I came down with the worst cold I have had in years the day after Thanksgiving and I have been in agony since then. I was supposed to fly back home yesterday but I changed my flight to today in hopes that I would feel a little better.

Unfortunately...That is not the case. I feel worse than I did yesterday. Not only is my cold getting worse, my left ear now hurts. I can deal with the ear pain right now but it will most likely be a completely different story once I leave the ground. Even when healthy I have trouble with my ears when I fly. I've got a really bad feeling about how intense the pain in my ear will get once I take off.

Has anyone here flown with a really bad cold? How did you fair? What should I do about my ear? I have some Actifed that I can take but I'm skeptical as to how effective it will be considering how messed up my ear already is.

BUT, for this to work, you seriously have to use 4x the amount, fill the cap four times and gulp. Make sure there is plenty of H20 nearby, this $HIT is nasty...

good luck

Airliners are pressurized to 8000 feet so there's still considerable altitude/pressure differences and if your ear canal is blocked, you may not be able to equalize the pressure in your ear canal and you can damage your hearing and get EXTREMELY severe pain even without damaging your hearing.

When getting a pilot's license, we had to learn about these issues...take my advice, don't chance it...it could be ALOT worse than you think.

...I could hardly even take the elevator to the 32nd floor the last time I had a bad an ear/sinus cold. I can't imagine being on an airplane. Those are pressurized to 10,000 feet, so you'd have to endure from 0 to 10,000.

Take Sudafed to reduce congestion. Take aspirin to reduce swelling/fluid build-up and reduce pain. Avoid shotgun remedies like Contac, the side effects are worsened from medicine you don't need. Chew gum on take-off and landing to help equalize pressure in your ears (forcing yourself to yawn regularly works too but you look like a moron doing it), and sip water regularly to help you wash the phlegm off your throat and prevent coughing, bring a bottle on board as planes are very dry. Don't use any menthol throatl lozenges or medicine, it actualy makes it worse drying out your throat skin when the menthol evaporates. Buy a bag of hard candy you like and suck on it regularly - that also keeps saliva flowing and prevents phlegm from building in your throat. Get Kleenex with lotion so your nose doesn't get sore.

When you land and get to your hotel run a hot steamy bath and let your head clear up and drain. Remember that part of an ear infection or sinus infection from a cold comes from blowing your nose hard and forcing stuff back as well as out. The Sudafed should give some relief to break the flow of stuff.

Good luck, I've had a miserable cold since last Monday but I don't have to fly.

I had to do it when I cam back from PR. Trust me. It is not an experience you would want to go through.

temporarily reducing the pressure on sinus.

Don'teful.

the new perscription nasal sprays seem to work for my allergy ridden a$$, also zyrtec works good, go see a doc, there are "instant relief" nasal inhalers that should work if you REALLY NEED TO FLY.

I guess I'll have to reschedule again. I'm in no shape to fly right now. Not too mention the fact that I am a walking germ factory right now and would probably infect half the ship.

Hopefully that will give me enough time to recover a little. And at the very least it will give me a chance to go see the doctor.

Then again the last time I traveled feeling slightly ill my cold got 1000x's worse and I got stuck in London on a layover for a week needing numerous hospital visits. Most via ambulance. That really really really sucked. If you can you're better off postponing your flight. If it truely is a head cold you should be able to get away with a decongestant. If you're coughing and have bronchitis or something like that definitely don't travel!

do your fellow passengers a favor...remember the air is all recirculated on the plane for the duration of the flight :-(

Load up, double up if your heart can take it. As mentioned below, take lots of hot showers to clear your sinuses. You can also take Benedryl to dry out your sinuses, but it will make you very sleepy. Works like a charm though.

If you can't get your head clear, don't get on the plane.

Don't let the Sudafed rebound on you, take it every 4 hours up until you get off the plane. Do this even if you have to wake up in the middle of the night to take more.

What typically takes 15 minutes to land the plane feels like an eternity when you have a head cold. My brother and I once had a head cold and we were dying next to one another on the decent. I just kept thinking "Please land the damn plane, or just put a bullet to my head and end it now...."