JUST THE RAMBLINGS OF A FORMER NURSE, MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR FLU
(Mainly for adults, with some things applicable to wittles.
I’m going to the store for a “YOU MIGHT BE GETTING THE FLU , MORON” preparation kit. It’s subtitled “You are the one who walked RIGHT into that house very well knowing your best friend’s kids had the FLU . This is NOT to be confused with gastroenteritis when some say they have the stomach flu or a mild viral infection or the common cold. This is lab tested positive INFLUENZA. The kind where you have so much fever you think your blood is going to boil all while your eyes feel like they could pop out of socket at any moment, and then the always confusing “My HAIR HURTS?” symptom. Oh, but you LOOOVE these kids. And you just HAD to go and lay hands on them and pray over them, didn’t you. Oh yeah. Couldn’t just pray from, say, Colorado? Well, neener neener. Neener. Now it’s your own fault.
FOOD SIDE
•Fresh oranges
•Fresh lemons
•Honey (raw, locally sourced)
•Tea bags
•Chicken and fresh vegetables for chicken noodle soup (supposedly has magic healing juju. )
•If I’m a good girl, maybe some cool, soothing, soft ice cream - - just to sooth my throat. I don’t even want any, man. I’m just taking one for the team here.
PHARMACY SIDE
•Expectorant (PLAIN - not mixed with other meds) get something like guaifenesin (to loosen the thick snot) This MUST be followed with copious amounts of water to achieve a nice, thin, sloosy snot.
•Antitussive PLAIN dextromethorphan like (Robitussin) to suppress the cough reflex. But if you DO have something to cough up and out of there, see above for sloosy snot.
FIND AT HOME IF YOU CAN - Or buy
•Nasal irrigator. You know the one where you put the squirt bottle up one side of your nose and GENTLY squeeze the special pH balanced saline into your brain, wait, no, sorry, that’s SINUS cavity and then it runs across the black hole in your head known as a sinus cavity (for clarity, no need to see the dentist to fill it) and miraculously comes out the OTHER nostril. You kind of gag and choke and wee yourself the first time, only to be transported back to your youth when you dove off the high dive for the first time and had chlorinated pool water rocketed through your entire head at 90 mph. WHEEE!!
•Cool mist humidifier
•Acetaminophen (1) AKA Tylenol
•Ibuprofen (2) AKA Advil
•Very important to set two timers:
Tylenol (1) every SIX hours around the clock. Like 12 noon, 6 PM, 12 midnight 6 AM for a total of 4 dosages daily. Dosages depend on age and weight. Healthcare PROFESSIONALS may give you permission to use 4,000 mg a day for adults. However, box warning for every day people say no more than 3,250 mg daily. THIS IS ONE YOU WANT TO PAY ATTENTION TO, PLEASE. TYLENOL/ACETAMINOPHEN WILL TEAR UP YOUR LIVER. SOMETIMES IRREPARABLY.
This is one of the main reasons I advocate single medication bottles of meds. If you give your child a medicine that has 2-4 ingredients, one of these might be Tylenol and you just didn’t catch. I wouldn’t know WHY? I mean, it’s just your KID that’s sick, right? You’re just eating what you want, sleeping all night long without waking up, getting your full 8 in. Hahahahahahahaha.I cracked myself up there. Sorry
You alternate the ibuprofen (2) on the same TYPE of schedule, just with a 3 hour lag in starting. If you start acetaminophen at noon, start ibuprofen at 3 PM. Repeat at 9PM, 3 AM, and 9 AM. Again, doses vary a lot between babies and adults. The max does for adults is 1,200 mg a day. Exceeding these dosage recommendation can lead to internal bleeding.
One of the MOST important things about ibuprofen is it’s drug classification. It’s an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug). If you choose one of the ibuprofen NSAIDS like Advil or Motrin, DO NOT TAKE another NSAID like naproxen (Aleve). Aleve’s dosing is for 8-12 hours for adults. So it doesn’t fit in the “every 3 hour plan.” Feel free to use this is you want, just disregard this plan of rotating.
Some people say “It’s now 2:45, and I’m due for the dose of Advil. But I’m/my child’s not hot. If it’s in the first couple of days, GIVE IT. I can promise you when that Tylenol wears off (and it will) you or you baby will be HUUURRRTTING. It’s so much more compassionate to try keep that raging fever DOWN without the high break through spikes that you then have to play catch up to get the fever/pain under control. I’ll address here that I love a little bit of fever. I think the body does a GREAT job of fighting off all the nasty germs we get into our bodies. WITHIN LIMIT. If my fever is say 100.6, I doubt I’d treat that. I’d eat well, drink well, eat that healthy soup I mentioned earlier and REST. But when my/my child’s fever is 103.3, I treat that almost every time. Could my child’s body eventually fight that off? Sure. But it might mean 3-4 OR 6-8 days of extreme discomfort to you or your child. I just can’t do it.
I will touch only briefly on antibiotics for flu. Influenza is a VIRIS. Antibiotics only kill BACTERIAL illnesses. Healthcare professionals really shouldn’t give antibiotics for viral infections - - unless you are immunocompromised (like my children and I are) or if you develop a SECONDARY BACTERIAL infection at the same time as or from the course of the flu.
I will also touch briefly on healing oils. You can find them EVERYWHERE now. My PERSONAL belief is that I LOVE them and USE THEM - - - in conjunction with Western medicine. It doesn’t have to be all one way or the other. As I am a casual user of oils, I’m not going to give any specific treatment options. It’s too far out of my wheel house.
AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY, can we somehow teach these people over the age of 30 to STOP COUGHING INTO THEIR HANDS which they then in turn use to open door knobs or shake hands with somebody or use the public pen. Y’all, this is NOT hard. On my arm, it’s a whole 5 inches up my arm to harmlessly sneeze or cough into my clothing. GRRRR
Disclosures
I am not a doctor. I’ve never played one on TV. And I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express. I was a practicing nurse for over 30 years, but I am disabled and retired now. I have raised two children. So I’m speaking to you as a mom. Please check with your doctor or call her nurse about medications, especially if you are already taking some other medications that could interact with something I’ve listed. I hate to have to say it but we live in a litigious society. So . ..
The information I submit to you is for entertainment and informational purposes only and shouldn’t be seen as any kind of advice such as medical, legal, tax, emotional or other types of advice. If you rely on any of the information in this article/blog, you do so at your own risk.
