It was time to visit the doctor. My sore throat wasn’t going away after hanging around for the last 6 weeks or so, and now Robin was coughing and spluttering too. As usual in cases like this, the cough is always many times worse at night. The pair of us were keeping each other awake with coughing fits and getting up to have sips of water during the night to ease the sore throats. And you can just imagine what all that extra liquid was doing to us. So we made a double appointment and trotted off to the doctor’s surgery.
Our doctor told us that there was a lot of this going around, a viral throat infection, and it generally lasted about 3 months. Three months – that’s a bit much we thought. The virus changes slightly as it moves back and forth, we were told, so we get re-infected, as does anyone else we cough over. Seems I was suffering a bit more than Robin, as I had a raised temperature and he could see that my throat was very red and sore. (Robin’s temp was normal). Stay away from those expensive cough medicines and throat lozenges, he advised, you are better off with your granny’s remedies. Honey and lemon drinks to sip, and salty water to gargle will do the trick, he said, and don’t forget to drink plenty of water.
I was worrying that I might have picked up a “strep throat”. Most unlikely, Doctor Andrew said, but to put my mind at rest he took a throat swab. I was really pleased with his manner and the fact that he did everything possible to put my mind at rest, without pooh-poohing my worries
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So here we are, sipping hot lemon and honey drinks and popping Panadol pills to ease the headaches. Gargling salty water several times a day is more of a challenge. Robin has no problems doing this and delights in making as much noise as he can. I’m doing my best, but there is no way my gargling will match his more macho version, and I sometimes my salty water has been known to dribble down my clothes, not a pretty sight at all! Oh dear. how many more weeks to go?
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