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No flu this year! Knock on wood. These tricks work for me to avoid flu or at least to reduce the symptoms when I do get one:
-Have flu shots
-Stay away from sickly child
-Wash my hands a lot
-Sleep plenty
-Drink tea make out of organic American ginseng roots everyday
-As soon as some cold/flu symptom show up, take Tylenol, drink hot ginger root tea and have plenty rest.

Happy belated birthday, Laurie! Sorry I missed it, as I was away the last a few weeks in China visiting my ailing father.

Laurie — get well soon! :-)

Yixi,
Great advice — my wife and I do some of those things. I pray your dad will be okay.

God bless,
Drew

Laurie - get well soon and Happy Birthday for the big 40!

My secret remedy for the past few years is to take 1000mg of Vitamin C every day - usually dissolved in water. I also take a complete mineral/vitamin A-Z tablet. I've not had a cold or flu while doing that. If I sense the slightest hint of a bug starting, I'll up the Vitamin C to 3000mg a day... Seems to work (touch wood of violin but not on the varnish!)

Get well soon!

Ricola makes very good cough drops...

I am soooo glad my mom made me get a flu shot. A good third of the conservatory has been laid low by what we're calling "the Oberlin Plague." My roommate couldn't get out of bed for a good four days. I totally sympathize Laurie - I had the flu a couple weeks ago, and now a relapse this week. No fun. :( I didn't have to cancel teaching luckily, but I missed two days of class. I also feel really behind on practicing. I hate that feeling when you really want/need to practice, but you're feeling sick and yucky and can't concentrate. With any luck, being sick on and off for 3 weeks makes me immune for the rest of the semester *crosses fingers*. ;) Yixi, my best wishes to your father, and to you.

Mara, yeah, I'm wishing I'd had a flu shot, though they aren't easy to come by; they tend to be reserved for the elderly, ill and young. My kids did get a nasal shot -- they like to giggle that they got a "flu snort." So far they aren't sick...

Definitely I need some good cough drops, and I should take out my Vitamin C fizzies.

Ruth, take it easy, girl!

One of my college roommates once slept for no less then a week when she was sick. Literally, she stayed in her bed, and made her only trips to the bathroom. Her roommate kept joking, "I think Denise is dead, but I'll bring her some food." She went to no classes, no nothin', for an entire week, and this response to illness went completely against the culture at Northwestern, where people go to insane lengths to be competitive. But I thought her very wise. When she was better, she was as bright as ever!

Laurie, I feel your pain. I had it too, and guess what folks, I had a flu shot. Evidently, this years strain of flu was not included in the shot. Yuck, I missed a lesson, a week of work. But, things are going better and I am back to practicing. Laurie,
I also was sick. Had a high fever and endless caugh. It was like 3 weeks ago. Try my recipie for caugh, it really helped me. Get 1 black reddish and cut round hall inside. Put into it honey. After a while honey turns into liquid. Drink this liquid (about table spoon) and put inside new portion of honey. Drink it 3 times a day (I did even more). You might get rid of caugh just in 1 day.
Hope it will help. I had the flu and was unfortunate enough to get a horrible ear infection! I've been sick for about a month now and my hearing is only now starting to get better. This thing knocked me down hard this year! I'm definately getting a flu shot next year! Shot or no shot, I get a big bad cold every year in late fall. It was worst the year I got a flu shot, and I recently had a terrible reaction to a measles/mumps/rubella vaccine we had to take at work (county hospital). The flu shots they give each year are based on guesswork anyway, because of the long manufacture time required. The shot you take most often dosen't protect against the strain that eventually shows up in your town and it (the virus) also changes as it spreads. No more vaccinations for me except tetanus.

cheers

...on the other hand, having a bad cold/flu gives me a chance to lay about in bed for a few days, something of a luxury, catch up on all the great day time TV(right!), and try out some of my favorite home remedies;>)

Hot Toddies, YUM!
To the juice of one large fresh
squeezed lemon in a tall glass and a dollop of honey
add very hot water/just off the boil to 2/3 full
and Jameson's Irish Whiskey to taste.

Sip slowly as you meditate on the joys of civilized life...Ahhhhhhhhhhh

cheers