SICK

Ale is rarely sick. Maybe it's a strong constitution, maybe it's because he hasn't been bombarded with vaccinations, maybe he's been lucky, maybe it's a combination of all the above. On Wednesday afternoon he came home from a friends house and felt a little warm. The kid is naturally hot bodied. It is typical for heat to radiate out of his head so when I say he felt warm, he felt warm even for him. His temp was low, only 100 or so. We laid low he went to bed feeling cold. I came home from school later that night and took his temp again while he was sleeping. 106. I'm fairly laid back, especially when it comes to sickness. I know fevers are beneficial. I've been known to let 103 ride for a few days in the past (though towards the end I do start getting a bit nervous). But 106 is scary. Like, I'm not sure how long I wait before taking a trip to the ER scary. He was wearing a beany so I took it off and waited a few minutes before taking his temp again. It kept registering between 104-105. Even I have a limit to my laissez faire approach to sickness and medicine. It was already 10. So we called our friends hoping they were more responsible than we and had children's tylenol on hand. (Did I mention that Ale has NEVER even had tylenol? Nothing. No meds ever.)

When David returned from our friends he had Tylenol and a few homeopathic remedies. I'm a big fan of homeopathy albeit a bit skeptical even though I've seen it work continually. Arnica has been my savior on numerous occasions as Ale is daring and always falling down or getting banged up. Another remedy is what got me out of stalled labor and into active labor. I know it works. But in a culture that has no regard for alternative medicine it is sometimes hard to reprogram the mind that has been told to pop pills for whatever ails you and steer clear of quackery. (Ironic, I know, being a student of Chinese Medicine and all...) We gave Ale one dose of Gelsemium Sempervirens because according to our midwife that seemed to be what was treating whatever flu was circulating this area. I wasn't going to wait long as his high fever still burned through his body. So after giving him the dose I brushed by teeth and got ready for bed. 10 minutes later his temp was 103. David took it a bit later because he was sleeping with Ale had it was 102. When he woke up in the morning it was back down to 98. That's right. It knocked whatever was in his system out of it and we still didn't have to give him the Tylenol.

Two days later I'm left with a spunky but snotty little boy who I'm having to try very hard to make lay low. (Ale, will you please just sit and watch another movie...).

There are so many therapies out there that are equal if not better than the default in our culture. I'm continually amazed.