Surviving the Flu

Yeah the blog has been quiet.  Eighteen days has gone by since my last blog post.  That could be a record and not the kind I like to make.  The day after I last posted I woke up with mild cold symptoms.  By the end of the day, I felt like I had been hit by a mack truck.  I even had a mild fever and I never run fevers.   I told my mom and Mr. Destructo I had the dreaded flu.  I went to urgent care the next day and low and behold I had it.  I was in so much pain.  The joint pain was intense.  The coughing was awful and I could not sleep from it.  And the chills.  My gosh I was just shaking all over from the chills and it hurt to even exist.

Source  How can something so small make someone so sick?

Did I mention I cried a lot over the next few days?  Not only did I have the flu but we had just gotten back from my parents cabin.  We left for the cabin the day after Christmas and the house was still in chaos from Christmas.  Then we came back and had unpacked the car but nothing was put away.  You couldn't walk in the living room.  We had no groceries at all because we had been gone for eight days.  

But it gets worse.  On top of all the above mentioned not funs, Mr. Destructo was scheduled to travel to Montreal.  You know like Canada.  Like far far away Canada.  He was due to leave Wednesday before the sun was up.  Which meant I had exactly two days of him being home, two days of him working nights, and then he was gone.  I had to recover fast.  But wait... there's more.  Sunday morning when Ollie woke to nurse I noticed he was sneezing and coughing just a bit.  He woke up with a 100 degree temp.  But then he never got worse.  But Destructo did.  He woke up Monday morning with a 103 degree temp, saying everything hurt but especially his belly, and very stuffed up.  You got it.  Both boys also had the flu.

We took them into the pediatrician to try to get tamiflu.  They wouldn't prescribe it to me since I was nursing Ollie which was silly since they prescribed it for Ollie.  But when we went to pick it up it was going to be 400 dollars since we haven't hit our deductible yet.  Needless to say I am so glad we didn't shell out that kind of money.  Both boys bounced back in two days time.  Ollie never got more than super mild cold symptoms and a bit fussy.  Destructo was pretty sick but within three days was completely recovered except for a nasty cough that just went away recently.  The more I read about tamiflu, the more I decided it's side effects make it not worth the benefits.  

So what did we do to recover as quickly as we did?  Well first off we all took elderberry syrup every day and once we got sick three times a day.  I make my own from  one cinnamon stick, 1/2 cup of dried elderberries, and a cup of raw honey.  All of which can be ordered off Amazon by using the links above if you like.  (affiliate links).  I found the recipe I use here.

Source

Another thing you can order off Amazon that I think helped immensely is Boiron Oscillococcinum .  You take these little sweet pellets three times a day and they help ease flu like symptoms.  They work well.  Very well.

Finally the other standard advice to rest, drink plenty of fluids, take Tylenol and Advil as needed, etc etc etc also applies.  

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