Ruh Roh

There's an odd little tickle in my throat.

I've sneezed several times today.

I was feeling a little fevery earlier.

Oh, pleeeaaaase nooooo!!!

I hate, hate, hate being sick.

I'm sure it's just a cold, but you see, I am a freak.

(No, not because of that. Or that. Or, ok, just shut up and let me explain.)

You see, I am crazy allergic to all antihistamines, decongestants and cough suppressants.

When I say "crazy" I'm not kidding. They totally flip me out.

Well, I don't really know exactly what they do, because I've only taken any of them once since I was tiny, but when I was tiny, they totally flipped me out.

(I took a few half-doses of benadryl for hives once as a teenager, but very carefully. After a total of about two or three doses, over a couple of days, I was a bit loopy.)

I was too young (and, of course, totally flipped out) when I had the serious reactions to remember them (once to an adult Sudafed that I accidentally got hold of, I think, and once to cough syrup?), so Anonymama and LadyKay might have to fill in some details (check the comments for that) but I know it wasn't pretty.

Speaking of LadyKay, she does the same thing. Not only did she have some cough syrup experiences as a wee tot, but she also had a reaction to something similar, as a teenager.

She was old enough then to identify the hallucinations, and to recognize that they were the same thing she'd experienced before.

So, yeah, I avoid that kind of stuff.

Which means that when I have a cold, about all I can take is Tylenol for the fever and aches, and hot, steamy showers for the congestion.

For the cough, there is an "expectorant only" version of Robistussin (now available as a pill, instead of that awful, awful liquid) but it's really pretty much useless.

So, mostly, I just suffer. And whine. A lot.

And I am not looking forward to it.

(And, I'm sure, neither is Shrike.)