Getting Through A Fever And A Runny Nose, And Getting Better

About 2 days after we came back from 2 weeks vacation, hiking in the mountains of Palm Springs, California (a 9 hr - trip, 2 flights), I started feeling sick. At a first hint of a sore throat (it was not :) ), I immediately took capsules with Thieves (Inner Defense ) and Longevity, plus CardioGize. However, my body was headed for a revamp, which I did not suspect. At first, I felt pain in my left side of my face (eye and tooth), tight jaws,which I tried to release, my forehead was hurting, started having a few coughs, then a runny nose (clear). It finally materialized as extreme exhaustion, chills and incessant cough, and a high fever.

After 1 day of high fever and cough, I felt a lot of pain in my ribs from being overextended so many times coughing. My body recuperated exponentially, just as it went down.

I want to share what I did to get better.

I decided to approach it this time by simply listening to my intelligent body, as it does so many complex interweaved processes simultaneously, we can only guess, observing. When it needed help, I provided it, being patient. As a result, I recuperated pretty fast. Or should I say, I got rejuvenated :)

I want to highlight the most important points, providing more detail where needed.

• Draining mucus

My nose was leaking liquid watery mucus like a leaking faucet, non-stop. In just one night, I went through a box of tissues. I never tried to drain it, nor assist it much - my body was doing a great job! And I am glad I did not - I can not even fathom getting rid of congealed sticky mucus! I never lost my sense of smell or taste, rubbing essential oils on my sinus.

• Fever

I let my fever burn / get rid of what it had to. Twice, it became unbearable one night (102.6 F) - then I rubbed peppermint essential oils on my forehead, the back of my neck and the top of my spine. Within seconds, the fever started going down.

• Guessing what I should do for my body, so that it would have to do less

Away with that concept - I can't know what my sophisticated and intelligent body does., so many interconnected processes, muscles, organs, hormones, etc. Besides, if I do anything for my body, I'm taking away its practice at getting stronger.

• Supporting My Internal Organs

I felt extreme chills, way before having fever. Usually, I experience it if I need to urinate badly, and visa versa, when I feel cold, especially if walking on cold floors.

However, this is not what I read in TCM. As far as I remember, liver is mentioned as maintaining the body temperature. Not feeling the usual self, I was not about to check my books. I quickly searched the web, and found a TCM article, which mentioned most of my symptoms and pointed at imbalanced spleen (my left side did hurt). I mixed the essential oil of Nutmeg with the olive oil and rubbed it on my spleen.

At one point, I made cucumber juice, followed by celery juice.

I have used essential oils, though not as much as I usually do.

Wanted to point out 2 things:

• when we take anything by mouth, it goes through our liver. That means, the properties of the essential oils will be altered from then on.

Taking small amounts internally may not create so much work for the liver. Using essential oils in small amounts, as often as need be, may be a good approach.

There were times, I did not feel like taking anything by mouth or even on my body.

• Rubbing essential oils on the feet bypasses liver.

Taking A Bath

I took many baths, adding raw apple cider vinegar, when I had a fever and afterwards, especially after sweating. I filled the bath initially with the comfortable temperature to get in, and then added hot water.

I love sitting next to radiators to get dry heat. I also prefer wearing wool clothes.

• Coughing

The first day, I coughed nonstop. It completely exhausted me, my ribs on the bottom middle hurting the following day to the point I had to hold them every time I coughed. I finally figured out how to stop coughing to get a break to take a nap - I pressed and gently massaged on a few very painful points on my chest. I slept on my left side for quite a few hours after that!

• Drinking / Eating

I drank what my body asked for - sometimes teas with honey, sometimes with lemon or both, or simply water with lemon. My body knows what nutrients it needs. For example, at the beginning, I craved citrus (lemon, grapefruit, tangerines, oranges) fruit and banana (not much ), blueberries, the next day I craved sea weed, a few days later, olives.

• Moving

Moving is so important not only for the circulation and muscle tone, but for breathing. A simple lifting of arms involves our breathing. I made sure to move and exercise when I was not sleepy.

• Refocusing

I kept my spirits up by doing what made me feel good - watching a silly comedy, patiently untangling a lights string ( it actually boosted my self worth, as I have very little patience. It also reminded me to be patient with myself).

• Why I got sick

:)

I can only guess - a combination of being run down, bad air on the airplane and the airport ( 10 1/2 hrs).

When on vacation for 2 weeks, we hiked in the mountains every day. Only a day before last, I got wet twice in the rain, plus we hiked after being tired, for a long time. Not to mention, under sleeping every day - I got up at 3 am - 6 pm our time. It was interesting to observe my body feeling warm after a few minute nap in the chair :)

My spirit was also undercut by hearing the report about my dog not doing too well with the person we left her with, and seeing my dog look so much anxious and physically withdrawn. I'm so happy she is back to normal now!

Being away, we ate pretty well - we had our own kitchen, plus we had fresh off the trees delicious grapefruit!

• Getting better, even though I felt drained

Dancing always recharges me! I danced for quite a bit, building back my body heat and energy, feeling cheerful!

I had no fever, but I felt wiped out - besides holding my ribs every time I coughed, eating / appetite were slowly coming back - eating a whole banana was overwhelming. I had to have a half first.

I decided to get back to normalcy by doing little chores and walking. First, I walked a block, then took Pepper out (3 times that day), did laundry, cooked pea soup for my husband, and so on. I even went food shopping at night.

Sense of humor and talking with my friends always helps me - I made fun of how I felt and shared important information on my getting better with my friends. I never want people feeling too caring for me, as it emphasizes and adds to not feeling well.

• Spreading germs

Germ theory is just a theory - a virus was never isolated, nor contagion proven according to scientific methods.

My body is my body, which I need to take good care of.

When people are subjected to the same environment, food, overeating, fears, inactivity, etc. - they may develop similar symptoms.

• Using Essential Oils

Where and how to use essential oils, which are concentrated and dissolve in fat?

• Taken internally - mostly for digestion

• On lymph nodes - for quick lymph support

• Under the tongue - into blood

• On chest - for bronchi and lungs

• On feet - for the whole body

And so on

This time, I used eucalyptus radiata on its own and in blends (Breathe Again, R.C., mixed with the olive oil) - on my chest, sinus, my gums and internally, and I made my own - eucalyptus with basil in buckthorn oil to soothe my throat, gums and tongue. I did make a drink of hot water with cayenne pepper, but it was too irritating to my throat and my tongue at the time.

For my ribs, I rubbed Cool Azul. It felt nice and warm, though, in retrospect, I should have used Ortho Sport, or could have made my own. I avoided using Deep Relief, RutaVala and Valor (I think I used latter), my favorite combo, because I did not want to cool off my body, nor get sleepy. It would have also been wise, only if I knew that my ribs would hurt so much, to rub essential oils on beforehand.

Valor and Sacred Frankincense - some of my favorite. I made my customary drink with my favorite NingXia Nitro, fresh lemon juice, hibiscus tea, diluting frankincense, ginger, red shot and lemon myrtle in buckthorn oil. NingXia Nitro lifts my mood and gives me energy, most times. I love adding Frankincense where a boost and rejuvenation is needed. Just a drop.

I wish, I rubbed essential oils blends with eucalyptus on my chest more than I did.

I drank Tangerine essential oil, and wish, I brought it with me on vacation and the airplane. I did smell peppermint essential oil, but for some reason, I didn't drink enough water with it on the way back home.

Endoflex is my favorite blend for the endocrine system support.

I love rubbing Christmas Spirit blend on my feet to keep me warm. Amoressence is one of my "love" blends. I rub it behind my ears, my heart, and then under my nose :)

A few days after I thought I fully recovered, my ears started hurting and I felt chills. I immediately took 2 Inner Defense (Thieves) capsules, rubbed Thieves mixed with Ortho Ease massage oil on my feet, back of my legs, inside and outside my ears (diluted more for my ears and did not go too deep). Pretty soon, I felt warm, and by the next morning I was ok. Btw, I wore wool socks, sweaters and a wool scarf on my head to stay warm.

• What my mom would have done for me

I did not grow up taking meds, thankfully. My mom always left a thermos of hot water next to my bed, and a mixture of aloe, lemon and honey for my throat. A doctor visited me a few times to listen to my lungs, take a temperature and check my throat (all free under Socialism). I was required to stay in for 3 days after all the symptoms were gone.

The food highlight, after I got better, was a meal of hot mashed potatoes with butter and a piece of bread with butter and garlic - yummy! For my throat, my mom made gogol'-mogol' - raw egg yolk mixed with blended by hand sugar - so delicious!

Mustard sheets was my treatment at the end - put on my chest and back - I had to tolerate it when my skin felt already burning - I think, a total of 10 minutes.

One time, after my body underwent high fever for days, I felt cracking in my ear. Doctor did not see anything. Then, my mom took me to an herbalist, who gave her a tea to make (probably mullein). She made the tea and dripped it warm in my ear - the cracking was gone! I also remember warm compresses of cotton balls rolled and soaked in warm oil, inserted in my painful ear.

My mom used to wipe my body with a towel dipped in hot water with vinegar. She quickly did it under the blanket and wiped my body dry.

My dad always reminded us to keep heat on our feet if we had a fever, to draw it from the head.

When my son was young and had congested lungs, I sat him next to a hot radiator and did cayenne compresses (soaked a towel in hot water with cayenne pepper, then wrung it).

The fastest access to lungs is via an enema / suppository. I have done those too.

AS LONG AS WE DO NOT SUPPRESS WHAT OUR BODY DOES, WE SHOULD GET BETTER!