The season has begun: I heard the plow go by this morning.
But we have our snowblower ready to go.
My eye infection is back, so Jane’s going to have to do the driving…I can’t wear my contacts and my eyes are watering nonstop. I swear I have battled this since we got back from Texas, in September. I am so annoyed. It’s not too bad. But I have had two rounds of antibiotic, and am probably going to try a drugstore remedy like boric acid (the weak eyewash solution, I assure you.) It’s what we used in the 40’s and 50’s, and it kills bacteria by brute force. There are a few things I resort to when all else fails: one of them is this eyewash, and the other is merthiolate for a hangnail. Yep, it’s mercury: but it also is the ONLY thing that will help a hangnail when it’s getting infected. Stops the pain and cures it usually with one application.
So we try an old, old one: I just need to get to the pharmacy to pick up a bottle.
Since the topic of shingles came up, I’ll pop in and suggest that anyone who has had chickenpox go ahead and get that shingles shot. I just went through a bout of shingles for the first time and boy, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Luckily, it presented on the trunk/abdomen rather than on the face but that meant that any clothes on the site were unbearable….so I missed 2 weeks of work since the clothing style I could bare wouldn’t have gone over well at work (sigh). Even getting on the antivirals at the optimum time (which is supposed to minimize both the pain and the duration) didn’t eliminate all problems. So, 28 days after healing up I got that shingles shot to minimize the risk of additional bouts. It was covered 100% by my health plan as long as it was recommended by my primary care physician, but coverage may vary. Not a fun thing! By the way, my doctors said that HZ is ‘almost’ always unilateral but not 100%. Mine was unilateral so there was little concern that the rash/pain was due to something else.
I hope your eyes heal up pronto. I know I haven’t been able to wear contacts for quite awhile (eyes too dry) but so I have to rely on glasses to function.
Hope the snow stays over on the east side of the mountains. I hate the stuff! My koi/goldfish are still cruising the surface but the temperature in the tanks are right at the feed/no feed point so they’ve NOT been fed for several days. If they are desperate, they’ve got duckweed to eat but only 2 of the stock tanks have goldfish/koi that have figured that food out.
Shingles is more serious than people realize. My mother developed shingles and acquired a secondary Step A infection. It wasn’t just any Step A. It was a year when a very serious strain was sweeping across the country. It was the strain that killed Jim Henson. It killed my very healthy mother in 48 hours. If you’re of that age, get your shingles vaccination because not getting it can kill you.
I’ve got to 3rd the shingles shot. Just about everyone our age had chicken pox so you’re harbouring the virus. It just takes a little for that blighter to become active, generally with cold sores and the like but then there’s full blown shingles. DH had it; the classic on one side of the trunk.
I had shingles three years ago, before I hit 60; some of the other people I know who have had it got it as young as late thirties. Mine was in the nerve that runs from the bridge of the nose across to the top of the forehead.
I wouldn’t recommend shingles to anyone I didn’t already hate.
That’s frightening, that shingles, horrible enough as is, can lead to such dreadful complications. Definitely worth getting the vaccination and not trusting to luck!
Eyes are something else that should not be left to luck. After all this time, the problem needs a specialist’s opinion, it seems to me. It’s too important to risk wasting time on treatments that only semi-work.
I got my shingles shot on my 60th birthday, or as close to it as I could. I’ve seen friends with shingles and they’ve told me that when it flares up, they can’t do anything.
Herpes simplex zoraster (?) thrives in the salivary glands and every so often it decides to make its presence known. I know that sometimes, it’s brought on by stress. I used to get the sores when I’d have some kind of gastrointestinal illness.
If you haven’t gotten on, and need to, do so!
Santeyebeat, my condolences, regardless of how long ago, one never fully gets over the loss of a parent.
Oh the medical INDUSTRY… they won’t and often can’t tell you about any of the other, safer alternate treatments available. In fact most of the doctors have NO idea about them because they aren’t taught them in the pharmaceutical-funded medical schools. They, like us, are taught to believe that it’s all a bunch of quackery or lies or not helpful.
Clearly the pharmaceutical industry needs us to believe this crap because if you use natural treatments, THEY LOSE MONEY! And right now, they are the wealthiest arm of the greedy 1%. So their tactics have worked way too well. It’s always so when people perceive their life is on the line, and the greedy 1% use that angle mercilessly.
I’ve had more success using goldenseal root than antibiotics; I’ve had a lot of success treating virus (like shingles) with echinacea purpurea while the medical version of anti-virals and may or may not work and of course, are exceedingly toxic as are 99% of their drugs very intentionally. “Oh look you’re having some nasty side effects from this drug… Conveniently we just happen to have a couple other drugs here that will counteract those dangerous side effects, so here’s a couple more prescription to go BUY these other drugs….’ Need I say more??
The rue fennel eye wash has gotten rid of the eye infection far better than that toxic crap my pharmaceutical-trained ‘opthamologist’ prescribed me, and anyone with dry eyes need only use that drop of olive oil occasionally to restore the natural moisture barrier that is lost as we age. None of which makes the pharmaceutical companies a dime.
And vaccines—I attribute a lot of my weakened immune system to the fact that I had to have all my shots always current when I was a loadmaster and flying all over the world. And I needed about 3 or 4 extra shots because of that. They put a LOT of unnecessary crap into those vaccines that are specifically designed to do that very thing—weaken the immune system.
Please understand that Big pharma will do or say anything to convince you that theirs is the ONLY answer. Natural treatments and herbs and such are continually poo-hooed in the media with the medical industry (backed by Big Pharma) saying there is no proof that such things work or saying that there is proof that they don’t help, when there is in fact tremendous amounts of proof/research about most of the alternate stuff which shows it does work just fine, if not better. You just have to step outside the mainstream media box (owned by big pharma’s buddies, who very strictly control what is published or said about natural health stuff along with a lot of other stuff) and read the information about such things from even Europe, for example.
It is quite sad how brainwashed so many otherwise intelligent people can be about this topic. Of course the greedy 1% have invested a lot of time and money to convince us of the medical industry’s benevolence and helpfulness (Dr. Wellby, Dr. Kildare, even Dr. House) and how THEY know better for us because essentially we’re too stupid to figure it out ourselves. NOT. WE live in our bodies, and with even just a little research on line, you can find all sorts of other information about how to heal yourself naturally, safely and effectively. Of course they have trained us to take the easy way out by expecting to find quick and easy health answers in their handy little pills, but none the less, shame on us for letting them trick and manipulate us soooooooo badly, and to our definite harm.
Of course there will be huskers, even as the medical industry itself is filled with them. I say, trust YOURSELF and find your own solutions. If all else fails, THEN go to the doctors, but chances are, I’ve found from my own experience, if you can’t figure it out and heal it using alternate methodologies, that while the medical industry will probably be able to tell you what is wrong (they are good about that), their solutions will be worthless, damaging, and/or they won’t have any, and they’ll start throwing prescriptions at you that may or may not help, but most surely are toxic and highly stressful to your liver, just so they can keep selling you drugs. And no, most of them don’t really care that much about you, except about getting your money. After all, it isn’t them suffering.