Hi there.
I am hoping some of you might venture opinions--while of course, only saying what I want to hear.
I am set to do the Lake Champlain 8-mile swim this Saturday. This past Sunday, I woke up feeling like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes--something that's been about 20 years since it's actually happened. It got progressively worse, with coughing.
By last night, I had a low grade fever--nothing more than 100.6 at it's height--but it's persistent. It may have been there Sunday and Monday but I was out of town so didn't take my temperature.
I'm coughing like mad--endlessly--but nothing "productive." Just hacking and tickling my throat.
I went to the doctor, and asked him for everything. At this point, I'm on antibiotics, lots of Vitamin C, some holistic medicine that was recommended, cough medicine with codeine, and tons of liquids. You name it, I'm throwing it at that! (I'm not usually a medicine taker but this time calls for desperate measures!)
My son had the same thing and three weeks in, there's been no fever for a week or so, but he's still coughing like mad. He's doing all his normal things, but the fever lasted for 6 days--equally low grade.
I'm hoping that by Saturday morning, I will feel significantly better, but in case, I wanted to hear about people who might have raced sick. (Anyone read Ultramarathon Man?) My husband and my coach are pretty certain that it would take a lot to have me decide not to do the race--and they're right.
Seven years ago, I raced an entire triathlon season, not knowing I had Whooping Cough. (They kept attributing everything to allergies and what they said was asthma.) When I was finally diagnosed, it made sense why the season had felt so hard!
Something about swimming when ill, and the way it regulates my breathing, has always made it easier than doing things like running or riding when sick. My coaches seem to think that swimming is the cure-all, and indeed, when I've had slight colds, I've often done a long swim and felt completely better. Maybe all that chlorinated water just washes everything out? :)
The Lake Champlain swim is the one I've waited for all season so I'm feeling pretty disheartened. Any ideas??
Thanks.
Syd
