I have a cold. Help me decide whether or not to visit my 94 year old Grandmother this coming Tuesday. Timeline of events so far.
Saturday July 22--bought plane tickets to visit 94 year old Grandmother.
Tuesday July 24th AM--Grandma sends e-mail saying she is excited to see me. Last sentence reads, "Can I count on you to be free of respiratory infections?"
Tuesday July 24th PM- I feel a cold coming on.
Tuesday July 24th--Friday Jul 28th (today)--I have been sick in bed with an upper respiratory infection.
Of. course.
So, friends, I'm supposed to head off to see her in T-minus 4 days and I am agonizing over what the best thing to do is. How will I know if I am indeed "free of a respiratory infection?" Even if I feel fit as a fiddle, is going still a terrible, no good, very bad idea?
I can't find any sort of consensus on the contagious period of the common cold. Some sources say up to two weeks, some sources say four days after symptoms begin. The CDC doesn't even bother to comment on the subject. They only say that most people recover in 7 to 10 days. I even called them. I think this is because it all just depends on a variety of different factors. The virus, the person, the weather, whether or not mercury is in retrograde etc.
Based on googling, common sense, a microbiology 101 course I took earlier this year, and a general gut feeling, I don't believe a person is no longer contagious once symptoms begin. Numerous friends have told me this in the past few days with frightening confidence so this seems to be a prevailing belief.
I shouldn't risk it, right? Any virologists out there?
Saturday July 22--bought plane tickets to visit 94 year old Grandmother.
Tuesday July 24th AM--Grandma sends e-mail saying she is excited to see me. Last sentence reads, "Can I count on you to be free of respiratory infections?"
Tuesday July 24th PM- I feel a cold coming on.
Tuesday July 24th--Friday Jul 28th (today)--I have been sick in bed with an upper respiratory infection.
Of. course.
So, friends, I'm supposed to head off to see her in T-minus 4 days and I am agonizing over what the best thing to do is. How will I know if I am indeed "free of a respiratory infection?" Even if I feel fit as a fiddle, is going still a terrible, no good, very bad idea?
I can't find any sort of consensus on the contagious period of the common cold. Some sources say up to two weeks, some sources say four days after symptoms begin. The CDC doesn't even bother to comment on the subject. They only say that most people recover in 7 to 10 days. I even called them. I think this is because it all just depends on a variety of different factors. The virus, the person, the weather, whether or not mercury is in retrograde etc.
Based on googling, common sense, a microbiology 101 course I took earlier this year, and a general gut feeling, I don't believe a person is no longer contagious once symptoms begin. Numerous friends have told me this in the past few days with frightening confidence so this seems to be a prevailing belief.
I shouldn't risk it, right? Any virologists out there?
