Better late than never, Thursday home remedy

Mornin' ya'll. Here are a few tips for dry skin that may come in helpful for some.

Dry Skin
*Combine 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup warm water, 1 Tbls. vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup baking soda in a blender or food processor until you have a smooth paste. Pour this paste under the running water while drawing the bath. Very soothing to dry, itchy skin.
*To relieve dry patches, massage in vegetable shortening like Crisco. Sounds gross, but it is emollient rich and full of vitamins and replenishing oils. It is also preservative and fragrance free.
*I've always heard, and I do this, that taking a very hot shower in the winter causes dry skin to be even worse. So I take a warm shower, then while I'm still in the shower I put on some Mineral oil. Then I rinse with cool water. Be careful not to spill the oil on the bottom of the shower as it will, of course, making it very slippery. Cold water on the skin is a great wake me up in the morning too. =) Very "refreshing".

It has been a doosie of a week. My body finally gave in and joined Rylie in the latest flu bug to hit the area. All I can say is...Ohmahgoooosh. This thing has no sense of pity and hits everyone differently. Rylie was puking none stop for 1 and a half days. Poor baby couldn't keep any bit of liquid down. Not even the any of puking stuff they gave us at the last Dr. visit. I'd give it to her and within minutes she'd be expelling it. Luckily, she didn't get the garwsh awful diarrhea that hits some.

When it finally hit me and took over my tummy I was violently ill. Mine started with a killer headache on Monday night. The "butt puking" hit me Tuesday morning. Followed by the tummy puking later in the morning. Let me tell you, being nauseous while your child is constantly puking...avoid it if possible. LOL Poor Rylie, it would hit her so hard and quick, she sometimes didn't have the time to roll over and hit the can. Poor Mom...lot's of laundry to do.

By Wednesday in the early afternoon we were feeling a bit better, but then I started to get this garwsh awful pain, in my upper back area, right around my lungs. Especially when I coughed. I began to think that I may have inhaled some nastiness during my vomiting. It just got worse and worse as the day went on. I was not able to sleep at all. Every time I layed down my breathing became very difficult. Then around 1:30 am, or so, it didn't matter whether I was laying down or not. My lips were getting tingly and the tips of my fingers. I looked in the mirror and the outer edges of my lips looked purple. I thought I had the beginnings of pneumonia or something like that.

I finally woke up Ray and told him that I needed to go to the ER. The drive seemed to take forever and my breathing seemed to become more and more difficult. I honestly thought I was going to pass out before we got there. I was sucking and sucking in air and it felt like I was barely getting anything. Luckily, once we got there, they got me right back to a room very quickly. From what they told me later, they thought from all my symptoms, that I may have a blood clot on my lung.

First they put me on all the monitors and did an EKG. I kept telling them it wasn't a heart attack, but they said the symptoms are different in men and women. They sent me for a cat scan (I don't even want to know how much that is gonna cost) and that's where they found what was going on. My lungs looked fine, however the wall surrounding my chest area was swollen. I have pleurisy. Great...I'm not exactly sure what that means, but they gave me some meds and a breathing treatment and I felt much better. So they sent me home with an inhaler, and 3 prescriptions. Hopefully, I will be over this thing quickly because the pain is just terrible. The good news, yes, there is good news...I lost 6 pounds during those 2 days. LOL

Now, the pain medication they prescribed was percocet. Let me tell you, I am not very good with pain meds. They tend to hit me twice as hard as they do other people. So this stuff makes me a bit loopy and nauseous. But the pain is pretty bad, so if I don't have to do any driving I'll be taking the stuff. The other good thing is that the quesiness the pills give me will keep my appetite down. LOL Well, they say to be positive and look at the good side of everything, right?

Okay, well I'm sure I've bored you enough with our sicky stories. Oh, by the way, yes, it did hit Ray. He had just the "bad booty" stuff for one night and he was better in the morning. Good thing, because I would not have been able to deal with him being terrible sick too.

Have a great day and stay healthy!
Hugs,
Jill Marie