I am still getting the hang of blogging. Obviously I have let my blog languish too long without new entries. Partly the fault lies with me – I have to get into the groove of setting myself regular, frequent deadlines. Partly the fault lies with the bugs my body has been trying to fight off all week.
A week ago today, a Saturday, I came down with a nasty respiratory virus, and that night Dennis came down with a nasty gastrointestinal virus. We spent Sunday in bed all day, and on Monday we spent half the day waiting for a doctor to see us at the local medical clinic. The respiratory virus gave me bronchitis and made me weak and miserable, but it didn’t wipe me out the way the gastro virus affected Dennis. So Dennis went back to bed, and I spent the other half the day getting our prescriptions filled. We started on our medications, and Dennis was finally able to get back to work on Wednesday, which was the day that I came down with Dennis’ gastro virus. It turned me into Lady Limp. All I could do was sleep and run to the bathroom. I was glad that we both didn’t have it at the same time, so we could help each other out taking care of Dennis’ 98-year-old mom. She can do a lot for herself, but, at an absolute minimum, she does need help with meals and eye drops. Today I’m finally feeling human.
Tomorrow is Sunday, but I plan to stay home from church because I am treating my bronchitis with fenugreek. It is the most effective remedy I’ve found for flushing mucous out of the lungs, a process best performed in private at home. I was too sick this week, though, to remember the remedy so I am late getting the process started. A few years ago, I came down with bronchitis three or four times in about six months. I thought maybe I’d never really recovered from the first bout of bronchitis because I couldn’t get my lungs clear despite prescription drugs. So I went searching for a natural remedy in Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Natural Home Remedies by Mark Bricklin, executive editor of Prevention magazine. My copy was published in 1982.
The book recommends making a tea from fenugreek seeds. You drink one cup each hour the first day to saturate your system. After that you drink four cups a day. The natural food store where I found fenugreek sells it in gel capsules instead of seeds, so instead of drinking it as a tea, I swallow one or two capsules with water. It works.
