Monday, February 04, 2008

hot, sweaty thoughts

I got sick Friday afternoon, just in time for the weekend. I caught some version of what R has had all week. Mine came with coughing, loss of voice, and the always reliable sore throat. Of course it has gotten worse instead of better, and here we are at 5am (I've been up for 2 hours) googling homeopathic sore throat remedies.

Well I'm here to tell you to BELIEVE WHAT YOU READ ON THE INTERNET PEOPLE, because I spent about an hour reading a website with testimonial after testimonial swearing by the magical sore-throat-healing powers of cayenne pepper and/or apple cider vinegar. I was vainly looking for a more attractive remedy, say rose petals and honey. But no, cayenne pepper it was. As I quietly rifled through the spice cabinet, it didn't take me long to realize that of COURSE I didn't have cayenne, ACV, garlic, or even tabasco, other popular remedies a la internet. I hate hot shit. I scrambled back to my laptop, all the while trying so hard not to swallow (oh the pain), and desperately searched until I found someone saying that any hot pepper will do, not just cayenne.

Back to the kitchen I go. This time I mix up a hot tea concoction with generous amounts of honey and about 1/2 tsp of chile powder. First I gargle it, and when I find it doesn't burn my mouth as I feared, I start swallowing it. And I'm here to tell you that it works -- to some degree. I am not healed, but I can swallow now which is such sweet relief I can't even tell you, and THE COUGHING HAS STOPPED . I'll definitely make it until morning now, until I can go to the doctor (like any responsible adult) and get more serious meds, if necessary.

The only drawback I can see at this point is that I'm sweating. Like, my insides are sweating.
Go, chile powder.

1 comment:

Nicole said...

Wow. That actually sounds a lot like the same ingredients as a "cleanse" I was going to try recently. Glad it worked for your throat! Hopefully you and R will be better soon!