I Have No Explanation
Growing up in the Sunshine Shoppe has provided me a second type of faith that isn’t exactly spiritual but more of just an understanding that not everything has or requires an explanation in order to work. Homeopathy is right up there for me with the icloud…I know it exists, I know it works, but I have very limited understanding of how. I can explain enough to tell you that homeopathy is a highly diluted substance…plant, animal or mineral, used to treat symptoms by stimulating your body’s natural healing process. The idea behind it is “like treats like.” This means that the substance that can cause the symptoms can also treat them in much smaller doses. Compare it to taking a spoonful of local honey to treat allergies or more conventionally, using a stimulant such a Ritalin to treat ADHD.
I feel like I’m about to step into a dangerous subject for a minute so I’m going to proceed cautiously. This post is not about flu vaccinations. I know there are a lot of strong opinions to this particular matter and I fully support everyone’s right to make the decision to get or not to get the flu vaccine. I’m not even going to tell you if our family does or not because I just don’t want condemnation from either side. But maybe we can all agree from experience or observation that sometimes even after being vaccinated an individual can have flu-like symptoms. I have witnessed this my entire life from conversations with our Shoppe customers. And maybe it’s not the flu? I have no idea. I’m not a doctor or diagnostician but symptoms are symptoms and they suck regardless of the cause.
Ever since childhood I have taken a handful of supplements during cold and flu season at the slightest hint of a sore throat or even just fatigue. I take four main supplements:
1.) Wellness Formula
2.) Grapefruit Seed Extract
3.) Sambucus
4.) Oscillococcinum.
These four have been my standard flu protocol as long as I can remember and during this time of year they have a permanent place on the kitchen counter (apparently right next to Buzz Lightyear’s spaceship). It’s no big deal for me to take all of these supplements multiple times a day when I feel a risk of being sick because Lord knows what would happen if I was down for the count. Moms getting sick is terrifying for everyone in the family so I happily down my little flu fighting concoction.
Levi Pope, on the other hand, does not take any tablets or syrups well. For the life of me I cannot figure out how such a brilliant man can remain so stubborn just because the Wellness Formula smells like “healthy dirt.” Our two year old takes after his daddy. Henry does not do illness well. He is not a trooper like my older two. I feel kinda guilty about admitting this but I secretly (not so secretly now) relish when Jack and Addie are puny because they let me just love and dote on them while they happily spend the day napping and watching tv. I swear I’m not a weirdo and want my kids to be sick. I’m just saying they are just sweet and so very compliant. Henry is the opposite of compliant. Before I even have filled the measuring syringe Henry is spitting like a rabid animal. To get him to take medicine is an ORDEAL. I have to wrap him up in all of my many arms and legs while Levi tries to shoot the syringe of medicine down his throat as Henry is actively trying to spit it out and most of the time we all end up covered in sticky syrup only to begin again. So as you can imagine I have a bit of PTSD any time Henry has the sniffles and we only do any syrupy type of medicine if it is completely necessary.
I swear I have shorts on in this picture.
On New Year’s Eve Eve (also my birthday), Henry went down for his nap a seemingly healthy and energetic toddler and woke up a feverish, green snot dripping, coughing, growling monster. After embracing my inner octopus and managing to get enough Motrin in him to bring down the fever I went through my cache of flu prevention and realized I was not going to be able to get him to take anything but possibly the Oscillo since it is safe for 2 year olds, comes in these individual little tubes and looks like larger grains of sweet tasting salt. I was hoping the novelty would at least encourage the opportunity to try it.
I was so relieved that he loved it and even wanted more when the first vial was empty. I gave him two more doses later that evening and three more the next day. We still fought to keep his fever down with Motrin and Tylenol but aside from pushing fluids the Oscillo was the only other thing he was willing to take. On January 1 Henry woke up a human baby again and ready to eat his weight in bananas and oatmeal. I expected the cough to stick around because that’s often what coughs do but it didn’t. And while I have no clue if he had the actual flu or not because we didn’t take him in to be tested for it, I was just incredibly grateful he was no longer feeling so miserable and flu-like and I truly do give the credit to the Oscillococcinum…and my octopus wrestling skills.
I want to note two things about this experience:
If Henry’s fever would have continued or if his behavior changed enough to concern me we would not have stayed home and treated him with homeopathy and TLC. We would have taken him in to see our doctor. I don’t want this story to be anyone’s justification for not seeking medical help when it is necessary. I am luckier than most because my best friend is our PA and I am able to send her on the hour text messages about the color changes in Henry’s snot. Not everyone has that latitude so Iisten to your gut and never ignore any tiny voice telling you to get additional care.
While I am not a doctor and I most certainly cannot and will not say that Oscillo cures anything, I have had multiple thought spirals in which I imagine the end of the world and I consider all that I would want to make sure we have stockpiled and let me just say that Oscillo is right up there on the top of that list…right next to toilet paper and coffee.
So the next time you are in the Shoppe or you find yourself with a sore throat or just working on that apocalypse storehouse pick up a box of Oscillo. I don’t know how it works but after decades of actual personal experience I can tell you that I definitely believe that it does.