Lots of fluids. Lots.

What Michael said. Go before it gets worse. So sorry.

Ginger tea with honey. Ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory and honey to soothe the mucus membranes. Honey also has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.

How the heck can a doctor's office close for 2 weeks?! That's crazy!

I'm sorry Jasdip. I'd be headed to Convenient Care, or Urgent Care, or whatever it's called near you. I'm not usually a huge fan of those places but they can certainly handle bronchitis.

Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.

I don't get colds often but when I do, I always get bronchitis. I almost never see a doctor when that happens. Unless prescribing a cough medicine, there is not a lot a doctor or an urgent care facility can do - antibiotics have no effect on either the bronchitis or an underlying cold. OTC and/or home remedies are as effective as just about anything the doctor can do for you.

Just monitor your temp and if you start to run a fever, then see the doc. That could be a sign that you have developed a secondary infection, like strep throat......or pneumonia.

Call your doctor's back-up doctor. Surely he/she has someone who 'covers' for them when they are closed. If not, go to an Urgent Care facility. Canada does have them, don't they?

Hope this turns out to be a false alarm for you, and you are feeling better soon.

Rusty

Thanks for the super-quick replies!!! There's a walk-in clinic close to me, that I just remembered, that's open evenings, when the others close. I'll go there at 5. The recording on the dr ans. machine said to call 911 if it's a medical emergency.

In the meantime, I just put a slice of ginger in boiling water in my mug. Is that all I need to do for ginger tea? (and add honey before I drink it)

I'd put in a couple of slices :-) And I am not overly fond of the taste of straight ginger so I add a couple of slices of lemon as well but that's optional.

Twinings makes a ginger/lemon tea that I like. Push your water intake.

Humidify your lungs. Bowl of hot water; towel over your head; inhale; come out for air; repeat. There are also small electric appliances for this.

Would an expectorant help? Dimetapp? Other mucus thinner?

Hope this clears up ASAP.

What does the doctor do for bronchitis? Cough syrup?

Hope you feel better. I get horrible coughs when I get sick. The kind that tear the ab muscles and are so painful. When I taught preschool I was sick for a year but now seem to have a much stronger immune system.

I just made it through eight days of an upper respiratory infection suppressing the symptoms by using OTC loratidine 24-hour decongestant and dextromethorphan 12-hour cough suppressant together. I had to be in the hospital tending to my mother so I couldn’t be spewing out virus-laden particles. I used a mask when I was tending to her directly.

I visited an urgent care clinic before I traveled, so I had six days of Prednisone in my back pocket to use as a symptom suppressor if I needed it.

Chi, cough syrups etc have no impact on bronchitis.

I just got home, In and out in a short time, but I was there before they opened. When I left, the waiting room was full.

I learned that bronchitis is a viral infection and antibiotics don't do much. I took in my nasal spray that previous dr had prescribed to me in the past. This doc said they're good for sinuses but they don't get at the lungs where the bronchitis originates.

I got a steroid puffer, some pills and another sinus spray. The puffer to use as needed to calm the cough, the spray and pills for 10 days.

There's an in-house pharmacy and when I left the examination room my prescription was at the pharmacy so nifty that way. But oh, how I wished I'd just taken the prescription and gone to my regular pharmacist. He's amazing, and Tom and I just love him.

My bill was $123 (yikes) with a $12 consultation fee on each one just to tell me how to use it. :-(

Jasdip, my DH and I both had the same thing, it’s really going around. We used Robitussen DM with Expectorant and it really did the trick. Expectorant is really good for chest colds and it doesn’t have a lot of side effects. I hope you feel better soon,

guaifenesin. Which I think these days you can only get in Muscinix. That is all I take for respiratory issues.

When I had bronchitis this summer, first time for me, I was in agony until I went to Urgent Care and they gave me a puffer and some pills. The puffer was great! I could sleep in the bed again instead of in the recliner. I didn’t use it up, so if what I feel coming on turns into bronchitis I may pull the puffer out. I hope you’re feeling well soon!

How about an urgent care of CVS minute clinic? They were able to give me Tesselon Perles which really suppressed the cough. Good luck. I feel for you. I had bronchitis last month. It was just awful.

I hope you can shake this quickly and feel better for Christmas.

What bad timing! Whatever you decide to do for now, please follow up with a visit to the clinic. You surely cannot wait until Jan.

Boil ginger in the water, then add honey, drink it and cover up, rest.

I use a humidifier or vaporizer by my bed.

It really helps.

I have been having success with Esberotox Echinacea. At the first sign of a cold, you start taking 4-6 chewable pills 3x a day for 3 days. It will only work if you catch it early.

A really bad contagious cold/cold was going around. DH caught it from his sister. Others also around her got it. I did not.

I second the ginger tea--I did that--I also added a cinnamon stick--it's a powerful combination.

For colds/flu, my whole family swears by Sambucol (Elderberry Syrup)

So glad you saw a Doctor. I hope you start feeling better in a day or two.

Best over the counter cough syrup I have found is Delsym orange. And it actually tastes good. I also have had some help from the Robitussin long lasting cough gels. They are small red gel pills. I usually have to resort to using my asthma inhaler when it turns into coughing spasms.

A lot of people like Zicam, I have never tried it.

Good luck.

When I was younger every thing turned into bronchitis. I started at that time chewing raw garlic and letting the juices trickle down my throat until I couldn't stand it. That usually at least killed a lot of the germs if not all.

I still use raw garlic for a cold but it doesn't automatically turn into bronchitis now. I also drink Sage tea which is a first Nations medicinal aid for coughs and colds. The combo of garlic and Sage usually helps with any cough I get.

I've had a reaction to many many cough syrups so I'm leery of them but I do use Sambucol as well. Even the Robitussin Buckley's Etc non-drowsy formulation makes me sleepy? Dr. and I could never figure that out.

Back in the day I got pneumonia or bronchitis or both at least once every winter if not each or more than once!! In college it got so bad the Doc threatened to put me in the hospital but gave me major antibiotics instead with a promise of a few days in bed. They made me nauseous so I quit taking them. That's the year I learned generics are easier on the stomach!! When I hit 40 the new Doc did an xray to see if I had scared my lungs, then gave me the old people's pneumonia shot. I haven't had ANY of it since. Rarely even a cold!! Cough syrup with codine is a GODSEND when sleep is really what ya need to recover!! My folks were heavy smokers in my formative years and I always blame the trouble on that.

Ditto on the Sambucol, but you have to start using it the minute you notice any symptoms. It's an herbal antiviral, and it really works if you start early. I make sure I always have plenty.

When I was hospitalized for pneumonia, only Benzonatate (teeny pills) stopped the coughing.

Feel better soon, Jasdip. When I'm sick with any type of respiratory ailment, I drink gallons of hot tea and take showers as hot as I can stand.

The RIGHT cough syrup can have a major impact on bronchitis! Go get a bottle of Guaifenesin from Rite Aid or CVS. Don't buy the kind with other things in it - no decongestives etc. Just straight Guaifensen. It's an expectorant, you can take it as often as you need, and it gets that nasty stuff up and out of your chest, plus gives you a productive cough.

I heard Russians just use Vodka, if you are a drinker...... Lol

Hope you feel better. Which tip did you try?

Today for the first time all week, I'm actually vertical and feel human. I've spent every day laying on the couch sleeping on and off. I still sound awful, so not talking much.

Check out this little tidbit-----if you remember I mentioned on the Landlord thread that I take out the garbage and recycling every week. One tenant refuses to help in any way, she says it's the landlord's job.

I slipped a note under the other tenant's door this a.m. to see if she and E could take the garbage out today as I'm sick. Right away she came upstairs and said of course they could, between the two of them, and wondered if I needed anything.

Then a little while later a note was slipped under my door from E saying that she's sorry to hear I'm not well, seems to be something going around. And that she's sure the landlord or his strong son will take care of their responsibility, when it's legal for them to do so.

So not even in a special or rare occasion will she lift a finger to help out. This just irks me to no end.

I really can't do it today, so I did call the landlords and told them everything, and they'll do it for us.

I have no reason why she thinks it's the landlord's job to take out her garbage. It just doesn't make any sense to me. If she rented a house, would she expect the landlord to come by every week to take her garbage out to the street?

So glad you're feeling better.

I am just now looking at this Jasdip -- I always keep OIL OF OREGANO on hand. It kills bacteria but look into it and see if it interferes with other medications. Also TEA TREE oil. You should be doing a lot of prevention, "alternative" so called. Glad you are better.

Not so familiar with bronchitis, but I find the zinc in cold-eeze really helps shorten and even prevent a cold for me...it's supposed to be a good immune system booster, so perhaps that would help you.

Jasdip, hope you are feeling much better by now.

Dang them for not helping you. I'm glad to hear you're vertical. Keep getting better!

Glad you’re feeling a tad better. When it comes to your neighbor E, don’t waste your energy on it. Surely the next time she’s in need of something from the landlord, she won’t get the kind of response you do. We reap what we sow right?