For those that have been worrying, and I am sure that includes many of you, I am on the mend. Just. I have had a week off of work, although it took until Wednesday evening for me to finally realise that I would not be fine by tomorrow, and would not be able to go back to work. With the prospect of working Friday night after a week of disturbed nights thanks to coughing, I admitted defeat, and announced that I would return on Monday, which at least gave time to arrange for someone to cover my night duty. Apparently this was welcomed with relief by my colleagues, at least one of whom claims that she now has a cough thanks to me coming to work last week when I shouldn’t have done so.
The overnight coughing is pretty much the last remaining symptom. I have tried concoctions of every variety as recommended by pharmacists and also by my wife (and the advice from each did not always coincide…). The first problem was defining the cough. Was it a chesty cough or a dry cough? Well, it was definitely a dry cough from my chest. Where else would a cough originate from? And what exactly is a chesty cough anyway? Is that the same as a loose cough? At Lloyds Pharmacy I said I had a dry cough, Chantal said no it wasn’t, it was a chesty cough, the pharmacist got confused, and an elderly lady waiting for her prescription found the whole thing most entertaining.
Anyway, having been taking the usually reliable Pholcodine and still waking up with a cough (and I’m still not sure whether this medication loosens a dry cough or supresses a chesty cough…) I decided to try the Lloyds version of Night Nurse. What awful stuff that is. There is absolutely no need to warn against overdoses – it is fluorescent green, tastes foul, and you have to drink a small cup full. The secret ingredient, apparently, is antihistamine, which encourages sound sleep. The result was that I still woke up coughing, but was so drowsy that I couldn’t actually open my eyes to locate a glass of water. But at least I went back to sleep. Still coughing. The following morning I felt as though I’d had one too many at the Heathcote Arms, and the lingering taste of the stuff tainted my morning tea.
Tonight I will try a new tack. I will have a large glass of whisky, and merely medicate myself if woken. But I won’t be touching that Night Nurse stuff again.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
