UPDATE: The method below may or may not cure
this, but my experience indicates it would likely help if a similar outbreak occurs again.
BEFORE I TAKE A SHORT WRITING VACATION AND SEVERAL LONG HIKES
There are many, many subjects I know little or nothing about. Other things I've learned second or third hand. Then there are one or two things I can honestly speak of from direct life-long learning and experience. Respiratory distress is one of them.
Colds that start in your head, move to your throat and chest causing congestion, asthma, laryngitis, coughing, sometimes pneumonia and even hernias (as in coughing so hard that I bust parts of my intestines and have to have surgery to repair it), are things I can honestly say I know something about. Over a half-century about to be precise. And I want to share with you some things I've learned that have greatly helped me.
How to prevent colds in the first place, and if not prevent them entirely, to cut them off at the pass and greatly shorten their duration and harsh effects is what I know something about. I've spent more time in hospitals, oxygen tents (when I was a kid so sick I was not expected to live to the age of six), on drugs and recovering from bronchitis, asthma, sinus infections and sinus surgeries than I'd ever like to admit. For me this learning has at times been a life-or-death matter.
Yet today, by the Grace of God, I am amazingly healthy, fit, energized and drug free. (And if ever there was a potential drug-addict from all this stuff, it was me.) Over the years, I've learned so much about respiratory disease---both upper and lower.
I have some simple solutions I've come up with over the years that really work to short-circuit a cold that wants to spread all over your body.
It's up to you whether you find them credible or useful and are willing to try them. I never use antibiotics anymore because I've found this regime is better, safer, faster and renders them unneccessary. Really.
In many ways the remedies I've come up with are far too easy for many people to take seriously. But if you've lived through decades of respiratory distress, colds and sinus problems, and taken drugs until you thought you'd die from the cure as much as the disease, then you're open to anything that might make you better with a minimum of side effects.
(This has been a life-long journey for me. Starting first with getting away from living with people who smoke cigarettes as my mother did, and died a very early death as a result. Over the years too, I've learned to eliminate things from my diet that caused mucous which led to congestion and infections, like excessive dairy, milk, wheat, refined grains, corn syrup and sugars. Diet was a trial and error thing for me. Yet it absolutely had been a life-saver. Also washing your hands often helps.)
Still after all is said and done, we all get colds and sometimes we get complications from them. Is there a way to minimize that and shorten its duration? Yes. Abolsutely!
Here's my two pronged whammy for curing the common cold sooner rather than later. You'll need to buy and use the following products:
First, buy a canister or two of Simply Saline, preferably in the dark blue cannister, (see pic above) since it's a stronger saline mix. But either white or dark blue cannisters will do fine. This product has nothing but pure water and saline in it. It has no, not one, preservative. It sprays a fine mist which I've found to be much more effective than Netti pots which often made me sicker and irritated my sinuses.
Start spraying this into you nose and sinuses every hour. It delivers a fine mist of saline evenly in your air passages and immediately goes to work to sooth membranes and kill cold germs dead. But here's the trick: ALSO spray it into the back of your throat through your mouth and into your mouth also in such a way that you begin to deeply inhale the saline mist into your lungs. This will start to kill germs in all parts of your respiratory tract. Since I started doing breathing this pure saline into my lungs, I've never had a head cold migrate to my chest and never have gotten that awful cough. It's absolutely magic!
Do it as much as every hour and don't stop until you're feeling better. If you blow your nose, then spray it again. Use lavishly. When you use saline, there's simply no place for cold germs to migrate. Instead they die!
Second, buy one or two pump containers of ZICAM gel. (Not the Zicam nose spray but the gel.) I prefer the pump rather than the gel swabs. It's messy at times, but contains zinc gel which is a great boost for your immune system. This product delivers zinc to your system directly (as opposed to through your digestive system) and gets it there fast and powerfully. Start using it every hour. Pump it into you nose and then hold your nose and let it begin to be absorbed. THEN pump some of it under your tongue hourly---I know they don't tell you to do this, but it's amazing. The beauty of this is the zinc is absorbed and goes to work in your system instantly. If you really want to be aggressive, then pump some on the skin of your neck and chest, if you feel your cold is about to go into your chest. This is also amazing, if used in concert with the saline solution.
Start this at the first sign of a cold. But if you already have one, then begin it anyway and give it several days to turn around. 
BTW, I've read complaints that ZICAM has caused people to lose their taste and sense of smell, but I've never known it to happen to anyone I know. Rather the benefits of using both saline and zinc together at the first sign of a cold are more than worth their weight in gold to me. And are very cost effective.
Finally, to these two remedies I would add the discipline of drinking lots of good water every hour. This flushes your body of toxins. Eating light, uncomplicated foods and no sugars/sweets/simple carbs (which feed infections and bacteria), staying away from second-hand smoke, and giving your body good rest are great ways to recover fast, faster and fastest. If my experience helps even one person, then it will more than be worth it.
If I had ten things I could run out of a burning buiding with, after my little Bible, Simply Saline and ZICAM Gel would be two at the top of my list. And when or if there's a worldwide bird flu or other pandemic, I will use it religiously and encourage all those I love to also.
Twas a gorgeous winter day in D.C. today, the kind I love to head outside and absolutely wear myself out in. And so I did, as I walked and explored the Capital Crescent Trail from Bethesda to the Potomac near Chain Bridge, and on into Georgetown. I hiked about 7-8 miles and intended to do more. But I dawdled in places and time got away from me as the winter sun went down. Still every little bit helped in restoring my 'sanguinity,' equanimity and fresh air quotient. And talk about a great winter night's sleep tonight......my eyelids are already getting heavier, heavier, heavier...
One thing that interests me from the above link on the painter Anderson is how he refers to the tie Bush was wearing in the portrait. Yet months later there is no tie. I think this is a story that needs some investigation and follow-up which I plan to do as I delve into the mystery of the president's lost tie. In any event, I like the portrait and think it belies our president's overall sanguine nature in the face of the most despicable criticism and disrespect during a difficult time in American history. Long live President and private citizen George W. Bush!
Apparently nothing's been purchased----yet, though sources say it's only a matter of time.
But I liked the producers and found the subject matter fascinating and of great human interest. The guys were talented movie makers and so I held my breath and jumped in.
