Commuting /Riding with cold/flu/Chest infection

wolfsbane2k

Got a minor upper respiratory chest infection, and on the antibiotics.

No viable PT to work, so it's a PHV/Taxi costing an arm and a leg, and no possible lifts yet found

Therefore, going to take it "slow" but nervous i'm going to end up "stranded", Other option is to call in sick, but feels a bit cheap as i'm generally office based, and i do feel on the mend.

How does anyone else (or the dutch) cope with cold and flu?

rjsterry

Don't be silly. Work from home if you can - phone work and get them to email you something - but riding any distance is likely to increase the chances of the recovery going backwards. Then you really will be off sick.

cjcp

Rest.

cougie

rest and only when you truly have flu will you realise that you never had it until then.

If you have to ask about exercise - it really isnt flu.

fat daddy

or you could just cycle slowly ... turns out if you cycle at the same speed as everyone else its completely effortless .. sure it takes twice as long, but unless its a really steep hill, you can literally cycle along without your heart rate coming close to twice its resting.

its the same effort at walking down the road to pick up a packet of Jaffa cakes, or going upstairs to the toilet.

so ... if going to the toilet kills you then don't cycle !

slowbike

IMHO - really depends how hard it is to breath - if you can't get up the stairs normally without coughing then probably no cycle. If you can, then you're ok - if you take it easy....
Like I did last week. (I've got a persistant cough but not on medication) - I quite like the fresh air - just knock it back a bit so you're not breathing deeply and away you go...
Choice is yours though - depends how bad it is....

UndercoverElephant

You see, this is what's wrong with the world. If you're not well enough to be sure you can cycle, you're not going to be well enough to actually do a day's work, even if it's an office job. Rest up, get well.

I should point out that I've done the stupid option several times before and ended up with pleurisy twice - now that's not fun.

kingstonian

Stay off the bike. I am in the same boat, have a stinking cold and am back on public transport until it completely shifts. Too many times in the past I've made myself worse by exercising before I have recovered.

secretsam

cougie wrote:

rest and only when you truly have flu will you realise that you never had it until then.

If you have to ask about exercise - it really isnt flu.

^^ This. I had real influenza last year, got the sick note from my GP to prove it: her words to me when I presented: "Congratulations, you're that rare thing: someone who has actually got REAL 'flu!"

The real deal is vile, you can't move, you ache, you frankly want to curl up and die.

wolfsbane2k

Cheers all. I felt like a cheapskate, but I ended up grabbing a cab in late afternoon just to get the laptop, sync up and then get a lift home, so I could WFH the following day.

The issue has really been the chest infection (doctor diagnosed & on tabs) - I'm able to walk about 1/2 mile /8-9 mins before I need to stop for ~ 2-3 mins to catch my breath, so normal "cycling" on the flat in pootle mode would be ok, although significantly slower than normal!

Still, weekend now, so I've got to take the heavy laptop back in on Monday - groan.

awavey

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

The issue has really been the chest infection (doctor diagnosed & on tabs) - I'm able to walk about 1/2 mile /8-9 mins before I need to stop for ~ 2-3 mins to catch my breath, so normal "cycling" on the flat in pootle mode would be ok, although significantly slower than normal!

but I find with a chest infection, because its harder to breath normally and you are coughing up all this guck, whenever you start to do any physical activity, be that just walking or riding a bike in pootle mode, you breath harder, the more you breath harder, the more you force all the horrid bacteria/infection stuff your body is trying to cough up to get rid of, further back into your lungs and thats when you can really get in to serious trouble if the infection goes deeper into your lungs

and it happened to me, quite a few years back I wasnt listening to what my body was trying to tell me and that I should just rest, and Id carried on thinking Id just get through it, and went from a simple minor head cold, to a chest infection, to full on flu/pneumonia, that completely knocked me out for more than a week and it took along time afterwards to fully recover from that.

ymmv, but for me thesedays first sign of a chest infection, bike gets parked.

greenamex2

I rode with a bad cold a while back. Collapsed when I got home. If I had collapsed in the middle of a road, would probably have got run over.

Either take it REALLY easy or seek alternatives.

wolfsbane2k

awavey wrote:

but I find with a chest infection, because its harder to breath normally and you are coughing up all this guck, whenever you start to do any physical activity, be that just walking or riding a bike in pootle mode, you breath harder, the more you breath harder, the more you force all the horrid bacteria/infection stuff your body is trying to cough up to get rid of, further back into your lungs and thats when you can really get in to serious trouble if the infection goes deeper into your lungs

and it happened to me, quite a few years back I wasnt listening to what my body was trying to tell me and that I should just rest, and Id carried on thinking Id just get through it, and went from a simple minor head cold, to a chest infection, to full on flu/pneumonia, that completely knocked me out for more than a week and it took along time afterwards to fully recover from that.

ymmv, but for me thesedays first sign of a chest infection, bike gets parked.

I think that's probably what's happened here - Minor Cold, turned into cough, into chest infection.

Problem is I've not planned on being well enough to work, yet not well enough to be able to cycle in, as the PT around my work has completely shutdown in the last year.