Trying New Things Tuesday: A Wellness List

Update from Last Week:  Well, Wren really did get a modified schedule last week.  Due to illness, we had one official day of homeschool.  Oh well!

Last Wednesday we started the day at Children's with Sammy.  His breathing was labored, and he has now been unofficially diagnosed with asthma pending a visit to a pulmonologist.  His breathing problems seem to only happen when he catches a virus.  In Eowyn, this virus turned into a double ear infection.  In Wren it was just a raspy voice.  In Asher, it was fever with goop leaking out her eyes (I thought the goop would stop, but tonight her eyes started turning red, so back to the doctor tomorrow!)  For Sammy, it was not being able to breathe, four days of steroids, and way too much inhaler use just to get his breathing stable.

During this I forgot something:  I had the virus first.  Yeah, two days before Sam got sick, I had this scratchy feeling in my throat.  I kept on with my vitamins, drank a little more lemon water, but I didn't really move into high gear and attack the problem.  By the time I started coughing, which is when I would normally hit this junk with all the crunchy granola goodness I know, Sam was sick. I then started losing sleep so D and I could take shifts checking Sam's breathing.  He didn't make it without inhaler intervention for four nights straight.

So, last night after maintaining my vitamin use but not trying anything extra due to lack of time, lack of energy, and lack of organization since all my effort was going to medicate my children or sleep, I was strolling through Walgreens looking for anything on the planet that would make me stop coughing.  I bought cough drops.  I then bought a bottle of Walgreens brand cough syrup, gluten-free and 10% alcohol, just how I like them at this point in the game.  I chugged the recommended dose and woke up paranoid, thick tongued and fully aware of why I didn't need to operate heavy machinery on this medication.

This is not how I like to do things.  I am all about preventive care, not chugging a bottle of high fructose alcohol mixed with red and blue coloring.  But I got behind because I wasn't paying attention, so now I suffer.

This week I am going to make a list of all the things I need to do the EXACT SECOND I start feeling sick.  These are things I do for my kids without thinking.  Somehow, I have started doing this weird transference thing, or at least I think that's what you'd call it.  It goes like this:  kids took their vitamins, drank their water, ate their veggies.  Great!  We're all good.  My mind then checks all of these things off for myself, even if I did none of them.  I think an actual list I can see will help.

For now, I'm going to gurgle salt water and drink more apple cider vinegar.  It may be a little late, but I hope it still helps.