Hello, Thank you for helping me. I am a tutor who has worked with several students with bad coughs over the last two weeks. Since Friday, I have been coughing, but yesterday my throat became really sore, and today I can t speak much above a whisper. I did not go to work today -- rarely does a cold keep me down, but my throat aches, as if someone had rubbed it with sandpaper. No fever, but I am hacking up gross stuff that looks bacterial (yellow). I resist going to the doctor for antibiotics. Am I good with tea, Advil, and cough medicines? I m a 57-year-old female who otherwise has no health issues.