We always expected the virus would eventually hit us, but we managed to escape it … until last month. We knew it was going around my husband’s work, and so, feeling it heading our way, I stocked up on a bunch of food and vitamins and immune-boosters. Just in case.
And several
days later, we got our first positive. Not
through my husband’s work, ironically, but through my son’s. Three days later, two more of us tested
positive. I expected all six of us to
get it, but only three of us got it (the 12-21-year-olds). (And yes, we all quarantined for 14
days. Because that’s the incubation
period for those still testing negative.)
Thankfully,
it ended up being quite mild for us.
(Who knows, but maybe if us 40+-year-olds got it, it might’ve been worse. I know a few adults around my age who got it
pretty rough, and a few elderly people who died from it.)
The first to
get it was already getting better before he even tested positive. He had one or two days of a 101-degree temperature which went down to the 99-degree range for a few more days, and he lost his
taste/smell on the third day, but that’s about all he got. The second had a mild fever (mostly 99.4-100.5)
for a week, which spiked to 101.9 after he took a bath on day 6, and a small
cough (which sounded maybe a little "goose-like," the only way I can think to describe it). And the third son was barely sick
at all, just a very mild temp and the feeling of being a little “under the weather,”
but we tested him anyway and it was positive, but with a super-faint line
because he was already almost all done with it before we even knew he was
sick. And my fourth son who normally gets
hit the hardest with illness, who gets the highest temperatures and picks up
infections easier than the rest of us, never got sick. (Thank you, God!)
All in all, it was about 10-12 days of mild fever in the house (fevers lasted about 6 days per person). 10-12 days of me running around taking temperatures, checking coughs, making soup, serving tea, and dishing out various immune-boosters to help us as much as possible. And I thought I’d share what we did to treat it, in case anyone else is looking for ideas.
In no way is any of this a guarantee. When it comes to this virus, nothing is guaranteed. Not even the “vac$ine.” In my own circle, the virus has hit the vaccinated
and unvaccinated equally. And so since
we are all at risk, we all should be doing what we can to boost our immune
systems as best we can. And this is what
we did when the virus came to our house.
[Ideally, we would
all have been eating very healthy for years so that we had the best health
possible to begin with, but oh well. From things I’ve read over the years, viruses and cancers (etc.) thrive in
acidic conditions, which is what our bodies become when we eat junk. But they can’t live in alkaline conditions, which
is what our bodies would be if we ate healthy, natural, unprocessed foods, lots
of veggies, no soda, very little sugar/white flour, etc. Research “acid/alkaline diets” for yourself
to see what you can find.]
As soon as the first person showed signs of being sick (the first test was negative, but it was positive two days later), I put everyone on a strong regimen of vitamins and immune-boosters. Hopefully, this helped keep it mild for the others. (I also wonder if we had gotten the virus back in February 2020 because we had an illness back then that was just “different,” before we even knew about the coronavirus. Low fever for a week, spiking the first day to 103, massive sore throats at the end, and one kid couldn’t taste his food. It’s possible. Maybe this is why three of us didn’t get it this time around and why it was so mild for the others. Note: We are all typically healthy people, no immune-deficiencies that I know of.)
Anyway, our regimen included:
1. Rubbing a homemade essential oil blend on everyone’s chest or the bottoms of their feet (1-2 applications a day, recipe below). I do this at the first sign of every illness (and any time anyone has a skin sore or infection). If someone has a sore throat, we rub it on their neck too.
2. Running an essential oil diffuser once during
the day in the living room and again at night in everyone’s bedrooms (recipes
below for my homemade blends). I do this
almost all winter every year. The first
year I did it, our number of colds/flus went from 10-12 (the year before with
no diffuser) to 2 mild colds (the year I began using diffusers nightly).
[I think everyone should have an arsenal of essential oils at home for if and when medicine becomes hard-to-get. I personally have seen lavender and tea tree essential oils take away hot, red infected spider bites, cellulitis from an infected mosquito bite, various other skin infections, and an 8-inch-long, black-line, blood-infection running up a friend’s vein from an infected burn (we watched it disappear within an hour of putting lavender essential oil on). Everyone should have some basic essential oils at home and a guide on how to use them properly (always dilute well!), just in case. See my posts on essential oils by clicking on the “essential oil” label on the right side-bar. And I am planning on writing a post on my top 10 oils, hopefully soon. But at least start stocking up on lavender and tea tree essential oils, maybe lemon and peppermint and eucalyptus too. And also grab a couple diffusers, some small hard-plastic spray bottles and squirt bottles, and small, glass, dropper-top bottles to store your blends in. I read that one country is resorting to do-it-yourself home remedies because they can’t get prescription medicine. It’s good to know this stuff ahead of time, with the unpredictability of the world right now. Also, I just ordered this book for myself: The Herb Gardener’s Essential Guide by Sandra Kynes. Lots of good information on the medicinal uses of backyard herbs. I think everyone should have a book like this on hand. Yes, I think this is what the world is coming to. Get prepared now. And who wouldn't love having an herb garden anyway! I love using my dried, homegrown Greek oregano all winter.]
3. A daily cup of tea (Yogi’s Elderberry Lemon
Balm Immune+Stress blend for most of us, and Celestial Seasonings Citrus
Sunrise for the kid who didn’t want that one), with a spoonful of honey and half
a lemon squeezed into each glass (lemon is acidic in the mouth, but once
it’s digested, it’s very alkalizing, which kills viruses, according to what
I’ve read)
4. Vitamins C and D and K (needed to help you properly
absorb the D) and high-quality, whole-food multi-vitamins (appropriate doses
for their ages, daily)
5. Appropriate daily doses of these other immune-boosters, all found at Fresh Thyme (These are the brands we used but I'm sure others work just as well. I provided links just so you could see the product. I never actually ordered directly from these websites, so this is just for reference.):
Honey Garden's Elderberry syrup
Kyolic Aged Garlic Extract capsules
Nature's Way Oregano Oil capsules
Mother Nature Organics Black Cumin Seed Oil capsules
Nature's Way Echinacea capsules
Wishgarden's Kick-Ass Immune Activator (added to a small shot of orange juice to make it more palatable).
As my husband put it when the virus first invaded our house, "Let's throw everything and the kitchen sink at it!"
6. We avoided sugar and white flour as much as possible. And I made chicken soup with lots of garlic and onions (easy recipe below). And for sore throats, we made garlic bread. I added a tiny bit of olive oil to a pan, threw
in chopped-up garlic (a couple cloves per person), sauteed it very lightly on low heat for only
a couple minutes just until it became slightly translucent but still firm (don’t
cook out all the good, strong, germ-fighting power), and then I added the garlic to some butter and spread
it on toast. A tasty way to fight germs
in your throat and boost your immune-system.
7. For the cough that one kid got, I gave him
daily doses of Olba’s cough syrup. And
if needed, we took Echinacea-Zinc or Elderberry-Zinc lozenges. (I also really like Wedderspoon’s organic Manuka Honey Drops. And we rubbed on Tea Tree Therapy Eucalyptus Chest Rub if needed.)
8. My husband also took doses of Shire City Herbals Fire Cider and Barlean's Olive Leaf Complex (like I said, "Everything and the kitchen sink!").
(Speaking of "Shire": I was just thinking last night, while watching Lord of the Rings, about how I belong in the Shire, in Hobbiton. If I was in Lord of the Rings, I'd definitely be a hobbit. And happy to be so. And if I couldn't be in Hobbiton, I'd be in Stars Hollow, from Gilmore Girls. Either one is fine with me. It's just too bad that neither of them are real.)
9. And we prayed (don’t forget God), rested, slept,
and drank lots of water. (Also, we had Turmeric pills on hand because they fight inflammation, and since this virus might cause inflammation in your heart or lungs. turmeric might help.)
And that’s
it. After 10-12 days, all signs of the
virus were gone from our house (except for the one kid who lost his sense of
taste/smell, but it’s almost back to
normal now, a month later).
We should all
have a plan ready and supplies stocked-up for when we need them, whether
because of this virus or any other one.
There are many things we can do to help our bodies do their best. (And start planning that herb garden!)
Warning: One thing I would suggest if your fever is mild (ours mostly stayed in the 99-100-degree range) is don’t take a shower or get cooled down until the fever is totally gone. My son had a 99.5-ish fever for 6 days, very mild. But on the 6th day, I told him he really needed a shower. And I thought it might help with his cough. He took a shower and went shirtless for a few hours because he felt better. But within hours, his fever began rising, until it reached 101.9 the next day (then it went down).
My theory is
that the virus was so weak that it only needed a small fever to fight it, but when
he cooled down there was no fever to fight the virus anymore, and so the last
few lingering viruses (the strongest ones) began multiplying quickly, and so his
fever had to spike to get it back under control.
If it’s a
mild fever, do not bring it down. Let it
do its job. Fevers kills viruses because
viruses can’t live in higher temperatures.
And the stronger the virus, the higher the fever has to go to kill
it. (Of course, if it's a high fever, you have to try to bring it down because high fevers can be dangerous.)
(Some older
folks would say that chilling a person kicks the virus out of the body, causing
it to come to the surface to be expelled, and that’s why the fever rises. I don't know, but I’m really beginning to think that the
fever rises because the virus was multiplying aggressively when the body was chilled.)
A Super-Simple, All-Purpose, Essential Oil Blend for Topical Use: to rub on feet, chest, on necks for sore throats, around outside of ears if we have earaches, and on any sore, infection, or bug bite. This is my go-to for everything, and I would use it on everyone aged 6-ish and up. These are two of the safest oils to use. (You may want to dilute it even more for your family. For younger kids or the elderly or people with compromised immune systems, research these oils to see how much to dilute them or if you should even use them.)
In a small
squirt bottle, add 3 ounces of Aloe (or a carrier oil like Olive Oil, but aloe rubs in better) and 10-18 drops Lavender Essential Oil and
10-18 drops Tea Tree Oil. (Use less essential oil the younger people are. Maybe use only about 3-4 drops of each oil for kids aged 2-6. Always start with less because you can add more if you need it.) Shake well to blend
thoroughly. Apply a coin-sized blob to a couple key body parts (like chest and feet) or to a bug bite, rash, or closed wound, 1-2 times a day. (If a wound is open, do not apply this directly to the wound. But you can apply it nearby, and the oil will make its way there once it's absorbed.)
Blends for the Diffuser:
Once again, this is for my family where everyone is a pre-teen or older. I would also be fine using these around kids aged 6 and over, because I use such small amounts, only 3 drops of the blend per diffuser. But you research these oils and your kids' ages and your family's health conditions for yourself, to see if these are right for you. Also be aware that some oils are not safe to use around pets. Tea Tree oil is one of them. I am not sure if that just means topically or if it means you can't diffuse it around them, but I avoid diffusing it in the main living area and just use it in our bedrooms at night. Just in case.
Add these oils to a small, glass, 10 ml (minimum), essential oil bottle with a drip-top (or to a glass bottle with a squeezable dropper-top), and then use 3-4 drops of one of these blends per diffuser. (For a little variety, combine them, maybe 2 drops of one and one drop of the other per diffuser.)
My "Every Day" Germ-Fighting Blend:
120 drops Tea Tree Oil
120 drops Lavender
30 drops Lemon
30 drops Peppermint
10 drops Eucalyptus
10 drops Lemongrass
(Optional, for more virus-fighting power: Add 6 drops each Clove Essential Oil, Ginger Essential Oil, and Thyme Essential Oil.)
“My Corona” Blend #2: (I want to make a small adjustment to this to improve the scent, but I can’t figure out what it is yet, but this is good enough for now. I make no promises about its ability to defeat the Coronavirus. But many of these oils are good against viruses in general or good for respiratory health. This smells a bit like a floral, lemon-thyme herb plant. You can adjust these oils to suit your preference.)
100 drops Lemon
90 drops Lavender
30 drops each: Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Lemongrass
24 drops each: Oregano, Thyme
15 drops Peppermint
Use 3 drops in a diffuser.
(Optional: Add 6 drops each Clove Essential Oil and Ginger Essential Oil for a warmer, spicier scent and for the extra virus-fighting power.)
I made a second "dog-safe" blend that I like even better. But some people say lemon and mint are bad for dogs (others say it's okay if it's well-diluted, and still others say it's great for dogs, so who knows!), and so that's why I added just a tiny bit of it in this blend: 60 drops Lavender, 15 drops Chamomile, 10 drops Lemongrass, 5 drops Orange, 2 drops Lemon, 2 drops Spearmint. I like it, and it's worked okay around our corgi puppy so far.
My Simple
Chicken Noodle Soup:
Pour 2 quarts chicken broth and 1 quart water in a pot.
Add salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste.
Add one whole chopped onion and at least one whole head of garlic, chopped, and a cup or two of chopped carrots (and chopped celery, if desired).
Add 3 chopped chicken breasts (if they are frozen still, I add them frozen and whole, let them cook a little, remove, chop, and add back to pot).
Let it simmer a few hours, covered, till about 20 minutes before you are ready to serve, then add a few handfuls of yolk-free noodles (or for chicken-rice soup, add a cup or so of uncooked rice, but add rice earlier, about 45 minutes before ready to serve). Simmer till noodles (or rice) are cooked.
Just before serving, turn off heat, add a stick of butter and a few spoonfuls of dried parsley. Taste to see if you need to add any more salt or pepper.
And now it's ready to serve.
