circuits the cold and I don't get sick at all. I've gone from doom-like symptomology to no symptoms overnight, the first time despite major skepticism over herbal remedies. I only took the echinacea out of desperation, the first time, having an unavoidable all-day trade show stint the next day.

So it is just possible that echinacea could work for you, if you managed to get timing and dosage right. I agree this isn't the time to experiment, though. But the reason that people pester you with recommendations of echinacea may be their experience that when it works, echinacea is amazing. You simply don't get the cold.

On the other hand, I hear good reports of the effectiveness of saline irrigation of the nasal passages. Yes, snorting salt water. But dosing yourself can be unpleasant.

I used to get a similarly miraculous effect from 2g of Vitamin C a day, but alas, no megadosing for me now.

I found that using the baby-medicine-kit squirty bulb thing to put warm salt water up my nose helped a lot when I had a bad cold. I didn't take anything herbal because of lack of documentation. And at the very end, paracetemol actually did help me sleep, though it was useless for everything else throughout pregnancy.

ever-useless panacea of pregnant women, Tylenol. And chicken soup

*blink* *blink* Chicken soup, useless?!! Why that's just wrong! Why, its got all that chicken soupy goodness!

Have fun at the con *waves*

I'm through most of a jar of a recently discovered secret weapon: Patak's Brinjal Aubergine pickle; which has the right degree of hotness for me (eg, not very) and can be taken with almost every meal. (I balked at the mere idea of cornflakes- but it works fine on bread; baked potatoes, whatever).

I like the stuff, although normally a jar lasts longer than ten days. On the other hand, normally cold symptoms last longer than that, too, and of the two, the pickle is by far the more preferable.

Garlic?

I know people who swear by it. I'm just starting to recover from 3 days of misery ... and the night before I got really, really, really sick, when I was just starting to feel it, I mega-garlicked. Pasta with garlic and crushed chilis. Two heads of roasted garlic. Tzatsiki.

Result: I had horrendous recycled garlic taste in my mouth the next morning, and a temp of 103 F. YMMV, and all that.

For a scratchy throat, I always find that fresh (not canned or juice) pineapple makes me feel better. I read that in a Reader's Digest article one time but have not had any luck finding another source to verify it. Anecdotally, I can say that the pineapple does help the sting and scratch of a sore throat without increasing my congestion like oranges/orange juice do.

I pick up the pre-cut pineapple at Whole Foods because I cannot be bothered to cut up a pineapple just for myself (when I'm already feeling poorly). I don't eat too much, so I don't think there would be concerns about overconsumption for you as a pregnant lady.

Just some unsolicited advice from a stranger :-) I enjoy your site, Respectful of Otters.

I don't know what your tolerance for ginger and/or caffeine is, but I swear by a 2-litre of full-strength coke boiled for 10 minutes with a large sliced hand of ginger, drunk like tea, if none of those ingredients are against your diet. Stops everything up to and including incipient pneumonia in me...

Failing that, I hope you feel *much* better soon and aren't too miserable in the meantime.

Holy cats.

Yeah, that would probably go over my 150mg/day caffeine limit. Although huh, not by much. (Two liters of Coke Classic apparently has 181mg caffeine.)

I like to do tea with lemon, ginger, and honey. Well, and a shot of whisky, but I'm forgoing that for the present.

::nod:: I fully understand the caffeine limit.

I ran that recipie by my pediatrician when I was 15 or so (I got it from the little old cooks at my local Chinese place after they got tired of me sounding like I was going to start an epidemic in their restaurant), and he gave me something very similar with water, honey, ginger, lemon, and scallions, of all things.

I hope you continue to not get a cold.

Good luck with the con! (Read this entry (http://www.livejournal.com/users/helygen/35918.html) if you haven't done so.)

What about large amounts of curry? Burn that cold right out of you! :)

Oooohhh, I didn't know Sudafed and Robitussin were at all possible to take when pregnant, that's good to know.

Tangentially (I love that word), I've heard (and tried and have confirmed for myself that it works for me) that drinking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of honey in a mug of hot water will help preserve your vocal cords and help prevent losing your voice. This is good, since I work in a call center. In your opinion (and if you feel like asking around, feel free), could this pose a fetal risk? I do sometimes drink several of these a day when working and sick. Just curious, and you know a lot, so I thought you'd be a good one to ask.

Also, did not know everything you included in (c). Interesting. Shitty, but interesting.

(I feel the need to explicitly state that I am not suggesting the vinegar-honey thing for you, merely relating a personal experience to ask the question of if it could be harmful when pregnant. Not that I am pregnant or planning to become so in the forseeable future, but you are pregnant and you do know all sorts of things in this area, so I think you'd be a good one to ask. And now I'll shut up and stop rambling. I'm always so afraid of offending people...)

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Small favors.

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Stay away from basil in large doses as well

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