Is it a Cold, the Flu, or Coronavirus?
For months we’ve all been reading and hearing about a resurgence of the coronavirus combined with the flu. So…what does this mean?
Every year I hear the same question at the beginning of flu season: HOW DO YOU KNOW WHETHER IT’S A COLD OR THE FLU? This season, the question is a little different: HOW DO YOU KNOW WHETHER IT’S A COLD OR THE FLU OR CORONAVIRUS?
There are some real differences.
Fever is rare with a cold. Fever is common with the flu. It’s usually high and lasts three or four days.
Headaches are rare with a cold but common with the flu.
Cold sufferers may have slight aches and pains. Flu sufferers have definite aches and pains which may be severe.
Extreme fatigue and/or weakness is just not a factor with a cold. Exhaustion is common with the flu – especially at the onset of the illness.
Sore throat, stuffy nose, and sneezing are common with a cold. A person suffering with a cold may have mild symptoms to include a hacking cough. With the flu, these symptoms can become severe.
With colds, treatment includes antihistamines, decongestants. With the flu, the patient needs to consult with a physician about any needed medication.
Coronavirus complicates things.
Many people experience fever as the first symptom of Coronavirus.
The second symptom is often a combination of a cough and muscle pain.
Nausea and vomiting make up the third tier.
These symptoms are usually followed by diarrhea.
And, that’s not all. Some people experience a loss of taste or smell.
And, some people experience deeply reddish-blue toes (chillblains).
Others have headache and dizziness.
The bottom line here is that coronavirus has many symptoms while colds and flu
are much less complicated.
If you suspect coronavirus, go get tested. Waiting around while you try to decide you are sick and contagious or not is not good for you and it’s not good for those around you.
There are several tools at your disposal which can help you early on.
A thermometer is essential. Take your temperature daily.
When I’m out in the community, my temperature is the key to getting into the office where I have an appointment.
The no-touch forehead fever thermometer gun has become ubiquitous on receptionists’ desks wherever I go.
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t take your temperature every morning. Your temperature can accompany your blood pressure reading. You can keep your thermometer gun beside your blood pressure cuff.
Then, you only need one other item: a pulse oximeter. A pulse oximeter estimates the amount of oxygen in your blood.
If you have coronavirus, your pulse oximeter will register a lower oxygen level in your body. This is because with coronavirus, your lungs are inflamed. (Actually, with coronavirus, inflammation is all over your body).
So, if you are concerned about your health because you may become exposed to coronavirus, you can help yourself with your temperature, your blood pressure, and your oxygen level.
If you feel ill, you will help your healthcare professional with these three scores.
For those who aren’t really familiar with an oximeter, it is the little plastic clip placed on your finger when you get your blood pressure measured.
These devices are not that expensive, are easy to use, and you can find an explanatory chart which will explain the meaning of the score.
Whatever you decide, prevention is important. Wash your hands often, wear a mask always when you leave your home, use hand sanitizer and don’t go anywhere around other people if you can help it.
Thanks for reading this blog post. If you liked this article, please forward it to your favorite social media networks.
Thanks again,
Thurman Greco
A Crisis Toolkit for Your Mind, Body, and Spirit.
For years and years, I’ve carried around a crisis toolkit to use whenever a friend, family member, client, coworker, or complete stranger entered my life in a crisis situation. Do you have a healing tool kit?
I’m betting you do. After all, we’re all healers. We all carry one around, even if we don’t call it that. So my question is this: What’s in it?
My toolkit has things to help with fear as well as death and with the dreaded coronavirus. But it also has to help with all the other diseases and aches and pains we encounter in addition: colds, fever, rashes, asthma attacks, arthritis, heart attacks, cancer…
Maybe you feel your toolkit is not ready for today’s situation. It’s probably filled with all sorts of things you can use.
Here are some things I’m sharing with you. Maybe you have things in your toolkit you can share with me.
When it comes to supporting your mind, body, and spirit during these challenging times, I TURN FIRST TO YOGA. I recommend restorative yoga.
When you are stressed, a weekly session is important. I don’t know how it is in your area, but I’m in Upstate New York which is a new hot spot for Coronavirus. I take a restorative yoga class via Zoom every week with Carolyn Abedor.
Carolyn is a physical therapist/yoga instructor. I come away from her class restored, renewed, and recharged for the coming week. I would take her class twice a week but I work on the other day she teaches it.
Do you have a yoga teacher? If not, make finding one a priority. Today’s challenges call for restorative yoga. But, if you find a different yoga that you prefer…go for it. Use what works for you.
REIKI CANNOT BE OVERESTIMATED. Do you practice Reiki therapy? If so, don’t forget to use this tool every chance you get.
Use your Reiki when you walk into a building. Use it when you walk down the street. Use Reiki when you encounter other people. Everyone is stressed out. We can all use Reiki’s healing, calming energy.
If not, now is the best time I know of to learn Reiki. Reiki is essential in stressful times. And, frankly, no time can be more stressful than now.
If you don’t practice Reiki and you can’t find a teacher, book some sessions with a practitioner. Begin with 5 sessions.
Whether or not you practice Reiki, or visit a Reiki practitioner regularly, now is a good time to organize a Reiki circle or Reiki share. Gather several friends together and let the Reiki practitioners offer healing to everyone in the room. Reiki is not one bit intimidated by the requirements of social distancing.
DON’T FORGET REFLEXOLOGY. Reflexology sessions are extremely grounding. If you are stressed out or if you have health issues, Reflexology sessions can help. Gloves and face masks will not negatively impose on Reflexology.
HEALING MUSIC HAS BEEN AN IMPORTANT PART IN MY TOOL BOX FOR YEARS. I use it during healing sessions, classes, or whenever I feel the need.
Through the years, I’ve learned that healing music can be all sorts of sounds. Beauty is in the ears of the beholder. I tend to favor Deuter, Halpern, Ken Davis, Anugama. Your favorites may be totally different. Because of my experiences, I prefer the older musicians. But, there are many kinds of healing music available today. Explore them until you know what works best for you.
GUIDED MEDITATIONS are essential. I began reading those written by others and now create my own. I suggest that you go with someone else’s until the time is right for you. The goal of a guided meditation is to awaken, transform, or heal. For years, I relied on the meditations compiled in books by Larry Moen.
BEDSIDE TABLE BOOKS are essential. They are the books I read when my tanks need refilling. These books vary with the need. Sometimes escape is the only route. Other times, I need to know what other people have to say about the situation I’m dealing with.
I’m often hungry for the wisdom others offer. To prevent empty tanks, I try to read about an hour a day.
When I fed hungry and homeless people in a food pantry, I found solace in the statistics of hunger. At any given moment I could tell you what percentage of children in our country went to bed hungry. I knew the difference between resource poor and generational poor and struggling poor. I knew all about dumpster diving.
Now, I’m attracted to memoirs. It’s not the problems that attract me. It’s how the writer tackled the problem that counts.
Fear, and forgiveness are big on my list.
Finally, when I need to veg out, I go for whatever catalogue is in my mailbox.
The important thing is to know when to fill your own tanks. Your toolbox won’t be worth much if you’re stretched too thin.
Your toolkit may be totally different. It probably is different. After all, we are scattered all over the planet. I hope to hear about some things in your toolkit. Please email me.
Meanwhile, please forward this article to your preferred social media network.
In honor of this most stressful time, I’m offering you a free copy of a book I wrote entitled “Miracles”. Email your mailing address to thurmangreco@gmail.com before April 12th, and I’ll send it along – absolutely free with no strings attached.
Thank you for being here.
Thurman Greco
The Spirituality of Fear
Full-blown fear isn’t really in my personal vocabulary, so I don’t often feel it. But, when I do feel fear, I feel it 100%. I feel fear for us, and the earth. This is the spirituality of fear.
When I felt fear in my life, fear interfered with my grounding mechanism. And, that wasn’t all. It took control and moved and directed me throughout every single day.
That is not to say that I have not ever experienced fear. I have, definitely, lived with fear. But, this post is not about that fear. It is for us, our fear, and our Earth.
I feel in my spiritual core that fear is directing many of us nowadays. Through the guise of the Coronavirus, fear is totally in charge of many of us and our lives.
I am suggesting, no – pleading – that fear has no place in our lives at this moment. For one thing, when fear controls us, it wrecks our immune systems. Not one person on our planet today needs an immune system compromised in any way.
Instead of fear, focus on our planet. In my inner core, I feel that I need to focus on our precious planet earth because she’s the only planet we’ve got.
With all the cars, factories, ships, and planes grounded and parked, our Earth is getting a very much needed time-out.
During this time, our Earth’s streams, lakes, and oceans are cleaning themselves up.
The atmosphere surrounding our planet is cleaning itself out – finally! The humans on our planet are, for the moment, generating less smog.
We are using the dirt – fields, meadows, mountainsides – in different ways now.
So, while our medical, and governmental leaders are figuring out how to combat this pandemic, I can’t help but be grateful for this time out, this cleansing experience on and in our Earth.
In my spiritual center, I feel we are on the verge of a whole new world. I am not longingly looking back on the return of the old reality of the past. The past is gone – a memory which we can write, paint, and sing about in the future.
Instead, I look forward to our new world and its cleaner, healthier, reality.
Please join me.
Let us celebrate our future together.
Let us ponder things learned and create better ways to live our lives daily.
Let us rejoice in a cleaner, more beautiful tomorrow.
If you feel moments of fear, there are things you can do:
Meditate on a future you would like to see.
Seek grounding through bodywork.
Find gratitude in lessons learned and beauty to experience.
Thank you.
Thurman Greco
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please refer it to your favorite social media network.
Let us all embrace the beauty we will experience.
Thurman Greco
