What a normal cold looks like
Adults catch two or three colds a year. A typical one opens with a sore throat, moves into congestion and sneezing, peaks around the second or third day, and clears within seven to ten days, although a cough can linger for two or three weeks. Yellow or green mucus is a normal part of that course and does not signal a bacterial infection. Antibiotics do nothing against a virus. What helps is sleep, fluids, saltwater gargles, saline rinses, honey for a cough, and symptom medicines used according to the label.
Influenza hits within hours, with fever, chills, body aches and exhaustion. Prescription antivirals work best when started within 48 hours, so call early if you are pregnant, over 65, or have asthma, diabetes or heart disease. A home test sorts out COVID-19.
When a cold needs a professional
- See a doctor for a fever above 103 degrees, or any fever that lasts more than three days.
- See a doctor when symptoms last more than ten days without improving.
- See a doctor when you start to recover and then get sharply worse, which suggests a secondary infection.
- See a doctor for severe sinus or ear pain, or a very sore throat with fever and no cough.
Call 911 for difficulty breathing, chest pain, bluish lips, confusion or an inability to stay awake.
Ordinary headaches
A tension headache feels like a tight band on both sides of the head, and a migraine usually throbs on one side for hours, with nausea and sensitivity to light. The common triggers are dull ones: too little water, a skipped meal, poor sleep, caffeine withdrawal, eyestrain and a clenched jaw. Keep a diary of headaches, food, sleep and stress for a month, and patterns usually appear. Taking pain relievers on more than two or three days a week can itself cause daily rebound headaches.
Headaches that cannot wait
Call 911 for a sudden, explosive headache that peaks within a minute, or for a headache accompanied by a drooping face, weakness or numbness on one side, slurred speech, confusion or loss of vision. Go to the emergency room for a headache with fever and a stiff neck, a headache after a blow to the head, or one that follows a seizure. Make an appointment for headaches that are steadily worsening, that wake you from sleep, or that first appear after fifty.
Note Stay home while you have a fever and for a full day after it breaks without medicine. Your coworkers will manage.
