The Greening of Gavin

Home Remedies Anyone?

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Dear readers.

I have been poorly again. It never seems to end. The result of my last issue, where I thought it was heart issues, then shingles, really turned out to be Parotitis (inflammation of the parotid gland). Oh, the parrot and pirate jokes keep coming from friends and work colleagues!

Two weeks of antibiotics, a couple of days of bedrest where I had to take more sick leave the week after Easter.  I managed to get back to work all last week.

So why am I asking for a home remedy? Well, because my immune system is a bit low, I managed to catch a chest infection over the weekend, as well as loosing my voice. Maybe i shouldn’t have been so quick with my cheese podcast announcement 🙁

More time off work, and lots of bed rest, which is where I am now. More antibiotics.

I need a big boost to my immune system, so hoping that you can help with suggestions of natural ways to achieve this.  I have been making thyme tea to clear the throat, but the chest the real problem.  I don’t want to catch anything else.

I need to have a voice by tomorrow evening, as I am presenting “Save Money on Your Power Bills” for the sustainable living group. I do have a backup speaker, but I would really like to do it myself.

Over to you! Hope you can help out.

Herbal Remedy for Laryngitis

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If you just listened to my last post, you won’t believe what you are about to read!

Yesterday, I lost my voice.  The virus that Kim had been carrying around for two weeks had finally won and I was suffering greatly in the vocal chord department.  When I woke in the morning, I could whisper and talk slightly, and had a painful cough.

I felt horrible all day, couldn’t function very well in meetings and the like, and my boss suggested I go home at 4pm.  So I did, coughing and spluttering all the way home.  After a lovely dinner cooked by Kim, I hit the hay at 8.30pm and slept all the way through till 8am.

My chest felt on fire!  All I could do was croak and grunt, and when I coughed it felt like someone was rubbing sandpaper in my throat.  I called in sick and spent a few more hours in bed.

At 10am, I hit upon the idea of seeing if there were any natural remedy’s for laryngitis.  I consulted a book titled “Nature’s Medicines”, published by Readers Digest, which we picked up second hand off of eBay.  There were a few remedies for sore throats and laryngitis, so I chose upon the simplest one.  A Thyme infusion.  I knew I dried all those herbs for a reason.

I put a couple of tablespoons of dried thyme into my tea mug, added boiling water and let it infuse for 10 minutes.  A wonderfully fragrant and savoury tasting tea resulted.  I drank it down, and still feeling knackered had another sleep for a couple of hours.

I awoke at about 2pm, and something wonderful had happened.  I could talk again, albeit in a deep gruff voice, and it wasn’t painful any more when I spoke.  The congestion around my vocal chords had been shifted.  However it still hurt a lot when I coughed.

The book suggested 3 cups per day, and I have had a second cup now, and it has improved a little more.  As for the sore throat, I have been using the juice of one lemon, 1 heaped teaspoon of honey and topped it up with boiling water.  This helps to sooth the throat and make it tolerable.

With another cup of thyme tea before bed, my voice should be nearly back to normal tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!

Does anyone else have a remedy for laryngitis that they would like to share, or even a sore throat for that matter?  Comments appreciated.

Still Not Right

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Sorry for not posting for a while, but my condition has been taking its toll.

The relief that I found after my hospital visit was short lived, with the abdominal pain returning about 3 days after discharge.  It got so bad that on Wednesday, I called my Gastroenterologist and asked what else could be done.  He said that he could do nothing further except recommend a Colorectal Surgeon to further treat this condition.  Wonderful, I thought.

So back to my GP, who I told my story to from the beginning, told him that the pain had returned and that I would like a referral and some pain relief.  My doctor even gave me some more anti-biotics, two types in fact to try and settle down the pain.  This would now be the 6th course of antibiotics that I have been on in five weeks.  That can’t be healthy in itself.  On my way out of the clinic I gave him a jar of fig jam and told him it came from the fig tree out the front of the building.  He was well impressed and started showing the other doctors.

Anyway, I managed to get an appointment with the Surgeon for the 22nd April, so hope to get a few more answers from him.  I met him when I was in hospital, and he has a great bedside manner and explained everything the the nth degree.  At least I will be in good hands.

So, as expected, the antibiotics have not worked at all, but the pain relief has been welcome.  I have been feeling horrible all week, and have not done as much gardening this weekend as I had hoped.  I have found that I have had to have a rest in the afternoon, or I just don’t make it through the day.  At least I managed to get some snow peas and two types of cabbages in the ground where the old pumpkin patch had once been.  I had lots of help from the chooks and Ben, who as promised helped me remove the old bean stalks, and planted the seeds and seedlings.  He is so looking forward to helping himself to the snow peas, as are all of us.

Hopefully, this week will shed some more light on the road to recovery.  I can definitely say that I am well over diverticulitis!  At least I can still manage a podcast each week, which keeps the creative juices flowing.  Oh, and of course there is my day job.  Who could forget that.