I'm FINALLY getting the chance to write about our adventure with the flu a couple weeks ago. Being sick sure does suck, and it was a grueling week when it hit us all, to say the least. I don't know how doctors do it, really. Figuring out what to prescribe a sick person in hopes of making them better. Hoping you've given them the right thing and not something that'll potentially make them worse and then dealing with guilt. On top of that, dealing with multiple sick people on a regular basis, always having to tap into your resources to give the right diagnosis, prescribe the right medicine, know what to expect for recovery, etc. Oh wait, I know how some doctors do it - they don't actually care or invest emotion into their patients. Not all of them - I don't want to lump them all in that category. But unfortunately way too many of them see a sick person for a couple of minutes, scribble out a prescription, and wave them off to the pharmacy.
This would be why we don't go to conventional doctors. Thank goodness we have a trustworthy team of homeopathic doctors right across the river, or I don't know what I'd do! Have to go to school for it myself, I suppose... (Maybe someday...... :) )
Anyway. After dealing with all of us being sick, including myself, I was wiped out. Stressed out, exhausted, I needed a vacation (could still go for one, maybe...). Everyone just needs to be healthy and quit making me worry about them. Of course we're all going to get sick at some point or another. It annoys me when some all-natural-minded people are like, "Oh we never get sick, we live a healthy, natural lifestyle!" Please. No, I don't care what you're doing or how healthy your lifestyle is, we're all prone to catching bugs or viruses or whatever's floating around out there. It develops our immune systems. We need to get sick SOMEtimes to HAVE a properly functioning immune system.
Well, ours got a great workout a couple weeks ago. It started with Harlee on Labor Day weekend. He wasn't feeling the greatest Sunday afternoon, and next thing we know he's got a fever and is throwing up everywhere. Not fun. So I put some peppermint oil on his feet (to help bring the fever down - it has a cooling effect on body temperature) and on his belly (to help settle any nausea he may be experiencing). I also put Thieves oil on his feet to help support his immune system, encouraged him to drink lots of water, and let him sleep all day. He kept perking back up and wanting to go out and play, but as soon as he tried to play he'd crash again. Monday morning we had the Boilermaker's Labor Day picnic. We skipped the parade because Harlee was still feeling a little sluggish, but his fever had been gone since 3am that morning so we were feeling hopeful that he was on the mend. He insisted he wanted to go to the picnic, so we packed his umbrella stroller so he didn't have to overexert himself too much and the four of us went to enjoy the day with Justin's union co-workers. It was a fun day and Harlee did great, despite being a little slow-moving. Whew! Glad that was short-lived!
We made it through the week without any issues, but Friday was a blistering hot day and Justin had been helping out some friends with their lawn business and got home feeling pretty wiped out. At first he just thought he overdid it in the heat. It didn't take long to realize that radiating heat coming off of him was actually a fever, especially when he complained of body aches to go with it. Greeeaaatt. I diffused Thieves oil, made him take
olive leaf extract, and by Saturday morning, he was feeling better, and joined a friend of his at the St. Jude's benefit at the Shooting Complex. I stayed home with the boys and suddenly realized I wasn't feeling too spunky. I didn't feel as though I had a fever, but I was starting to feel achy and fatigued. I took a ton of olive leaf extract, diffused more Thieves, took
Young Living's Inner Defense capsules (basically Thieves and oregano in a capsule for a huge immune boost), took
probiotics, and rested as much as the kiddos would let me. Once Justin got home I was feeling much better. 100% better, actually. We had a wedding reception to get to that evening, so thank goodness we both made a comeback! We both figured it was over with.
Sunday morning my friends Rachael and Cassie came over for a workout, which was a lot of fun. I love having people over to work out - it's a lot more motivating than doing it alone! Justin and I were both still feeling great, and still feeling like we had beat whatever that was we caught. After the girls left, Justin mentioned Elliot felt a little warm. Uh oh. I took his temperature and, yep, he must have caught what we had. Oh well, ours was short-lived, so hopefully his would be too.
I spoke too soon. By Sunday afternoon I was starting to feel like crap again, and so was Justin. All kinds of things ran through my head - what is this? How long is it going to last? Is this what Harlee had? Does Elliot feel this crappy? God I hope I didn't share it with anyone like my friends at the wedding (especially a few pregnant friends and the bride and groom, who had a honeymoon to enjoy) or Rachael and Cassie who were just at my house!!
Justin and I had fevers around 102-103. Body aches, chills, fatigue, horrible pressure in our heads... it was not fun. Elliot was drowsy and had a fever around 99-100. I kept an eye on it, but I didn't want to give him any drugs because
we need fevers to fight off whatever this is we were inflicted with. I put peppermint oil on his feet like I did for Harlee, and ran the diffuser with Thieves. Justin and I took a ton of olive leaf extract again and also the Inner Defense capsules. I looked through my
homeopathic remedies book for suggestions for what to do with a fever, and
Aconite seemed to be the best match, so I gave some to Elliot. It seemed to help, as his fever went down to the low 99s and sometimes dropped back to 98.
Monday morning was horrible. I'm not one to normally get headaches, so I can safely say this was the worst headache I'd ever had in my life. My eyeballs hurt. I couldn't look up or down or side to side, and if I turned my head too quickly it felt like my brain was rattling around in my skull. I still felt fatigued, my whole body ached, and the chills I had made me want to stay hidden under the covers. Justin was in the same condition. Elliot's fever was dangerously close to 102. We were not getting better, and with a fever like that in a 7 week old, I'm not messing around. I called the pediatrician to get him in, and scheduled an appointment for early that afternoon. In the meantime I tried giving him Little Remedies fever reducer, because that was just too high for such a little guy and we needed to do SOMEthing, but he proceeded to puke it back up. So much for that. I stayed on top of the Aconite, and his fever crept back down to 99 again. We took turns taking scalding hot showers, which, even though we had fevers, worked wonders for the chills we were experiencing. I let the hot water pour over my face, which actually helped relieve some of that hideous pressure. On top of all this, Justin and I both noticed our throats were feeling slightly sore. I really didn't want to deal with a sore throat - what we were already dealing with was plenty, thanks. Justin went straight to the bottle of whiskey and grabbed the oregano oil - after his
strep throat experience, he doesn't mess around with sore throats anymore and knows just how to nip this stuff in the bud, and so do I thanks to that learning experience! He made a shot of whiskey with a drop of oregano oil, and made one up for me too. That stuff is awful, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. The oregano, that is. Ugh, it burns sooooo bad... But once the hellfire in your mouth is over with, it's amazing the difference it makes. I gargled and forced myself to swallow it, knowing I wanted that oregano to work its magic internally as well, and amazingly, I found relief. It cut the body aches in half, got rid of the fatigue, and helped ease the headache a little more. Thank goodness, I was now feeling more optimistic about the journey to St. Louis to see Elliot's doctor. Before, there was no way we were fit to drive.
I had my mom come rescue us - Harlee had not caught this evil bug, thank goodness, but, therefore, he had way more energy than we were capable of dealing with in our condition. She took him home with her and we spent the morning sleeping until it was time to leave. One more shot of whiskey and oregano, another round of olive leaf extract and Inner Defense, loaded Elliot up, and off we went.
Turns out we had the flu. Awesome. That beast can lurk around for 10 days sometimes! Of course we weren't showing signs of fever when we got there, and Elliot didn't appear to be sick, go figure - he was alert enough and still nursing fine and wetting his diapers and was overall pretty content. To help us out, doc recommended the homeopathic remedies
Eupatorium, and
Pulsatilla for Elliot. She encouraged me to stay in touch with the office about Elliot's fever - she was concerned that it could develop into something much more serious like bacterial meningitis. If he showed signs of lethargy and loss of appetite along with the high fever, we should probably take him straight to Children's Hospital.
Back home we went. Justin proceeded to try to continue seeding the lawn, while I rested inside with Elliot. Not long after, Justin came back in, put ice on his head, and laid down. Obviously he over exerted himself again.. We both still felt like crap, and fevers returned for all three of us. Ugh. With the pediatrician's words of concern in mind, I obsessively checked Elliot's temperature and about drove myself nuts. Justin kept reminding me that he's alert and still nursing like normal, which was comforting but with the fever still there I couldn't help but worry.
A warm bath helped Elliot's fever come back down, and after getting him out of the tub I put Thieves on his feet, then diluted a drop of Oregano oil in a couple teaspoons of a carrier oil (I used Young Living's natural vegetable oil but anything works - coconut oil, almond oil, jojoba oil, etc.) and rubbed a fingertip full on his chest, then added a drop of Frankincense to the mix and rubbed a bit of that up and down his spine. Obviously there was excess, so I rubbed the rest on me and Harlee's necks, chests, and abdomens. It's a good idea to dilute essential oils for babies, as they're so much smaller than us adults and we don't want their tiny livers to have to work too hard to process that high concentration of the plant's healing components that are in the oils.
Another high dose of olive leaf extract, some added vitamin C and probiotics (less vitamin C for me in case too much became present in my milk and upset Elliot's belly), more Inner Defense, Thieves on our feet, /thieves and Frankincense in the diffuser, and off to bed we went.
Tuesday we were finally feeling better. The fevers were gone for Justin and me, but we both felt like we had been hit by a bus. We kept up with the supplements and oils, and Justin was the first to notice a splotchy red rash covering his body. I brought Elliot in to the
chiropractor that evening, and she adjusted us both to help our immune systems continue to fight this off for good. She felt optimistic that we were all on the mend. That evening I got the same rash Justin had. Knowing that rashes are usually a form of detoxification for the body, and our skin being our largest organ that's the quickest exit route for toxins, I was feeling optimistic that we might actually be done dealing with this. Justin's fever hadn't returned since he noticed his rash, and he'd been feeling back to normal. I was feeling like myself again too. More supplements, more oils both externally, internally, and diffused, another warm bath for Elliot because he wasn't quite over this yet and still had a low fever, and we all went to bed.
Wednesday I felt 100% like myself again, and pretty certain it had run its course for Justin and me. Elliot seemed to be doing better too, and Harlee still showed no signs of contracting this nasty virus himself. I noticed Elliot had the same speckled rash that Justin and I both had too, so I was feeling even more hopeful that this was finally over with, as that rash signaled the end for both of us the day before. We took the boys to my parents and Justin and I went out to lunch together and did some grocery shopping. It was our 4 year wedding anniversary, so what better way to celebrate? Haha :). I'm just glad we weren't sick and had to celebrate our anniversary in misery! Mom said Elliot did fine, though his fever was still at 99 when we came back to pick them up. He ate fine and remained alert and his usual wiggly baby self all day, though, so she wasn't worried.
The fever was still concerning to me, though. I wanted it to go away for good. I especially wanted this to quit messing with my head - I thought the rash meant it was over with, why was the fever still present? Justin reminded me of how ours came and went, and just when we thought we were getting better it would come back again, and since Elliot has what we had then we can expect the same of him. But still. He's 7 weeks old and tiny.
And I'm responsible for him.
That was the worst. He couldn't tell me how he felt, what he needed, what he thought, nothing. I had to guess. I had to hope that my instincts were correct. That was scary, too - what if I assumed everything was fine when really he had something dangerous that needed medical attention? Or what if I let my fear get the better of me, take him to the hospital for testing, only to find out he didn't have any issues and we went through a bunch of unnecessary procedures? I was tired and still in recovery mode myself, I was stressed, and under those conditions I wasn't as in tune to my instincts as I would have liked to be. I leaned on Justin a lot for his input too, as his paternal instincts have always been surprisingly on-key, and just kept an eye on Elliot, hoping for the best. His fever was still in the 99s Wednesday evening, so I stuck him in the tub once more with Lavender and Frankincense in the water, and finally just broke down. I cried and cried. It was awful. I was maxed out - stressed about Elliot's health, stressed from being doctor mom starting with Harlee the previous weekend and then to Justin, Elliot, AND myself all at once, which is hard enough when you're in good health, and so much worse when you feel like crap yourself, stressed from trying to stay in tune with my maternal instincts in doing what's best for my little guy, and worrying that I was doing it all wrong and missing something important. Thanks to Harlee's life lessons, I'm no stranger to hoping for the best only to find everything wind up the complete opposite.
I consulted my homeopathy book, decided to give Belladonna a try for little man, then I oiled everyone up, fired up the diffuser again, and held Elliot in my arms as we went to sleep Wednesday night. I'm not religious at all, but this was the second time in less than two months that I found myself praying to whoever would listen for everything to just be okay. Please just let everyone be okay.
And FINALLY Elliot woke up fever-free and remained that way the rest of of the day Thursday.
I needed a vacation.
So, that's my story of how we kicked a nasty virus that potentially could have stuck around much longer than it did, thanks to
essential oils (peppermint, lavender, Thieves, oregano, and Frankincense),
homeopathy (Aconite and Belladonna at home, Eupatorium and Pulsatilla from the doctor),
herbs and supplements (olive leaf extract, probiotics, vitamin C), and lots of rest and patience.
And I hope I never have to deal with something like that again!
By the way, once all this was over I mixed a spray bottle with half water, half rubbing alcohol, and about ten drops each of Thieves, Purification, oregano, and lemon oils and sprayed EVERYTHING.
The end.
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At one point Brittany's little guy played a little too rough with Elliot and left a little scratch on his head. She felt terrible, but he didn't know any better so I wasn't upset. It's a good thing to mention in this post, though, because when most parents would probably run for the Neosporin (he did break the skin a bit), I ran for the lavender oil. I put a little bit on my fingertip and rubbed it across the scratch, then I did it again a couple hours later, and it's clearing up just fine. Lavender is fantastic for healing wounds - scratches and scrapes, bug bits, burns, you name it. It's soothing as well, which is definitely helpful with wounds of any sort! I like to avoid drugs, chemicals, and strange ingredients any chance I get, so I use essential oils instead. They're pretty awesome! (Message me if you want to know more! I'll hook you up!)
