Saturday, December 13, 2008

Sick in Austin

(I have MD Anderson pictures up on the post before this one if you want to check them out)

All my old Riata Apartment Complex friends. This was right before I got REALLY sick.
Scott and Cole. I'm a sucker for super cute kids.
Here is how I spent all my money in Austin. Puffs Plus, Riccola, Halls, Cold Eze, Emergen-C, Garlic, Lip Medix, Netti Pot, Epsom Salt and I also got hand sanitizer which didn't make the picture.
Well, I went to Austin and man did I get sick. I need to watch myself when I say I am really sick or got really sick. A lot of people immediately think “Oh No!! Did she have to go to the hospital” Yeah, when you are a cancer girl just saying your sick can make the imaginations run wild. People are wondering if I am puking from chemo, do I have a fever and need to go to the hospital because my blood count is so low I might die?? I don’t know what saying “I’m really sick” is making people think but I could tell from the reactions that they weren’t thinking really bad cold. Then I would say it’s a cold and they would look relieved.

Honestly, I would have rather been puking from chemo. Seriously. This cold was NOTHING to mess with. I felt like HELL. I was starting to wonder if I would ever feel good again. Right after I wrote from MD Anderson everything went down hill. Go figure, with no sleep for that long, airplanes and hospital marathons I was asking to get sick. All of a sudden I had pounds of snot all stuck in my nose and my brain. I sneezed all day long. My throat was raw and so was my nose from blowing it. I had a fever, a headache, and my whole body hurt. I barely wanted to move. Call me a wimp, but colds are a sickness I am not cut out for. So the whole time I was in Austin I was sick like this. Sucks. I wanted to do the rounds and see everyone. Instead I was on a relentless search for the natural cure to a cold. I didn’t want to take medicine but wanted so badly to get better.

I went to CVS and first bought Puffs Plus with ALOE. VERY IMPORTANT to do this early on. If you don’t you will blow your nose on the other sandpaper tissue and rub your nose raw. Then it will get aggravated and it will make you sneeze starting the whole vicious cycle. Then I got Riccola (says natural and herbal) for my soar throat, but it didn’t do the trick. I needed straight up Halls with the vapors. I got another Netti Pot to try and wash out my sinuses. That helped, but they would fill back up a half hour later. Angela and Kasey fed me a steady diet of Emergen-C. That stuff is really good (raspberry and Tangerine). It’s a fizzy drink and for some reason drinking it made me feel good, plus I was getting extra Vitamin C to fight off the cold. I stopped the trial drug for one day because I couldn’t imagine putting my body through any more. I kept up my supplements (probiodics, sea weed extract (minerals), multivitamin, enzymes, my homemade turmeric supplements, ) Then, I bought some garlic supplements because garlic is wonderful for you body and works really good to fight infection if I had any in my body. I also bought Epsom salt and did a soak to pull toxins out, warm up and relax my achy body. I also got one of my monthly massages, but the snot kept draining forward as I was laying there, so I had to keep asking for Kleenex during the massage and blowing my nose. Not sure if the massage was a smart decision. I don't think the therapist enjoyed giving me a massage at all.

I remembered when I was at Hippocrates we were being taught about fasting. Brian Clement (the head honcho) was telling us that when animals are sick they don’t eat until they are better. (They fast) When your digestive system doesn’t have to work on breaking down food you body can use its power to fight off sickness. He told us that our instincts were right as a kid. When we were sick as kids we never wanted to eat, but people would always be concerned and say “eat, eat, eat!” So, I didn’t have an appetite the whole time in Austin, but I didn’t let it bother me. I drank an excessive amount of water, green (powder) drink because I was too lazy to get juicing ingredients, and ate fruit throughout the trip. I snacked a little bit on some other foods, but decided to let my body heal if it needed. After the first day when I got lunch with friends I had no meals the entire time in Austin.

I also went in the sauna with Angela and Michele’s Gold’s memberships. I had a fever and wanted to break it. Without overheating my body I was looking to burn off the virus or infection that took over my body with the fever and I was going to help my fever with the sauna. I think because I had the fever, 170 degrees in the sauna felt wonderful to me. I was in there 15 minutes and barely sweat when people around me were soaking wet. Finally I broke a sweat the second time in there. It wasn’t until a really good night sleep until I really broke the fever and began getting slowly better though.

Which brings me to the two most important parts of getting well naturally: Almost everyone takes both of these for granted. The first is water. You are supposed to drink 2 liters of water daily if you are healthy. Who does that??? I do, but I have that crazy water bottle I bring everywhere and I obsess about drinking water. Plus, I basically only drink water or green juice. So, if you are sick, you should drink more water than that. That is step uno of getting better. The second and equally important step is sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Our body HEALS when we sleep. That is a known fact. Make sense to sleep when we are sick then huh? The most important thing to do when we are sick is get really self absorbed. Your sleep schedule should be more important than any to do list, friends you have to meet up with, or party you have to host. The world needs to revolve around your sleep schedule if you want to get better. This is the one I am the worst about (to do lists and hanging with friends is always important to me) I think sleep and water alone can cure you from any cold, but no one sleeps enough to let it happen. I couldn’t sleep because my nose and throat were keeping me up all night. I broke down and took a Nyquil after 2 weeks of not good sleep every night. Finally I slept 10 hours, slept through the night and broke my fever. Sleep was the magical touch. I got off the Nyquil (1/2 dose each night) after 2 nights.

Anyway, I wrote this because a lot of people are getting NASTY colds and I can relate. I just wanted to remind people about the two most important things to do to help your body do what it does. Heal.

I wish I could have felt better when I was in Austin so I could have made the most out of my time. I barely got pictures with all of the great wonderful friends I had been looking forward to seeing for months. I feel like I need a redo.The timing was really crappy. We need to take care of ourselves so we can get through the holidays healthy. We don’t want to have our heads in the clouds for some quality visiting time like I did. We also want to be able to give hugs and kisses without getting people sick.

Take care of yourselves
Drink lots of water
SLEEP. Because your body needs it
I miss all of you in Austin and wish I could be there again.
Feeling much better
Shannon
AND here is the absolutely cutest version of the ABCs by Cole (my friend Cindy and Scott's boy)....... Click the play button to watch the video.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Shannon,

    Being sick really stinks. I hope you're feeling better by now. At the first sign of sickness I eat a great deal of garlic and basil. I drink green tea with local honey and lemon and orange juice. I eat a lot of soup and that usually helps me kick it in about a week.

    It was great seeing you at Crate and Barrel!

    We miss you!

    Hugs,
    Runi

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  2. Hiya Shannon. It was good seeing you this past week. Sorry you were so ill...you couldn't hide it, but you did great work in kicking it to the curb long enough to get through the party. Kudos.

    P.S. My verification word (to post this comment)is "podubud". I'm amused for no other reason - mottag

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  3. Hi Shannon -

    A couple of items that has been helping me this cold season .... Airborne, Cold EZ, Zicam and Sinusin - its an herbal nose spray - the combo of those items plus 1.5 days of sleep knocked the cold right out!

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