My Migraine Cure

I'd never had migraines until this spring when I started getting some pretty awful "ice pick" headaches. (Or at least, I'd never noticed migraines before. Maybe the persistent headaches were so bad that the migraines didn't stand out like they do now that the regular headaches have become rarer.)

Cherí and Gary were talking about neti pots after choir one night. I realized that I had not been using my neti pot because I hadn't felt stuffy from a cold. I thought maybe I should try it. I found that feeling like you have blocked-up sinuses may have nothing to do with what's really going on in there. I couldn't get any water to flow through. After a couple of days of whittling away at the rot in my head, I began to be able to use the neti pot properly. But I knew that, whenever I used it, I would get one of those ice-pick headaches --temporarily-- but aiming from the inside to the outside of my skull. It was the exact same pain as the migraine, only backwards. The good thing, though, was that it lasted only 5-10 minutes. Still, it was hard to force myself to the bathroom sink when I knew how badly it was going to hurt. Over the weeks, as I kept at it, I happily realized that I was no longer having migraines. And the mini-migraine pain that had initially accompanied the neti pot had also disappeared.

I get to feeling fine, and then I don't bother with the neti pot. If I forget for more than a week, headaches start sneaking up on me again. Then I have to diligently use the neti once or twice a day to get myself back to being comfy enough to ... well... y'know... forget to keep at the regimen again.

I know there are a gazillion causes for migraines, and a neti pot certainly won't cure most people. It probably wouldn't even help most people. But I was pleased to find that something this easy did so much to ease my pain.

Neti Problem?

Grossness warning --
beep
beep
beep

You have been warned ...


With ragweed season upon us, it's taking forever for me to use the neti pot because my head is stuffy, and the saline leaks through slowly instead of flowing through my sinus cavity. Sometimes it leaks out my tear ducts. Rachel talked about that once and I about barfed.

Last night I noticed pink eye. (I slept with garlic taped to my eyelids, and the pink eye has improved dramatically.) I am wondering if having some of the water from the neti pot exit via the tear ducts is giving me the pink eye. Yuck yuck yuck!

I Am Not Dead

I used a neti-pot and I am not dead!

Raw garlic slices taped to the skin behind my ears.
Raw garlic taped to my throat.
Making turkey soup.
Gargling with Listerine.
Going through cotton hankies like crazy.

You know I'm desperate when I finally phone my daughter and ask her for instructions on how to use a neti pot. No matter how many people I listen to extol the wonders of their neti pots (ahem: Rachel and Anthea) it still seems WRONG to me to pour water up your nose. Isn't that how you DROWN??? So after Rachel told me how to not drown, I proceeded to attempt this death-embracing concept of pouring water up my nose. I told Rachel where the list of insurance policies was. I told her to buy the cheap pine box. And as Maggie watched, asking questions about subtracting clock-times from one another, I hugged her goodbye and told her I'd see her in heaven someday. (She rolled her eyes.)

But now I can breathe out of both nostrils, and am alive to tell the story!

I think I'll have to not-drown myself a few more times today.

Bronchitis Treatment? Or Coincidence?

Salt water from a neti-pot can clean out sinuses.  Salt-water gargles can soothe a sore throat and wash away excess mucus from the throat.

Monday night I was wishing so bad for a "neti pot" that could wash snot out of bronchial tubes and the lungs. 

For some reason, it crossed my mind that hot, moist compresses might help.  Soaking in a hot tub might do something, but that's not long enough.  So I placed a wrung-out hot washcloth at the base of my neck, covered it with a heating pad, used a wide Ace-bandage to strap the heating pad to my upper chest, turned it on, and went to bed.  (Okay.  Okay.  I know the instructions that come with the heating pad say you should NEVER sleep with the heating pad on.  It's a fire hazard.  Or you could burn yourself.  I'm sure they're right.  I was a bad bad person to go to sleep with the heating pad turned on.)

About three hours later, I woke up, coughing.  I spent an hour --an entire hour-- disturbing Gary's sleep mightily, coughing and coughing and coughing up mucus and snot-balls.  It was disgusting!!  But amazingly, by morning my chest was no longer tight.  It's not like I was done coughing for the next two days, but my health was much better than I'd expected it to be.

So was it a coincidence?  Or shall I try it again (bad bad bad to use a heating pad this way) next time a cold tries to settle in my bronchial tubes?  My logic is that we use moist heat to draw infection such as in a stye or an abscess or in mastitis or in boils.  Maybe the moist heat drew the infection together so that it could be coughed out? 

Shhhh -- The tricky part is going to 

be my trying to remember this little 

experiment next time my bronchial 

tubes get clogged.

Follow-up to "Nothing to Do"

Because I knew I would come to the end of the day, take a look at all the unfinished tasks on my to-do list, and bemoan having "done nothing all day," I kept track of what I did do:

Cleaned behind and under the refrigerator. Dusted the coils. Pulled out the stove and cleaned behind it too.

Laundered the boys' sheets. Bathroom towels too. And three loads of clothes.

Remembered to take my vitamins (no small feat, unfortunately). Hit the neti pot repeatedly to fight back at the problem instigated by a tooth having been whacked by a popcorn kernel. (This week I'm understanding Gary's reticence with regard to eating popcorn.)

Several little jobs, like sweeping the stairwell, scrubbing the kitchen sink, sharpening knives, cleaning out my purse, and dusting the bathrooms.

Smoothie for breakfast.

Mopped and triple-waxed the kitchen floor.

Two-mile walk, in the sunshine!, fast enough to get sweaty, followed by a hot soak in the tub with my magazine. (Hey, I had to do something while the wax was drying on the floor that's smack-dab in the middle of the house's traffic.)

Watched a cooking show while I ate my lunch and wrote some thank-you notes.

Ran three quickie errands in town.

Soaked feet and treated split heels.

With Gary's help, took the piano out to the garage, awaiting either the garbage men or someone who wants a near-free piano.

Broke down the large and sturdy box the snow-blower arrived in [wow -- what a gift!] and cut-and-tied it into a size acceptable to the garbage haulers.

Scrubbed the shower walls and the bathtub instead of doing the regular 2-minute swiping/cleaning. Tried it with baking soda today instead of SoftScrub. I think it worked okay.

Bottled kombucha and started two new batches.

Fried chicken for supper.

Watched a sitcom with Gary.

Cleaned the rest of the kitchen (that is, whatever wasn't cleaned when I mopped & waxed this morning).


Now, when I read that, it doesn't look like quite so nothing. And I've got another day of this "nothing to do."

I Can Brush My Teeth

When a teenager asked Pastor during the quiz today, "Can you read question 3 again?" he grinned and winked at the adults in the room and said, "Yes, I CAN....   ...  ...   Oh -- would you like me to?"

I can brush my teeth.
I can go up and down the stairs to do laundry.
And if I forget to toss in a pair of socks, I can run downstairs again to add them to the load.
I can get myself a drink.
I can pick up my fork and feed myself supper.
I can even drive a car to the store and do an errand.
I can see well enough to read a book.
I can stand up in the shower.
I can kneel by the sink and use my neti-pot.
I can pick up my glasses and put them on my face.

This weekend I am particularly thankful for what I can do.  I so seldom realize what a great blessing these tiny things are, and how difficult life can be when these simple things are daunting tasks or even completely impossible.

My mom had surgery a week and a half ago.  Now she's recuperating and trying to get her meds regulated again and trying to get her hands & feet to DO what her brain is telling them to do.  It makes a person thankful for patient and tender CNA's and nurses.  And when I whine at Gary because I "only" accomplished laundry and bread-baking and mopping and vacuuming and supper and a half-day at paid work (and there was so much more that "should've" been done) I should be slapped.

I can brush my teeth.
And I can shower.
And I can go potty by myself.
That right there is a lot to be grateful for.

And if those were impossible, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. He shall be my salvation" (Job 13).

"I believe that God has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them....  All this He does out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me."

Been Busy

Phew -- it's not pneumonia or bronchitis. Just a sinus infection. Maggie has been sick for four weeks. No fever the whole time. But it definitely took a turn for the worse this week! Saw the doctor last night, and I'm now thinking that if I'd been home to nag her into using the neti-pot multiple times daily (or if she'd been responsible about using it as I told her to) (or if I hadn't assumed that she obeyed when I did nag her) this wouldn't have developed into the sinus infection. She has plans to do better today. She also has drugs in case it's bacterial. The coughing has been unbelievable, but yesterday was a wee bit better than Wednesday, so I hope we're headed in the right direction.

My drawer has been balancing at work. Hooray! Making fewer mistakes. I still feel bad for the customers who come to me with transactions that I'm not 'smooth with' yet, so that they have a sloooow teller. Some of them are fine with it; others get a tad impatient. But I foresee a day when I will no longer be struggling. I don't know how far away that day is, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere.

Computer parts have arrived. I hope when the new computer (motherboard and processor) is put together with the old appendages (hard drive, video card, etc) we find that I haven't lost too many functional pieces and that my documents and photos are still there. I did back-up (woo hoo!) the week before the computer was fried, but it would be nice if I didn't have to go to the trouble to restore everything.

Andrew and I haven't had clashing work schedules since the car died, so he's only had to chauffeur me to work one day so far. I wonder how long we'll continue to luck into this?

Naughty kitty has been chewing through cords again. What IS it with her? She destroyed Andrew's phone charger two days ago, and she chewed through Gary's headphone cord yesterday.

On the final stretch of editing Catechist edition. I discovered yesterday (on my second pass over some devotional material) that I am not so thorough with my proofreading on my lunch breaks at work as I should be. I can't be as good a proofreader when I'm reading with my eyes alone instead of while my mouth is reading the sentences aloud. Theology is supposed to be oral/aural, isn't it?

Off to shovel snow and put supper in the crockpot before work. Looking forward to a healthy kid, a repaired computer, a car for Andrew --and thus a less hectic life-- in another couple of weeks!

Sinus Rinse

Stores sell packets of sinus rinse for people with allergies or sinus infections. But if you want to use a neti-pot or a sinus-rinse kit, there's a cheaper way to do it.

The harder way: combine equal parts of baking soda and table salt. Use about 1/4 or 1/3 teaspoon per 8 ounces of water. That would be similar to what's in one of those 11-cents-each packets.

The easy way: just use 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon of salt in your water.

Much cheaper.
And you don't have to mess with the little packets.