Did you know that the longest sneezing fit lasted 978 days? A little English girl named Donna Griffiths started off sneezing at one-minute intervals and “slowed down” to every five minutes by the end – almost THREE years later!**

I’ve been trying to keep poor Donna in mind as I’ve sniffled and wheezed through my week. Yes, I am sick. Talking to co-blogger Anne on the phone earlier in the week, I had to keep hitting the mute button to avoid blowing out her eardrums with my sneezing and coughing. When I explained the awkward and random pauses in my speaking, she quickly asked if I had given the rest of my family Airborne. I’d never heard of the stuff, so Anne gave me a quick primer.

According to the Airborne web site, it’s an “effervescent [that means goes it goes plop-plop, fizz-fizz like AlkaSeltzer, right?] dietary supplement … which contains 17 natural ingredients … and provides added support to the body’s immune system.” Sounds good to me. When I go pick up my prescription later today (I seem to be living at CVS this week, see my recent post), I’ll add Airborne to my purchases.

All this made me realize the only preventive trick up my sleeve is to wash my hands a lot during cold and flu season (which is NOT July, I’d like to point out). What do other Wise Women do to ward off sickness or nip a cold in the bud?

** The sneezing factoid is courtesy of a web site chock-full of useless, but fun facts: thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com