Playa Lung Remedy???

[geospyder]

I've done multiple searches without any real results. Serious cough going on 10 days now. Now a very productive cough. Bad enough sitting or standing but really bad when laying down. Keeping me awake at night. Tea and honey doesn't work. Cough drops don't work. Benadryl doesn't work. Looking into Robitussin - trying to decide which version. Any suggestions? What do you do for Playa lung?

[RedHeaven]

Herbal throat spray with tea tree and licorice and mullen

ZINC LOZENGES. Not reg cough drops, ZINC. Get Zand brand with Elderberry. They dont taste as bad as other brands. ZInc helps repair throat tissue. I use them out there and it cuts my playa lung in half.

Keep drinking the tea, any tea, and lots of water. Licorice tea especially

Maybe you need to get to the doctor though, could be an infection and you might need antibiotics? Don't let it linger too long.

[maryanimal]

I have the same playa lung geospyder. It's not getting better and it's beginning to hurt when I cough.

[geospyder]

I have the same playa lung geospyder. It's not getting better and it's beginning to hurt when I cough.

Mine is not very productive. I explained it to the local pharmacist and she suggested Mucinex DM or Robitussin DM. I chose Mucinex since it comes in tablet form and lasts 12 hours. We'll see what happens. The worse part of the cough, other than the physical aspect, is that I've been sleeping on the couch ever since I got back from Burning Man. Something about coughing in a water bed keeping your partner awake. My wife wants the cough over so we can get back together

[clocksnmirrors]

i agree with redheaven

not to be alarmist but maybe it's not playa lung but rather a garden variety bronchitis of some sort?

your doctor should be able to tell you for sure

[maryanimal]

It seems a lot of folks on the playa this year contracted bronchitis then.

[geospyder]

It probably was Playa Lung originally but if not treated it can become bronchitis or worse, pneumonia. I am surprised at how many people I know that have Playa Lung this year. Last Friday, when I was losing my voice, I was telling people that I was going through puberty and having strange dreams of sheep Damn - I'm seventy next year and I don't want zits again

[maryanimal]

It probably was Playa Lung originally but if not treated it can become bronchitis or worse, pneumonia. I am surprised at how many people I know that have Playa Lung this year. Last Friday, when I was losing my voice, I was telling people that I was going through puberty and having strange dreams of sheep Damn - I'm seventy next year and I don't want zits again

70? you're a youngster! I do most of my coughing at night and in the morning. I'm feeling like I'm getting pleurisy(sp.?) We'llsee at the end of the week. If it hasn't gotten any better, then I'll pay a visit to my MD.




btw, has anyone seen wedeliver lately? I'd like to contact him!

[junglesmacks]

The best remedy is keeping your body healthy and boosting your own immune system. Take your multi-vitamins, eat well, get rest, drink lots of fluids, break out the vegetable juicer and make sure to include a fresh beet in there.

If it hasn't gotten better by the beginning of this next week, you may indeed want to see a doctor in case it is indeed some kind of bacterial infection which would be better aided by a stiff round of antibiotics..

[Bob]

Please move this from Open Discussion to Lack of Preparation.

[lemur]

Any suggestions? What do you do for Playa lung?

[maryanimal]

Please move this from Open Discussion to Lack of Preparation.

hehehe me loves ya bob! *hug* Please come to the playa next year so I can meet you and hug you in person!

[tattoogoddess]

I also am suffering from it pretty good to but also have a runny nose. the stuff that is coming out. ick.
would love to know what to take. i drank a whole 2 quarts of oj today.

[maryanimal]

I'm wondering if you can get Valley Fever on the playa. It's pretty catchy in central Calif. You can die from it if it isn't taken care of in time. I used to live outside of Bakersfield, the anus of Calif, and it was extremely prevelant there. The spores live in the dust and dirt there.

[TomServo]

What Playa Lung?

[theCryptofishist]

Just go to the fucking doctor already!!!

[maryanimal]

Just go to the fucking doctor already!!!

um...ok...

[gaminwench]

licorice tea.

[AntiM]

You can have valley fever without symptoms, but if you do have symptoms, you'd be running a fever, and then there's the rash. Not just a bad cough.

Stuff in your nose/nasal cavities? Get a neti pot or saline rinse bottle. Unpleasant but effective and cheap.

Coughing more than a week? Doctor or free clinic, not the fuckos on eplaya. We may have good temporary fixes, but we aren't doctors.

[ygmir]

it's been suggested to me, that, holding one's breath for 10 or more minutes cures most everything.

[Zhust]

Yeah, I'm going to chime in with "go to the doctor".

I inhaled a few pounds in the Friday dust storm but have no ill effects. At all. No cough, no soreness, no scratchiness, and snot-clear. I'm not profoundly unlucky.

Playa dust can be dangerous and either exacerbate or create new maladies. It's also not a normal thing for your body (well, most Burners' bodies) to deal with, so your body may react in unexpected ways.

[pamela1111]

I would go with a little bit of steam and some drops of eucalyptus in the steam , plenty of vinegar in the diet, and yarrow tincture. Avoid dairy, excess sugar, wheat because these things cause mucus buildup. Eat plenty of astringent foods like vegetables, citrus, and vinegar to help clear out the mucus. Eat plenty of fruit for Vitamin C. See a doctor if it persists because you might have a bronchial infection.

See my home remedies page for more info http://www.playadancer.com

[MacGlenver]

Stuff in your nose/nasal cavities? Get a neti pot or saline rinse bottle.

Just be sure to pre-boil the water or use distilled water so you don't get brain eating amoebas.

http://news.yahoo.com/brain-eating-amoeba-infections-prompts-warning-neti-pots-111807585.html

[Bob]

Vinegar. I knew that would crop up.

As someone who's worked with the site crew for weeks at a time, I recommend getting the fuck out of the desert.

[mudpuppy000]

There was something going around in our camp that wasn't from dust. I got it and felt sick for a few days. Other people had fevers. Felt like a plain old chest cold/flu.

[shroom]

Mucinex will help you couch stuff out. (be sure it's the kind with expectorant) Beyond that I would see a doctor.

[trilobyte]

Moving this over to the Q&A Tips And Tricks board, since that's a much better fit.

Best remedy is of course to avoid getting it in the first place, which I think is a simple matter of a few basic steps. First, stay fucking hydrated. When you're not getting enough fluids, your body's ability to produce mucous and keep your innards nice and juicy is diminished. Second, keep that nose clean. Blow it, pick it, blast it with dynamite if you need to. Okay, maybe not dynamite, but a good non-medicated saline solution nasal spray will do the trick. The dust gets all up in there and turns the inside of your nose into a dusty, crusty funk which paves the way for the corrosive alkali dust to get all the way down into your throat and lungs. Think of it as cleaning your body's air filter. Third, minimize what's getting into your system with bandanas, dust masks, or respirators (use what works for you). If you're getting playa lung or any kind of hacking cough, it means you're not doing a good job on at least one of those steps.

I don't have any specific or well-tested solutions because in all the years I've been burning, I've never gotten it. My campmates taught me well in my first year, and stressed the importance of the above. But treating it should be fairly common sense. Your throat and lungs have become dry and irritated by the corrosive alkali dust. Try a remedy or two, if you don't feel any relief, go see a doctor. When it comes to your lungs and the ability to breathe, don't fuck around.

[some seeing eye]

You might do some searching for playa dust composition and particle size and then take that to your doctor. It has silicates and organic matter, which your body is trying to reject by coughing. There might be some docs in the Bay Area that have experience in playa side effects.

[TomServo]

You might do some searching for playa dust composition and particle size and then take that to your doctor. It has silicates and organic matter, which your body is trying to reject by coughing. There might be some docs in the Bay Area that have experience in playa side effects.

Particle Particle Size
(microns)
one inch 25400
dot (.) 615
Eye of a Needle 1230
Glass Wool 1000
Spanish Moss Pollen 150 - 750
Beach Sand 100 - 10000
Mist 70 - 350
Fertilizer 10 - 1000
Pollens 10 - 1000
Cayenne Pepper 15 - 1000
Textile Fibers 10 - 1000
Fiberglass Insulation 1 - 1000
Grain Dusts 5 - 1000
Human Hair 40 - 300
Human Hair 60 - 600
Dust Mites 100 - 300
Saw Dust 30 - 600
Ground Limestone 10 - 1000
Tea Dust 8 - 300
Coffee 5 - 400
Bone Dust 3 - 300
Hair 5 - 200
Cement Dust 3 - 100
Ginger 25 - 40
Mold Spores 10 - 30
Starches 3 - 100
Red Blood Cells 5 - 10
Mold 3 - 12
Mustard 6 - 10
Antiperspirant 6 - 10
Textile Dust 6 - 20
Gelatin 5 - 90
Spider web 2 - 3
Spores 3 - 40
Combustion-related - motor vehicles, wood burning,
open burning, industrial processes up to 2.5
Fly Ash 1 - 1000
Milled Flour, Milled Corn 1 - 100
Coal Dust 1 - 100
Iron Dust 4 - 20
Smoke from Synthetic Materials 1 - 50
Lead Dust 2
Face Powder 0.1 - 30
Talcum Dust 0.5 - 50
Asbestos 0.7 - 90
Calcium Zinc Dust 0.7 - 20
Paint Pigments 0.1 - 5
Auto and Car Emission 1 - 150
Metallurgical Dust 0.1 - 1000
Metallurgical Fumes 0.1 - 1000
Clay 0.1 - 50
Humidifier 0.9 - 3
Copier Toner 0.5 - 15
Liquid Droplets 0.5 - 5
Insecticide Dusts 0.5 - 10
Anthrax 1 - 5
Yeast Cells 1 - 50
Carbon Black Dust 0.2 - 10
Atmospheric Dust 0.001 - 40
Smoldering or Flaming Cooking Oil 0.03 - 0.9
Corn Starch 0.1 - 0.8
Sea Salt 0.035 - 0.5
Bacteria 0.3 - 60
Bromine 0.1 - 0.7
Lead 0.1 - 0.7
Radioactive Fallout 0.1 - 10
Rosin Smoke 0.01 - 1
Combustion 0.01 - 0.1
Smoke from Natural Materials 0.01 - 0.1
Burning Wood 0.2 - 3
Coal Flue Gas 0.08 - 0.2
Oil Smoke 0.03 - 1
Tobacco Smoke 0.01 - 4
Viruses 0.005 - 0.3
Typical Atmospheric Dust 0.001 to 30
Sugars 0.0008 - 0.005
Pesticides & Herbicides 0.001
Carbon Dioxide 0.00065
Oxygen 0.0005

[remi]

I've been farting out all my playa dust.