Saturday Six Episode #384
So before I take a little nap, here is this week’s set. Thanks for dropping by!
Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!
Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog… But don’t forget to leave a link to your blog so that everyone else can visit! Permission is not granted to copy the questions to message boards for the purpose of having members answer and play along there. Enjoy!
1. You feel a sniffle coming on: what’s the first thing you do to avoid a cold? I try to use Airbourne, the fizzy tablets that a teacher invented a few years ago to counteract all the contagion in classrooms. It works very well as a preventative measure but also if you take it within the first hours or two of symptoms appearing. I am a very suspicious person of these odd remedies, but it works really well.
2. Once the cold hits for real, what over-the-counter medicine are you most likely to turn to? Hmmm. I'd have to say most commonly I use Benadryl or Actifed (is that it? I don't recall). They are all the same, really.
3. How often will you just suffer through a cold without any medicine? Yes, for the first three days I do nothing but blow my nose and prop myself up in bed to keep from feeling like I'm suffocating. I drink a lot more hot tea than usual. If the Airbourne doesn't work in the first day, I let me body fight it. I always felt immediately running to the medicine cabinet is a bad idea; then I read an article that stated the first 72 hours should be left to your body to employ its arsenal to fight it. Then if it is not getting better, bring in the big guns.
4. What does it take to persuade you to finally go to the doctor for a bad cold? Two things will make me do that: 1. a fever over 100.5 F or if the cold moves into my lungs. I had pneumonia when I was 4 years old, my lungs can't handle too much abuse. For that, to the doctor I go.
5. Are you more likely to go to the doctor or call in sick for a day at your workplace? I am likely call out sick for two reasons: 1. give my body the rest it needs to fight the infection and 2. to show that coming in sick is not helping anyone. It never worked, though (#2) - people would come in terribly sick, spread the illness and then leave departments in a bind when too many were down with it.
6. Which medicine has the absolute worst taste you’ve ever encountered? I don't recall the name of it... I had all kinds of issues with chest infections - bronchitis, strep throat, etc. I also hated swallowing pills - I refused. So my mother was forced to either find the liquid form, if there was one, or crush the pills into applesauce. Well, one cough syrup/expectorant came in liquid format and it was... was... despicable. Disgusting. I wretched every time I took it and there was nothing in the form of food or drink that would overpower the taste. It was THAT bad.
Comments
I was very leary of it at first, but my father swore by it. I tried it and I'd be damned if it wasn't true. If you are full-blown sick, it won't do anything, but if you are right at the start of being symptomatic, it really cuts down on the length of severity of the illness.
The other point you raise is the more serious issue. I was lucky - I was the Human Resources Manager for a private golf club and the policy allowed 5 sick days. I changed it to seven as one of the first things I did, with the argument that one bout of bronchitis can take up ten working days. I was planning to up it again, but I left the position to go out on disability, so I hope my successor will do it.
I have to say I could never sell it to any other employer in my long HR career, but this place really understood something so few others did: your employees are your biggest commodity.
And they knew it.