Since wet coughs generally point to infection or inflammation, it is important that you get rest. This helps you get better and reduces the risk of spreading germs. Take a sick day from work or school to rest your body as well as keep yourself from spreading your infection. Use a vaporizer or humidifier to make the air in your home more humid. If you don't have these things, take a hot shower or boil water on the stove. If you take a hot shower, close the bathroom door to trap the steam inside. This can help you breathe better because it helps loosen congestion.. Drinking a lot of fluids helps your cough by reducing the congestion. Try to drink water all day long. In addition to water, try hot beverages such as tea or warm water. You can also drink juice, clear chicken or vegetable broth, or brothy chicken soup. When you are feeling sick, eat small meals full of food that are easily digestible. Foods to avoid are those high in fiber and fat. Also make sure you eat often. This gives your body a continuous energy supply, which helps your immune system fight infection. Eat quality proteins, like fish and poultry, as well as eggs and complex carbohydrates. Ointments that contain camphor and menthol provide relief for coughs. They act as expectorants, which leads to a decreased cough. Try Vick’s VapoRub, Mentholatum, or a similar topical ointment. Rub a small amount onto your chest and around your nose. The smell and exposure to the menthol will help loosen your cough. If these treatments don’t give you any relief within five to seven days, make an appointment to see a physician.  You may be dealing with a more complicated situation.  If your phlegm is a greenish-yellow, you are wheezing, or you hear a whistling sound, you may want to see a doctor. If you experience these symptoms along with a fever, you need immediate treatment. These treatments can be used along with pain relievers, antibiotics, and other treatments.  If you are already seeing a physician, continue with those treatments along with steam treatments.

Summary: Get rest. Breathe humid air. Drink fluids. Eat nutritious meals. Use a menthol rub. Go to the doctor.


No matter what kind of damage or wound you have on your finger, change your dressings once a day. Change them sooner, however, if they become soiled before 24 hours have passed. When you take off the bandage each day, clean your finger with a sterile solution and rebandage it in the same manner you had it before. If you have stitches, ask your doctor before cleaning them. Follow any instructions he or she gives you on how to care for the stitches. You will likely have to keep them dry and should not clean them with any solution. Whenever you remove the bandages, look for signs of infection in the wound on your finger. Notice if there is any pus, drainage, redness, or heat, especially migrating up from your hand or arm.  Also take note if you begin to run a fever, as complications can develop, including infections such as cellulitis, a felon, or other hand infections. After you have had your finger injury for a few weeks, follow up with your doctor. If he or she treated the injury with stitches or hematoma evacuation, your doctor may schedule this. However, always follow up with your doctor when you go through any intense injury such as this.  Make sure you contact the doctor if you have additional symptoms, think you may be getting an infection, you get dirt or grime into the wound and can't get it out, you experience any additional or excessive pain, or your wound starts to bleed uncontrollably.  You should also contact your doctor if you experience any symptoms of nerve damage, including: a lack of sensation, numbness, or the development of a ball-like scar called a "neuroma" that is often painful and causes an electrical sensation when touched.

Summary: Change the bandages. Look for signs of infection. Follow up with your doctor.


Calculating your payments in this way will allow you to see how much you would pay per month with a given balloon payment at the end of the life of the loan. To find this information, either consult your loan agreement or estimate this information as best you can. Remember, you can always change this information to multiple different values to estimate payments on different loans. You'll need the following information: your annual interest rate, the duration of your loan in years, your loan amount, and your balloon payment amount. Start by opening Excel on your computer. Then, open a new, blank workbook and begin your work on the worksheet that comes up. In the first column, column A, enter the names for the variables you will be using. It's easiest if you enter them as follows, from top to bottom: your annual interest rate, the duration of your loan in years, your loan amount, and your balloon payment amount. If entered correctly, this information will be in cells A1 through A4. Type your loan information into the appropriately-labeled spaces next to your variable names. If entered correctly, they should be entered as follows:  Your annual interest rate, for example 4%, should be entered in cell B1. Be sure to include the percent sign. Your loan duration, for example 15 years, should be entered in cell B2 as a simple number. In this case, you would just enter 15. Your loan amount, also called the principal, should be entered into cell B3. For example, for a loan amount of $150,000, you would enter 150,000. Excel will assume this is an amount of money; no need to enter the dollar sign. Enter your balloon amount into cell B4. This should be a negative number, as it is a payment. For example, for a $27,000 balloon payment, you would enter -27,000. The function that will be used here in the payment function, abbreviated by Excel as PMT. To enter this equation, find a nearby empty cell and type "=PMT(". The program will then prompt you for variables like this: =PMT(rate, nper, pv, [fv], [type]). Additional changes will have to be made to your entered variables within the PMT function. When prompted, enter the variables as follows:  For the "rate" prompt, you'll need your periodic rate instead of your annual rate. This means dividing your annual rate in cell B1 by the number of payments per year on your loan. For monthly payments, divide by 12, for quarterly payments by 4, and for semi-annual payments by 2. Enter a comma to move to the next variable. Assuming monthly payments, your equation should now look like this: =PMT(B1/12  For the "nper" prompt, enter your loan duration in cell B2. However, like the rate prompt, this will need to be adjusted to the total number of payments. For monthly payments, multiply by 12, for quarterly by 4, and for semi-annual by 2. Enter a comma to move to the next variable. Assuming monthly payments, your equation should now look like this: =PMT(B1/12,B2*12,  Enter your last two variables, in B3 and B4, for the "pv" and "[fv]" prompts, respectively. Be sure to enter a comma after B3. Then, close the equation with a closing parenthesis mark. Your finished equation should look like this: =PMT(B1/12,B2*12,B3,B4) Press enter. Your result should be displayed in the cell where you entered your equation. It will be a red, negative number. Again, this simply means that this a payment. If it is not a negative number, you've entered some information incorrectly or your loan is not a balloon payment loan. In the example, the program would return a monthly payment of $999.82. If you are comparing multiple loans, save this payment figure elsewhere in the worksheet and enter information from your other loans. This will allow you to compare payments from different loan amounts, interest rates, durations, or balloon payments.
Summary: Collect your information. Open a new worksheet in Excel. Enter labels for your variables. Input your variables. Set up your equation. Input your variables into the equation. Solve your equation. Edit the numbers.