Day Six

Day six at the infirmary....the two oldest doing a little better...the little Koala is in the "day 3" cycle of his so....not so good. I figured that we did a little bit of harm in second guessing my *natural ways.* I started off treating everyone with honey, lemon and ginger - and then after two days of listening to those croupy coughs began feeling very insecure about my choice in non medicating. So....we bought the cough stuff that I LOATHE and started treating everyone - 4 days later and it's not gone! That's how medicine typically is for these things....just drags it on and on. One might feel a little more "comfortable" but the sickness never leaves!

So, after much investigating, I learned that croup generally just has to run it's course and that you treat it by exactly what I was doing....and that you don't want to medicate because that closes up the little airways. Grrrrrrrr. Anyhoo, today we are back to the honey and lemon, wild cherry bark tea....and apple cider vinegar. Fevers have been tolerable, I can usually get the kids comfortable with a warm bath with yarrow and peppermint so I haven't been worried in that department. As for us adults....we are on the mend just the last bits of the cough and exhaustion to deal with. :)

I other happy news...we received our electric bill yesterday - all $356.00 of it. Hurrah. (sarcasm GREATLY implied.) Needless to say, we are wearing our bathrobes and have turned our heat WAY down (as in....not on during the day) and have decided to weather the storm. We do have a gas fireplace that we turn on when it gets chilly so we all just hang out in the living room since that heat doesn't spread too well. I haven't left our home for 7 days...the walls are getting VERY white indeed.