Touring and sore throats

So, after a month on the road with Die Fledermaus, in my resurrected role of Falke, during which most of the cast has been struck down by some lurgy or other, it's my turn to have a sore throat. What the?????

And we're off to Stoke-on-Trent today for a couple of days before coming down to London again to play Wimbledon Theatre. Then up to Manchester to play the Lowry for the whole of next week.

I can proudly say that I have never pulled out of a performance due to illness in my entire life. I even performed once at Regina in Stockholm with an incredibly painful sinus infection which affected my voice too, but I refused to not perform. I just got sent to the hospital by my boss Lotti Huldt to see the throat specialist at 1 in the morning and got my first dose of antibiotics on the spot.

I do however, avoid antibiotics as much as possible. They are BAD news, and I know far too many singers who are struck down with nasty throat or sinus bacteria EVERY friggin year because they have built up an immunity to the bacteria through reckless use of antibiotics.

So, my necessity is to get rid of this throat problem asap. My strategy:
1. From two days ago, when I first started to feel I was coming down with something, I took 3 grams of vitamin C a day.

2. More greens, ie green smoothies (look em up) and cooked broccoli and spinach.

3. Plenty of fruit.

4. Extra zinc. I like to get this from pumpkin seeds, as the body assimilates minerals better from food than from pills.

5. Neti nasal douche. Yepp, daily rinsing of the nasal passages with my little neti jug. The key is to use body temperature salty water, and pour half the water in through one nostril (it flows out of the other one) and half through the other.

6. From today, as I'm singing tonight, a strepsil every few hours to guard against infection. And my sinuses do get infected easily so I don't want any of that heading south.