help please

I've had a nasty cold for almost two weeks now and seeing as we're horribly understaffed, it's impossible for me to take a sick day. So I spend my mornings trying not to hack my way through 8-minute newscasts. I cram my casts with as much audio as I can manage, but that doesn't stop me from coughing up a lung the rest of the time. Does anyone have any advice on how not to choke mid-story, aside from keeping a massive bottle of water nearby and sucking on cough drops between on-air bits? I'm dying here...