One of the most trafficked posts I ever wrote here was about green phlegm. That's right. I was coughing up some, and I was wondering if that was an automatic "Go straight to Dr., do not Pass Go, and be prepared to cough up $$" symptom.
As it turns out, there was not complete agreement on the matter.
And Google searches for "green phlegm" still bring me traffic every single week.
I am in a similar situation now. Three weeks ago I started feeling a bit under the weather, and I was cursing my body out, because on February 16th I left for a trip to South Africa, my first real vacation in about 6 years. (Yes, I took many cool pictures, and you can find the links to those photo pages here on my personal blog.)
Well, a 40-hour door-to-door trip, which included about 24 hours sitting on three different planes with all of humanity, did nothing to quell my ailment. In fact, by the time we arrived in our game lodge room, I was a goner. I got in bed at about 2PM that afternoon and didn't emerge until morning.
At some point it was hard to tell where my allergies might have played a role...we were driving out in the bushlands amongst dense vegetation for about 5-6 hours a day. But the bottom line was that I had a wicked cough, an ear that never unclogged from landing, sinus congestion and pressure and sneezing. And a general fatigued, feverish feeling.
You can get cough syrup with codeine without a prescription in Africa, so my friend (who was also sick) and I did get through the trip without missing too much. But we were not at our best, and our energy was definitely depleted.
I've been back over one week now, and while I'm mostly better, I can't say I'm 100%. The cough is there, and perhaps more annoyingly, it's that tightness in the chest that is still there. You know the kind...when you have to plan your deep breaths carefully because otherwise they automatically lead to a cough. It's a dry cough, not producing much phlegm at all, but it's persistent.
And yes, I'm asking that question: After three weeks of being sick, how long do I give myself to get over this before going to the Dr.? Does this last remaining symptom get to stick around for another week? What would the doctor do about it anyway?
What would you do? And be honest...because I am well familiar with the "do as I say and go to the doctor, and not as a I do (which is never to go to the doctor) approach!!
If I'm being honest, I would probably wait a couple more weeks and see if things improve. In college I would get a cold every winter that produced hacking coughs, fading into dry coughs, and lasted over a month.
Now they usually aren't that bad, but colds do still just linger with me, always at least a couple of weeks. If I'm not hacking up blood or unable to walk, I tend to wait for it to go away rather than go to the doctor.
I don't know if this is good medical advice, but you did request honesty!
Posted by: A'Llyn | March 08, 2009 at 09:34 AM
Yes, thank you for your honesty :)
And I'm like you, in case you hadn't guessed. I tend to avoid the doctor.
Except, oddly enough, that I'm absolutely religious about getting my annual exam, complete with mammogram.
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | March 08, 2009 at 09:38 AM
I used to 'tough it out,' suffer for weeks and hope whatever the problem is will go away. One day, a friend said, "Why suffer? We only go through life once so get the most out of it." Now, if whatever the problem is doesn't seem to be getting better (track the trend) in 4-5 days, I call my doctor's office and ask for advice. Or I search the web (dangerous -- you might get the 'intern's disease' where the worst possible diagnosis is described for the most ordinary symptoms) or I ask a friend who has medical knowledge.
So, do you have health insurance that subsidizes office visits? Does your doctor have a nurse on call? Do you have a friend who is a nurse of a doctor?
Emergency rooms are required by law to treat all commers regardless of ability to pay.
Posted by: Maria Tseng | March 29, 2009 at 10:16 PM