A Tree Falling in the Forest

My lovely wife (MLW), our brilliant baby (OBB), and I have recently been battling seasonal colds as we patiently wait for spring to arrive in full force to bring us some relief. MLW has had it the worse, but the only one that has been free from the misery is our Emotionally Disturbed Dog (EDD). (This leads me to wonder where the saying as sick as a dog comes from. The only time EDD gets sick is when she gorges herself with meatloaf or chicken.) OBB seems to be through the worst of it and hopefully MLW will be able to turn the corner soon.

The last week or so, I have been trying to avoid the worst of the sickness by using Cold-Eeze. Cold-Eeze is a lozenge with Zinc Gluconate. I think this stuff may actually work. I have not been symptom free, but I certainly didn’t get as sick as MLW or OBB, at least not yet.

Using Cold-Eeze does have some negative side effects. It messes with your sense of taste. As a man who likes food of all kinds and has a sizable sweet tooth this is not a good thing. Rather than eat less because I have a dulled sense of taste, I eat more in the hope that I will be able to taste the next bite. MLW doesn’t use Cold-Eeze because she didn’t like the taste of the lozenge, but after the first couple lozenges you can’t really taste them anymore. Thankfully, the loss of taste is temporary and goes away a couple days after I stop using the product.

It has also been a little rough on my stomach. Nothing terrible, just some general “un-Eeze-ness,” especially in the morning. Cold-Eeze might also be helpful to anyone looking for relief from… how shall we say?... plumbing back-up problems.

Unfortunately, cold medicines often give me hives. Robitusson makes my skin look and itch like a bad case of poison ivy for a few hours. Sucrets causes two round dotes on my cheeks and makes me want to scratch off my skin like the maggots scene in Poltergeist. So, compared to that, the side effect of Cold-Eeze are actually quite mild.

And finally the price is nothing to sn-Eeze at. A bag of 24 lozenges is north of $5 at the local chain drug store, a bit more expensive than your average bag of Hall’s. But if it works, I say it is money well spent. The money saved on tissues, cold medicines, and cough drops can Eeze-ily exceed Cold-Eeze.