THE COMMON COLD: WHAT TO DO FOR AN ORDINARY COLD
If you possibly can, go to bed as soon as you feel that you are coming down with a cold. Stay there, or at least keep warm and avoid changing temperatures, until you are past the ‘runny’ stage. Drink plenty of liquids and eat moderately. Be careful about blowing your nose so hard that you force infection into the sinuses and ears. If your nose is badly stopped up, ask your doctor to tell you what kind of nose drops to use. Plain aspirin brings the quickest and safest relief for general discomfort. Take one or two tablets every two to three hours, if necessary.
Protect the other members of your family: smother all coughs and sneezes in a handkerchief or tissue. Put all tissues into a paper bag after using them. Do not handle the outside of the bag. The tissues can then be easily disposed of without contaminating anyone else.
See to it that no one handles objects you have contaminated, or that he handles them as little as possible and washes his hands immediately. Your eating utensils, dishes, drinking glasses, and so on, should be washed separately and rinsed in scalding water.
Be sure to call a doctor if:
You have a high temperature that lasts for more than two days or goes above 101° F.
You have a severe headache that does not respond to an aspirin.
You have chills, a severe cough, chest pains, or blood-stained or rusty-looking sputum.
Your back, neck, or any other bones ache. You ‘ache all over.’ You have an earache.
5 Your cold symptoms do not clear up. (You may actually have hay fever or some other allergy.)
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