Home Sick

Not the usual symptoms. Afraid to Google it. Back tomorrow. Talk amongst yourself about the best home remedies for illness. Once I have more arm strength I'll post the spine-rubbing thing that brings a fever down (unless someone else knows it and can post it).

Comments

[MrsHaley]

Moxie, you sound a little scared. Hang in there. We will be thinking of you today and hoping things smooth out soon.

My best home remedies relate to migraines -- since becoming pregnant and now breastfeeding, I can't take any of the prescriptions that work. My solution is ice packs, Tylenol and tennis balls. I attach those gel ice packs to my head with an ace bandage, take 2 Tylenol with a big cup of coffee and put a tennis ball in my pillowcase. The counterpressure from the tennis ball helps.

Of course, this whole procedure only diminishes the duration by about 12 hours -- to 36 rather than 48. If anyone else has better ideas, I'm willing to try anything!

[me]

Pressure points help with my migraines - the soft fleshy part between the thumb and forefinger, pressure on my sinuses - forehead, along the bridge of my nose and cheekbones. It's great if you can get someone else to do it for you. Also hand and foot massages. Caffeine actually make mine much, much worse - but that's just me. Exederine migraine is full of caffeine so clearly it works for lots of people. Migraines are horrible!

Neti Pots are great for sinus problems, bad colds, sore throats, horseness, and earaches, and I swear if you use one regularly prevent colds from even happening. Honestly, it's not bad to use at all!

Feel better!

[Melissa]

I have never used a Neti Pot and didn't know what it was (thank you Wikipedia). However I use just a simple saline nasal spray for my sinus and allergy problems. Just a plain saline spray, none of the medicated stuff. When my allergies are really heightened, I take a beating in my sinuses and end up with infections. The mist seems to keep my nasal passages moist, which apparently enables my body's own natural defenses to be more efficient (as they do not work as well to keep out bacteria when your nasal passages are dry).
Neti Pot, hmmm, going to have to think about that. It might be a relief during heavy pollen season.

[Vickie]

One of the best investments my husband and I made was in a book called Acupressure For Common Ailments. It tells you which points to treat for a range of ills from fatigue to dysmennorhea. When one of us isn't feeling well it's standard to hear "Want me to poke you?"

We also like Shower Soothers when we're feeling particularly flu-ey.

Hope you feel better soon, Moxie!

[Dawn]

I'm the opposite - a warm wrap filled with lavender (microwaved). The warm moist heat around my head, smell of lavender and a bunch of Vicks around mt nose.

There's a product called Xlear that's the best I've ever used on my sinuses, it's not a quick fix but the cumulative effects are wonderful.

[bklynite]

I just got over a really bad stomach thing. lasted about 24 hours. was disgusting, though. hang in!

[Nutmeg]

I used to have chronic migraine headaches (nothing like daily migraines to make life exciting) which can't really be treated with typical migraine medicines as they can't be taken daily...

One way to alleviate pain that I found was to get into a shower and alternate hot and cold water running on to my scalp, thirty seconds each. It didn't really make the migraine go away, but it gave me a period of time when it didn't make me throw up!

The only other home remedy I have is peppermint tea for nausea.

Hope everything is okay... I've currently got a case of Mastitis at 7.5 months post-partum that is kicking my butt and freaking me out.

[caramama]

For migraines, a trick I learned from an Indian shaman: Tie a bandana around your head pretty tight and get into a bath with hot-as-you-can-stand-it water up to your neck. Since headaches are related to the pressure of blood running through the veins and arteries in your head, the hot water and bandana help to bring and keep a lot of the blood from your head.

It's worked for me a few times. Especially when coupled with a nap afterwards.

[Shara]

Completely random, but a few faves:

For PMS, take extra calcium and vitamin b complex. Calcium helps my cramps and back ache almost as much as advil. Also helps regulate mood for me.

For pink eye, cotton balls soaked in lukewarm tea. Gets all the eye gunk off and soothes sore eyes. (This is not to replace prescription treatment.)

When I was kid, if I had the flu or some vomit-oriented stomach bug, my mom would mix up jello and let me drink small cups of it, still warm. The sweetness made anything coming back up taste a little better, and the gelatin coated my sore throat. It's the one time she fed me anything with sugar and it's still what I crave when I'm sick with the flu.

[Andrea]

For the onslaught of a sinus infection, take 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (the stuff with the 'mother' in it found in the health food section) 3 times a day for 3 days. It clears it right up for me, and I'm one of those people who used to get sinus infections several times a year or would get one and hang onto it for 3 months.

[Andrea]

For the onslaught of a sinus infection, take 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (the stuff with the 'mother' in it found in the health food section) 3 times a day for 3 days. It clears it right up for me, and I'm one of those people who used to get sinus infections several times a year or would get one and hang onto it for 3 months.

[pnuts mama]

hmm...to get a sliver out you can soak the effected area in warm water with some baking soda. that's about all i've got.

hope you are feeling better soon, moxie!

[Heather]

To get the antibiotic/bacterial effects of garlic without eating it - cut a bulb so that it has a fresh & flat surface. Put it against the soft part of your ankle {behind the ankle bone, in front of the achille's tendon, on the inside} and hold it in place with ace bandage or tight sock. Give it 20 or 30 minutes and you'll be able to taste it a little and then you can take the garlic out.

[Lisa]

a bit off topic, but:

MrsHaley, my internist OK'd my taking Imitrex for (severe) migraines while nursing. (During pregnancy, though, I had to make do with Advil, coffee, hot baths, and acupressure. Luckily they were much less intense then.) That said, I still try to keep the meds in my system to a minimum... and my kid's a year and a half now, so I'm less freaked out by the whole thing than at first - I didn't go back to the Imitrex until he was 5 months old.

anyway: have you heard otherwise on sumatriptan meds while nursing? Or do you take some other class of meds, like ergots or narcotics?

[Meegan]

I got nothin'. Just commiserating because I'm on the couch with the stomach flu. My one year old has it as does my husband. She's FINALLY asleep (and not on me at the moment) and not throwing up (again, not on me at the moment). My husband and I are starting to dip into the saltines and ginger ale. I just want my mom!

[Menita]

I hope you're OK.

[pnuts mama]

first, up there, i meant affected, not effected. and after it soaks for a while, you should be able to pop the sliver out. or at least see it poking out well enough to grab it with a tweezer.

on migraines- so many of my friends seem to be plagued by these! i get sinus headaches and claritin-d and tylenol help along with acupressure, hot coffee and a hot shower. but w/ regard to the migraines- i read research recently that linked botox injections to relief of migraines! crazy, right? apparently whatever paralyzes the muscle is linked to what causes the pain of the migraine. more research is being done as this was just a side effect to a study not related to migraines on botox. it sounds so weird but i know people who would be willing to try anything they get them so bad.

[MrsHaley]

Lisa -- I got conflicting answers about Imitrex & nursing from the doctors I asked ... NO from the OB, NO from the pediatrician and YES from the GP. I went with majority rule. Have you noticed any side effects in your baby when you take it, or do you not nurse when it'as in your system? I actually got YES from all 3 on a low dose of narcotic if it would help, but it doesn't, so I don't bother.

I did hear about migraine and botox! It sounds magnificent! If it is approved, I would definitely be willing to try it. Right now, I'm waiting to wean before going back on Topamax. I would prefer periodic injections to daily pills.

[Kelly]

I make sure to have at least one banana the week before, and one the week of my period. It makes the cramps completely gone (otherwise they make me all crabby and whiny and want to just curl up and not move). Low potassium, apparently, makes cramps way worse than they have to be.

[Lisa]

My sister, who also gets severe migraines weekly (both parents have 'em) tried the botox thing. There is a small chance it'll GIVE you more migraines, it turns out - and that happened with her, for several months. :-{

But her forehead looked fantastic.

I kid, i kid... anyway, the deal was she'd go first (as payback for when we were 8 and 10 and I went first on the ear-piercing thing, then she chickened out). Needless to say, I'm not trying it. But I have heard - second-hand - of folks for whom it's been a huge success.

As for the Topomax, it's apparently a definite no during both preg. and nursing. Again, my sister tried it (she'd been getting kickback migraines on the Imitrex)... mixed results. I think she's going to go off it soon.

MrsHaley, re Imitrex: I went with the OK from my internist and OB, both also severe migraine sufferers. (Yeah, we move in packs.) Also saw it listed as OK in the _Nursing Mother's Companion_ book.

There seems to be no effect on T. when I take one (100mg tablet) - though I do nurse him just before, if he's interested, so as to push back the next nursing as much as possible. Or I wait till just before his nap, if one is coming up, nurse him down, then take the meds. A few times I've needed a second tablet a few hours later; I just do the same again. So far so good (crossing fingers).

[Ally]

Oh, I hope it's not serious, and you feel better soon.

My PMDD cocktail consists of the following, daily: fish oil, calcium, multi-vitamin, zoloft. Then the week before I'm due and the first few days, increased fish oil. That's all I can think of at the moment!

[nasal congestion remedies]

A shower, soup, and of course lots of resting is the best way to stay at home ill.

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