Practicing when sick

[tbdana]

If you practice and you come down with a respiratory bug like Covid, a cold, the flu, or a respiratory infection:

1. Do you practice at all? Or do you take the sick time off?

2. If you practice, do you modify your routine because of your illness, and if so, how?

3. Do you reduce the number of days or amount of time you practice?

I have a bug. I've been resting and not practicing, but I feel guilty, like I should be practicing. What's your advice?

[EriKon]

I still try to practice, but just do what I call "maintenance" to stay in shape. Usually that's between 10-30mins per day only.

[harrisonreed]

Just make sure you clean out the damn horn every time so you don't stay sick!

[Doug Elliott]

I have always found that playing, and keeping the lungs working, makes me feel better and get over it fast.
Even if I don't actually feel like playing.

[JTeagarden]

I discovered in college when practicing with a bad chest cold that my sound was actually BETTER while playing sick, I had been using way too much air to achieve a certain "over-resonance" on the horn that became apparent when I was actually unable to use as much air as I was accustomed to.

I stop if I find the exertion has me actually coughing into the horn, seems like crossing a line.

[AndrewMeronek]

I usually don't unless I have a good reason to practice while sick. I like to do cardio, eat nutritious food, get lots of sleep, and maybe get a few hot showers. "Sweat it out", so to speak.

[Geordie]

My recent encounter with a lung disease leads me to mention cleaning the slide with rubbing alcohol and the Brass Saver Trombone Brush to limit ongoing reinfection risks.
Both products were mentioned here in recent months in response to my queries - great advice here, thanks.
I have found them reassuring. The brush provides more contact with inner tube surfaces than snake/rod options in my experience.

[Posaunus]

My recent encounter with a lung disease leads me to mention cleaning the slide with rubbing alcohol and the Brass Saver Trombone Brush to limit ongoing reinfection risks.
Both products were mentioned here in recent months in response to my queries - great advice here, thanks.
I have found them reassuring. The brush provides more contact with inner tube surfaces than snake/rod options in my experience.

Stay healthy!

[tbdana]

My recent encounter with a lung disease leads me to mention cleaning the slide with rubbing alcohol and the Brass Saver Trombone Brush to limit ongoing reinfection risks.
Both products were mentioned here in recent months in response to my queries - great advice here, thanks.
I have found them reassuring. The brush provides more contact with inner tube surfaces than snake/rod options in my experience.

I use the Brass Saver brush. Love it! Haven't tried rubbing alcohol. Good idea.

[AndrewMeronek]

I use the Brass Saver brush. Love it! Haven't tried rubbing alcohol. Good idea.

Just be careful and make sure you're using the right rubbing alcohol. I once ran into something of an idiot repair tech who liked to clean his instruments with some kind of industrial denatured alcohol that left a terrible persistent smell.

[BGuttman]

Any rubbing alcohol you can buy at the pharmacy (70% or 91%) is pure isopropyl alcohol diluted with water.

Denatured alcohol is "grain alcohol" (ethyl alcohol) treated with something to make it poisonous to drink. That is the persistent smell you report. I would avoid denatured alcohol where it cannot evaporate.

And don't drink either!

[HawaiiTromboneGuy]

I tested positive for Covid this past Monday. I did not have the energy at all to even think about practicing the horn. I did however look through my concert band pieces and made any slight notations that I thought might be helpful.

[izMadman]

Pushing through when you're sick can make recovery take longer. If you feel up to it, maybe just do some light practice-slow scales, easy pieces, or mental practice like listening to your music and following along.

[tbdana]

I have to play tomorrow and Monday so I took today off completely. Hoping that will make it easier when I have to pretend to be a functioning human being tomorrow.

[timothy42b]

I use the Brass Saver brush. Love it! Haven't tried rubbing alcohol. Good idea.

Just be careful and make sure you're using the right rubbing alcohol. I once ran into something of an idiot repair tech who liked to clean his instruments with some kind of industrial denatured alcohol that left a terrible persistent smell.

Some years ago I was in a military hospital for routine bloodwork, and coincidentally while I was there someone was assigned to fill the histobath with isopropyl alcohol.

For whatever reason, he used isopentyl instead. How much difference could there be?

The hospital declared a hazmat incident and evacuated. The industrial hygienist and I pulled the MSDS and the stuff wasn't hazardous, but it stunk. Bad. Back then I was on the spill team, and I cleaned it up in full hazmat suit and respirator. It smelled that bad.

[BGuttman]

I'm surprised that they even had that alcohol. Must be some kind of arcane use. Isopropyl alcohol is pretty common in medicine, but I've never heard of isopentyl alcohol. Still, the only safe one to drink is ethyl alcohol (and even then in moderation).

OK. I found that its common name is isoamyl alcohol and is primarily used in the manufacture of banana oil (amyl acetate) so it must have smelled of very ripe bananas. It's actually used as a flavoring in some alcoholic beverages. Live and learn.

[Geordie]

My recent encounter with a lung disease leads me to mention cleaning the slide with rubbing alcohol and the Brass Saver Trombone Brush to limit ongoing reinfection risks.
Both products were mentioned here in recent months in response to my queries - great advice here, thanks.
Snip


Stay healthy!

Thank you - lots better now, the meds are working.

[timothy42b]

I'm surprised that they even had that alcohol. Must be some kind of arcane use. Isopropyl alcohol is pretty common in medicine, but I've never heard of isopentyl alcohol. Still, the only safe one to drink is ethyl alcohol (and even then in moderation).

OK. I found that its common name is isoamyl alcohol and is primarily used in the manufacture of banana oil (amyl acetate) so it must have smelled of very ripe bananas. It's actually used as a flavoring in some alcoholic beverages. Live and learn.

I don't remember the date of the incident, but it must have been mid-90s because I was still a worker bee - ended up in management shortly after and didn't get to do much of the fun stuff anymore.

Anyway, I just looked up histology baths, and they use isopentane as the fluid, to freeze tissue samples for sectioning. The dimensions and capacity (1.9 L) sound about right. So obviously I misremembered the correct chemical name, but it's more clear how the mistake was made. Isopentane, isopentyl - pretty close.

I don't know why they had the isopentyl in the first place. You can probably use it for fit testing respirators, but I wouldn't think you'd need it in quantity.