Zicam

Probably most of you have at least heard of the increasingly popular cold remedy called Zicam. I finally gave it a try. On Tuesday morning, I woke up with a worsening sore throat, that odd "hot-in-the-face" feeling, and a cough trying to get started. As I'd just had a frickin' 3 week cough starting on election day, I sure wanted to nuke this thing if I could. "That's it, I'm getting some Zicam!", I said, heading out the door for the walk to the pharmacy. I'd used echinacea root capsules in the past with some success, but generally, you had to catch things before they got this bad. On the way to the pharmacy, I figured, "I'm screwed. It's too late". Reality was already starting to get that slightly fish-eye lens Twilight Zone feeling...

I got the Zicam tablets. There are other forms that you swab in your nose or take as a nasal spray, but there have been reports (still being investigated, I assume) of people permanently losing their sense of smell with that stuff. Outside the pharmacy, I let one of the yucky, chalky, bitter tablets dissolve in my mouth. After I took the next one three hours later, it was pretty obvious that the stuff was working. And now here it is, two days later. The cold simply never happened. I've been able to get up very early both yesterday and today and have a vigorous swim in an outdoor pool this morning, and I simply don't have any cold symptoms at all!

I'm not a doctor, but I've seen ones on TV. Give Zicam a try!