tzikeh said i should ask here

[fox]

so i have this gummy lump in my lungs.  and my room is very dry.  and i don't have a humidifier.  but do you think it would work if i closed the windows (presently opened just a crack, for circulation) and turned on the hot water and left it running while i slept?

the hot water is very steamy.  only the sink is in a closet, and i could leave the closet door open, but the closet door is at the foot of the bed between me and the sink, so i'm concerned it would just make the front part of the room warm and damp, and leave me back in my bed still suffering.

hmm.  i have become a lot less lucid or sensible in the past half hour.  i wonder if that means i'll be able to fall asleep.

eta: i moved things! so the closet door can open further. room is a disaster area, but not a fire hazard, and maybe it will be more fully humid this way.

Comments

[batagur.livejournal.com]

My doctor always says humidity helps when you have to break up the gunk in your lungs.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

oh yeah. no question about that. i just don't know if running the hot water, when there's the closet door as a sort of baffle, will make the room humid. [scratches head]

[batagur.livejournal.com]

That is a small problem. Now, my doc would tell me to take a long hot steamy bath and then go to bed. I guess the idea here is that a hour of therapeutic steam is better than none at all. Is that a do-able thing for you?

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

not really, because i feel so miserable when the benefit wears off that it's almost preferable not to have felt better in the first place. plus, bath: alll the way far away down the hall. the shower nearby is good, though! -- only so small that before the steam is done loosening the crud in your lungs, it goes to your head and makes you dizzy. but i may have found a solution, see.

[batagur.livejournal.com]

I've also heard of people putting tin pans with water next to the heat vents or on top of radiators to help with humidity. I don't know if that works, but it might be worth a try.

[zoethe.livejournal.com]

You will quickly run out of hot water, and that will make any others who are dependent upon it...cranky.

The hot bath suggestion is a good one - steam out as much as you can. And if you can bear to sleep with a scarf tied over your nose and mouth, you will rebreath a lot of the moisture you'd otherwise lose.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

hmm.

it's a whole building, and there's lots of cooking and cleaning and showering that happens every day, and we don't tend to run out -- but i take your point. instead, i will keep the windows closed and the space heater off (dry dry dry dry dry), and let the water run for a few minutes more now -- the place already feels warmer and muggier -- but turn it off before i go to sleep.

[zoethe.livejournal.com]

Feel better!

[reginagiraffe]

You could put a pan of water on the floor in front of the space heater so that the warm air blows over it and gets humidified. And, as someone above suggested, if you have a radiator, I'd put a pan of water on that, too.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

Once or twice a day until you feel better, boil a pot of water, pour it into a large bowl, drop in five or six fennel seeds, throw a towel over it, and stick your head under the towel and breathe the fumes until the water starts to cool off. This will help, I promise.