"trying" to get a cold....but I don't want one!

HELP!

I've got a big weekend planned and I'm one the verge of getting a womper of a cold --- does anybody have ANY advice as to WHAT I can take to KICK IT OUT!??  This can't be happening now!!!
Sneezy
a little cough
plugged ears (start of the congested feeling)

I need to run to the Boots -- and it's so hard to stand there and ASK them with a lunchtime crowd standing about --- that's why I'm asking here.   Any advice will be GREATLY appreciated!!    Thank you my cyber friends!!!   

do they cary zycam here?  It's a gel you put in your nose 3 times a day (you don't sniff it, you kinda rub it in there) and it REALLY helps.

I brought a couple over from the states and they have saved me. 

echinacea!  Get the liquid.  Put it under your tongue-be warned, it tastes pretty bad.  BUT...

the first time I ever tried it, I was getting a miserable cold-sore scratchy throat, watery runny nose, watery eyes, fever, the whole thing.  I ended up taking like half a bottle (a small 4 oz bottle) of echinacea over about 8 hours.  Went to sleep, woke up the next day feeling perfectly fine.

You could try loading up on vitamin if you can't get echinacea- a lot of the docs my Mom worked with would OD on it when they felt a cold coming on (like 5k milligrams or whatever-5 times the RDA).  It would give them diarrhea but the next day the cold was gone.  Apparently zinc is very helpful there as well.

Good luck!

Thank you!!!!!  I'm away to get to the --- oh hell-- I can't remember the name of the nutrition store at the station -- and the boots. 
I've been waiting for this weekend for MONTHS and now that it's here -- I've got the cooties on the attack! 

Fingers crossed!!!   Thanks you guys!!!   

i think the zycam is a combo of stuff....let me look:  active ingredient is zincum gluconicum 2X.

whatever that means.  

Echinachea is great!  But if the cold does "get you", then try to pump up your Vitamin C intake.  I can highly recommend the effervescent tablets from Tesco (Tesco brand).

1000 mg and you disolve them in a bit of water first.  LOVELY!  I look forward to taking it every morning....

Probably not a good idea to dissolve them in your coffee though! 

Echinachea is great!  But if the cold does "get you", then try to pump up your Vitamin C intake.  I can highly recommend the effervescent tablets from Tesco (Tesco brand).

1000 mg and you disolve them in a bit of water first.  LOVELY!  I look forward to taking it every morning....

Probably not a good idea to dissolve them in your coffee though! 

Wait a minute -- I'm confused.  You say to pump UP my Vitamin C intake.  Don't you mean my vitamin COFFEE intake? 
(if yes - I do that already!!!!)

on second thought -- do you mean vitamin CHOCOLATE? but then chocolate is a Food Group -- so I should get 5 helpings of tha every DAY

Sorry to break this to you dear, but coffee does not have vitamin C...but hey if you drink enough coffee, you won't CARE that you have a cold!! 

I have GOT to recommend LemSip for colds. I have a really bad head cold and cough right now, which is terrible because I'm just about to board an airplane in a few hours to go back to the US for Christmas. I was even considering not going because of how bad I felt, but then my boyfriend made me a hot mug of the stuff and I feel about a million times better. I can actually function and I have energy and my head has cleared right up. That stuff is genius! 

Just mix a packet in hot water boiled in a kettle, add sugar, and drink it like tea. Yummy!

I'm gonna have to try LemSip - I used to really like TheraFlu in the U.S. - it looks similar? But I'm afraid I'm still importing DayQuil - it's the only thing that makes me feel totally and completely fine when I'm sick.

Anyone else having a really bad year for colds? I really don't normally get sick very often, but I've had two colds in the last two months! Though one I caught on the plane going back to the US for Thanksgiving - I didn't do my usual paranoid prevention routine and lo and behold... sick for Thanksgiving.... 

I managed to go this whole season without a cold - UNTIL a 3 days ago...it's not a bad cold - but I have a tummy bug on top of that!  Bummer- I'm gonna be sick for Christmas!