Fast sore throat remedy...

Saturday evening I had tomatoes with fresh garlic and salt/pepper. After partaking of my garlic tomatoes I partook of some fresh salsa hubby made. It was made with fresh onions and garlic. Very strong. Saturday night I went to bed (after a SUPER win by LSU) and had a slight sore throat. It wasn't due to cheering my team on... it was a real sore throat.

I woke Sunday morning feeling lethargic and I had a stuffy nose. To the average American (we are conditioned to hit the decongestant bottle and not think past that) it would appear I was getting worse. The entire day Sunday I had no appetite and felt tired. I ate another dose of chips and strong salsa and took a nap. Steve was wanting me to eat lunch but my appetite was gone.

I woke from my nap feeling the same. A few hours passed - we had dinner but I was only up for trying grilled cheese and homemade chicken noodle soup. Within an hour I felt 100% better. Then I ate dinner! Feeling even better!

Normally I, like most other humans, would have thought I was heading down hill and about to go through a few days of recovery. My sore throat felt like fire! But the truth is we often feel worse before we 'feel' the true healing symptoms. I am glad my husband felt the urge to make salsa 'out of the blue' before my sore throat manifested itself. The fresh garlic and onion are what helped soothe my sore throat (although it did further the throat burn at first - no pain no gain).

I do not pretend to never take meds - I am guilty of that from time to time but when I seek the natural remedies I often find a truly SHORT lived illness! Lately, I am finding myself leaning towards googling a home remedy BEFORE falling back onto my crutch of prescriptions. So far - all illness is fleeing quickly! Thanks Steve for wanting salsa! The little inner nudges are often not acknowledged and I know the salsa was my healing salve!

Mother's Day 2008

My Mother's Day started off a little rocky, to say the least. It all began on Friday when I began to feel a little funny but nothing ever came of it. Then Saturday we attended a birthday party and I felt a little worse - but not really bad! By the end of Saturday - my stomach bug was showing itself to be more and more evident. This was the kind of stomach bug that does not include hurling (if you know what I mean).

So, Sunday morning arrives. My hubby was the generous soul who gave me the stomach bug, and in true he-man status.. he was well within 12 hours. The kids were so thrilled to celebrate Mother's Day that I thought I was feeling well enough and so we did go to church. I ended up sitting in the hallway, just in case I needed to get to the ladies room in a hurry, listening to the message over the speakers.

We leave and then hubby offers to take me to a restaurant we frequented pre-kids. PF Changs! OK. My stomach is still 'whickety whack' but it just might be feeling that way because I am hungry. (Wishful thinking.) We go to PF Chang's and had the choice of waiting 45 minutes to sit inside or we could sit outside NOW. It was a GORGEOUS day and so we went for the "now" table. Having fun being silly!
Kissing Mommy! It IS my day you know! I should get ALL the kisses (but only on the cheek so as to not pass the bug on)!
The sun was beaming, the wind was blowing and we had fun outdoors together! HC was trying Dad's sunglasses for some relief. We were able to see a bird hopping around for crumbs (at a distance thank God) and a lizard entertained the kids for a good 10 minutes at least! It was perfect!
I know you may think I did not "look" sick in the pictures. (At least I hope you think that! haha) But this stomach bug was one where you felt fine, until that moment came! We arrived home and I was tired of waiting for the bug to run it's course. The day had passed and I was beginning to feel weak from it all so I asked hubby to Google "natural remedies for d...". He did and found that if I took a tablespoon of vinegar I should be fine. We put it in some Gatorade and I shot it down! It BURNED LIKE FIRE!!!!!!!! But I do think it worked. I ate some yogurt, wished we weren't out of probiotics and by that evening I was feeling better. Today - no symptoms - I am just trying to return to the eating world again. Tonight Hubby has tickets to a local baseball game and it would be the kid's first time to attend a real live baseball game - so I do hope I get my strength up soon! Sorry for the d.... topic - but that was what my Mother's day revolved around! Life happens you know!! :) Even on Mothers' Day!

HC and JB are officially fine!

So we went to the doctor! I am not a mom who takes the kids to the doctor at every sniffle. I let things go a little before I am concerned. My kids have had the occasional runny nose but nothing major in years. Here we were last Saturday night, the LSU game was just beginning when... HC began her v*miting episode. After a few goes of it, she went to bed and awoke the next morning seeming fine. The only problem was we didn't feel we should try food quite yet. She woke once in the night to v*mit and we wanted to be sure her stomach was strong enough to eat. After a few hours she was finally able to keep food and drink down. We were out of the woods.

Then the next day she had a fever around 4 or 5 pm. I didn't find reason to worry. By Thursday, when she was having a fever almost every afternoon, I thought we better check for ear infecti*ns or such (although she had no runny nose or other symptoms what so ever, except being lethargic and cranky - very unlike her). So we scheduled a doctor's appointment.

Thursday night JB woke up and v*mited twice. I was not in the mood to play tag with a virus so I called and had an appointment made for him too. He has had a runny nose since Sunday or Monday. Since his major symptoms (v*miting) were so recent, he was my concern. The doctor was not worried about JB at all after she examined him. She felt HC had swollen glands and wanted to test her for Strep.

So we went to the lab and HC was a trooper. They swabbed her mouth and pricked her finger. The lab tech was surprised by HC's brave behavior. She didn't flinch a bit! We got her band-aid and headed back to our room to wait for the results.
Here is HC sporting her band-aid from the lab tech.
JB tired, hungry, tired, hungry and ready to go. He was playing with the zipper on his jacket.

HC waiting. We found out that she did NOT have strep and the doctor doesn't know what is causing the fever but there are fever viruses going around. ALTHOUGH, HC's white blood count is normal and NOT registering a viral infection. So... I don't know what is up.

JB hasn't felt up to eating yet but he is still playing hard. HC had her fever again but she is her fun-loving self too. I believe they are both well now and after much prayer and daily doses of Probiotics we are recovering quickly once again! So, thank you all for your well wishes and most of all thank you for your prayers!!

Today was very tiring but we made it through, at least it is beginning to be cool outside. JB was begging me for his big boy pants so he could 'stay dry' again today, but his first attempt left a bad experience. Diar.... you get the picture. So we promised him we would 'stay dry' again when his belly is all better. He agreed to that! I am just thrilled that he still wants to try (he almost broke down when I put his diaper on this afternoon)!

A Passion of Mine

If you want to hear about a passion I have, you can find me at Multi-Tasking Moms today. I know our life has been changed by Probiotics. Probiotics are bacteria that keep your gut healthy. Your gut is the source of your immune system being healthy. If you are feeling sick or have kids who catch everything, you will want to read about my story!!