So That's How It Works

I'm still fighting this horrible cold. I woke up at 3am last night and pretty much coughed on and off til the alarm went off. I even kept Steve up and he's usually a sound sleeper.

So this morning I decided to declare war on the horrific coughing. First I looked up my symptoms. Dr. Google consulted with the Mayo Clinic and we all decided I have bronchitis and just have to wait it out. There were some things I could do to help it along. Like take vitamin C, a cough expectorant, and a cough suppressant.

Off to Target I went to pick up Emergen-C and something that would offer some relief. I decided on Target's off brand of Mucinex DM. I'm cheap and the meds are the same. I don't need to spend $5 more just for a name and a fancy box. And bonus! Target sells their own brand of Emergen-C now for $3 cheaper than the real stuff. I hurried up and checked out before another coughing fit came my way. Hopped in the van and popped the pill hoping I would get some relief.

Well, I had to go to Costco. I will say the meds did take the edge off the need to cough. I was only coughing half as much as I was before, which is still a lot, but also a big improvement.

I'm the kind of gal that reads all the labels, so I was wondering what the possible side effects and precautions were. Nothing really on the box or bottle, so I consulted Dr. Google again. And I found out something very interesting about my friend, Dextromethorphan, otherwise known as DM on a lot of medicine labels. DM is the cough suppressant. How does it suppress your cough one might wonder? It acts on a part of the brain (cough center) to reduce the urge to cough. Maybe I'm a bit of a nerd, but I really thought that was interesting. Although, now that I know that, the medicine seems to not be working as well. It's like I've let my brain in on DM's little secret and it's having none of that anymore.

So hopefully tonight will be a restful night for Steve and I. If not, maybe I'll relent and actually go see a real doctor like Steve told me to do in the first place.