With the weird back-and-forth weather everyone across the country has had, I think this has added to the opportunities flu and cold viruses have had to grab us. I don’t usually get colds, but I am fighting the worst one I think I may ever have had. “Only a cold.” I thought I was going to suffocate from coughing two days ago, when my trigger to cough wouldn’t stop. I had trouble stopping the cough to inhale.

So now I’m stocking up on cough suppressant (with guaifenesin, and sometimes decongestant. they’re important too). I was reading about it, because it never seemed to me as a serious medicine. I thought it was like honey or something you could drink that would locally affect your throat, but it’s not. It works in your brain. Anyway, it’s made me not afraid I’m going to die from this powerful coughing.

i had to call our internet host company yesterday despite sounding like I’ve been gargling rocks, and the woman on the phone was sympathetic. She’d just gotten over the flu, but went to a show where they released some smoke onstage for some reason, and her throat closed up and she had to run out of the concert hall.