Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

So. Here's an update on my cold. No particular reason. Just wanted to.

Now I have a cough. The sore throat passed yesterday. For a couple of days I've been sneezing and blowing my nose a lot. When I sneezed it hurt my throat but now not so much. It snowed yesterday....the day before. It was really pretty but it was too cold. Yuki loved it though.

Sometimes in the mornings I've found both my nose and throat blocking up which is quite scary because I'm worried I'll suffocate on mucus. Mum got me some medicine but it's nasty. You're supposed to drink 20ml but I couldn't even handle 5ml.

Just out of curiosity I looked up what the NHS recommends for colds. It's as you'd expect. Eat healthy, drink lots, rest lots. I did find out something interesting though.

All the nasty stuff that happens when you have a cold isn't caused by the virus. It's caused by your body's immune system fighting the virus. Also the mucus you get is caused by white blood cells flooding the area to flush out the virus. There is no cure for the common cold. Your body just has to fight it. So all the medicine they have for colds don't cure it at all. They just make the aches and pains of your body fighting it a little more manageable.

Also you should sanitise your hands after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose. That's a little tricky. I can't wash my hands every time I blow my nose. I must've gone through about 10-15 tissues today and I make a point of using all four sides so as not to be wasteful. That's not exactly sanitary but still. I can't abide throwing away a tissue after one use. It's just so wasteful.

I use my antibacterial hand gel or wipes after I blow my nose but I'm not sure it's right. They claim to kill 99.9% of bacteria. The common cold is not bacteria. It's a virus, which, apparently, is why doctors don't give you antibiotics for a cold. They say 99.9% of bacteria but nothing about viruses. Ah it's so confusing and I'm getting sleepy.

I had a look down my throat again today. Still looks a little red but nowhere near as swollen.

Yesterday I had the perfect sore throat meals planned. I didn't eat them, I just perfected the menu in my mind. Since I get up so late lunch is pretty much off the menu. So for breakfast I thought a bowl of Ready Brek would be good (It's a children's breakfast oats really. At the moment they're marketing it as being the smoothest and lump free porridge around. I thought it would be appropriate for my current situation. I stopped having it when I was quite young because I got bored of it but now I'm a grown up and I've had other brands of porridge. I think I had a cheaper brand of a similar thing a couple of years ago. I didn't want a more grown up brand because they can get quite lumpy and I was worried about it aggravating my throat. I figured Ready Brek would be soothing for my throat).

For dinner....or lunch....whatever you want to call it. It'd be soup. I still have a can of potato and leek to eat. Maybe with some buttered bread if I could handle it.

For dessert. Egg custard, the kind I baked for mum during her cold (she still has one by the way. Not sure if it's the same one or a different one. It's just so hard to tell).

Anyway. That was my perfect sore throat meal plan. I think it's quite a nice and simple plan. But now my throat's not sore. I mentioned my plan to mum and she got me some Ready Brek when she went out today. We didn't do the weekly shop because she was worried about ice on the roads so we just get little things round the corner.

I had some for a very late breakfast with cinnamon, nutmeg and golden syrup. It was quite nice.

Oh. It's mum's birthday tomorrow.....today.

I was going to make her a card but I've not really been up to it and the things I would've used to make the card I used in a bookbinding experiment. I found some online tutorials for bookbinding and I had a little go at it. I made one for mum. It's quite cute. I haven't been able to go out and buy her a present. I wish I had but I'm going to bake her a cake at some point....just not sure when. This year, finally, I'm going to do a Baileys cream cake even if I'm coughing up blood. I got the cream last time we went shopping (Tesco never seem to have it in the weeks after Christmas) and it's use by is in March so it shouldn't be spoiled. We still have a bag of cake mix so I'll have to use that. I'm hoping it'll be a nice surprise for her.

So. That's all for now.

Bluebiird out.