The name of this post is both an actual trigger warning and the title. Keep that in mind for the next paragraph.
At first, it was a scratchy throat. I had been cautious since some of the students, international or otherwise, had started to display signs of a cold, but apparently, not cautious enough. I went searching long and far (the local Tesco) for medication to relieve the early signs and possibly mitigate the more serious symptoms in my future. That didn’t work, and I ended up projectile vomiting hot chocolate into the kitchen sink on Monday morning. Not one of my finest moments.
It wasn't a stomach bug or anything like that. My body rejected the hot chocolate due to the amount of mucus clogging up my pipes. I’m already asthmatic, making the cold worse in almost every possible way. I didn’t even consider the fact that I might get sick outside of COVID-19 when I was preparing to come to England. All I brought with me was a knock-off brand of Vicks VapoRub and my inhaler to combat the Liverpool Hope flu.
I don’t really have any specific go-to medications when I’m sick. Maybe some hot water with lemon juice, which my mother would always give my sisters and I when we were sick as kids. Still, I can’t help but feel as though I should have been more prepared for something like this to happen. Every year, there was the Susky Flu, the nickname for the cold that plagues Susquehanna University during this time of year. Why would Liverpool Hope University be any different?
Either way, I have spent the week suffering through a rather minor cold during the day and a different beast entirely at night. I already get congestion at night, so imagine it tenfold. And I want to use this experience as an opportunity to remind you to prepare for getting a cold while studying abroad and to tell you about some of the medication I’ve found that might even seem useful in the United States.
Just a reminder, I’m not a medical doctor; I’m merely explaining what works for me. Something that works for me might not work for you.
One of the first medications that caught my eyes were the nasal inhaler. The word ‘inhaler’ stuck out to me because I’ve only seen it used when it comes to asthma. It looks almost like a tube of chapstick (It wouldn’t surprise me if someone already made that mistake before), but you have to stick it in one nostril and breathe in deeply while plugging up the other. It’s supposed to clear up congestion, and it works for me. According to the packaging, it’s non-medicated and you can use it as much as you need, but it expires two months after opening it. I definitely plan to take some back to the United States with me because I’ve never seen it before.
When I had started experiencing symptoms, one of my friends from Susquehanna University suggested I take vitamin C to take the edge off my cold when it came on full force. I have no idea if it helped, but I’ve never had so much vitamin C in one week, and I think I’m at the tail end of my cold. (I can breathe through my nose again! Hope I’m not jinxing myself.) They have Vitamin C Lozenges which I’ve never seen before. It doesn’t taste bad either, which is a bonus.
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