Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

As I mentioned last post, I'm currently in the midst of my 3rd head cold this winter.  Sore throat, mild cough, lots of *stuff* filling up my nose and throat.  And yet its not so bad that I feel like staying home from work and using my hard earned time off just because I'm feeling mildly crappy.  I'm still going about my days pretty much as usual, except that I'm not exercising, and I'm trying to get to bed earlier than usual.  Last night I was in bed right around 10, thinking I could get at least a good 9 hours. But no.  At 6:00 this morning I was suddenly wide awake, and despite laying in bed for another 20 minutes, couldn't get back to sleep.  I had a similar experience on Saturday morning, though not quite as early, thankfully. Only 8:00 that time.  I'm thinking that maybe 8 hours of sleep is the maximum length that my airways can go without getting completely gunked up with nastiness, and at that point, my body forces me to wake up so that it can go about the business of clearing things out. And trust me, there's a lot of clearing out that happens as I go about getting ready for my day. (TMI?)

Anyway, on top of being tired of being sick, I've also discovered that the cold medicine I've taken for the last some-odd years, Tylenol Cold, is apparently no longer sold (at least not at Wal-mart, Smiths, or Fresh Market).  So I've had to settle for a variety of others: DayQuil, generic-looking equate, Alka-Seltzer cold (seriously?), none of which seems to really do the job quite like good old Tylenol.  Of course, I only switched to Tylenol when Triaminicin was no longer on the market (Relief from cold symptoms apparently is not as important as mildly reduced risk of brain hemorrhages).  But I digress.  Part of the reason I dislike these other cold remedies is that instead of relatively small capsules that Tylenol came in, these (Dayquil and Alka-Seltzer at least) come in relatively ginormous gelcaps.  I can understand that some people like gelcaps because they're gentler on the tummy, but when I have a sore throat and swallowing hurts like a bugger, the last thing I want to choke down is a horsepill-sized cold remedy.  The manufacturers realize that people take these for sore throat relief, right?

Anyway, here's to hoping that this cold will go away soon and I can get back to oversleeping. :)