Over the last two weeks my entire household came down with the flu. A high fever. Body aches. Chills followed by sweating half to death. And, a few days in, a hacking cough that mostly wanted to come out at night – guaranteeing that no one got any sleep. We rejected the Tamiflu offered by the doctor and toughed it out ourselves. That, of course, led to a visit to Dr Google and the inevitable old-time flu remedies.
A Local Cure
One NSB local from way back mentioned the 1-2 punch of Vapo Rub on the chest and ingesting a sugar/honey/lemon and whiskey combo that we all hear about. A suggested flu-cure from the 1800s was to place onions all over the house to “absorb” the flu virus. Another twist on the whiskey-remedy is cinnamon, ginger and bourbon. And there were multiple suggestions about gargling with salt water.
Lemons
Reasons to Stay off the Internet
Another concerning suggestion was to boil and onion and then drink the water. And one page suggested using ear wax to moisturize chapped lips. Another said to put a a half of an onion in each sock. (What is it with onions? Do they really having a healing power? Obviously someone thought so!)
Zinc is thought of as the best way to ward off a cold – and one suggestion involved eating a lot of oysters, bc they’re loaded with zinc. While I’ve been known to put some oysters away I couldn’t imagine eating them last week when my stomach was barely tolerating rice.
Do you have a guaranteed cold or flu remedy? Something strange? Or just the rest suggested by a doctor?
We drank a lot of water and Gatorade, took naps every day (sometimes twice a day!) and indulged in my father-in-law’s homemade chicken noodle soup. It was a long 10 days, but we seem to be back on our feet. 