Organic-Ally

Husband came back from work on Tuesday looking rather rough. One eye was bloodshot. He went to bed early. We both had a difficult night. I was up blowing my nose, struggling to breathe, etc. He was up counting the hours to the next lot of pain-killers. Next morning he was aching all over and so stayed in bed. It is difficult enough when a husband who has been as healthy as he could be suddenly finds himself not able to get out of bed. But I found that I was now also full of cold and feeling extreme tiredness. So after school drop-off I too went to have a snooze to make up for the rather sleepless night we had. I tried to get life back to 'normal' as much as I could. But husband appeared to be deteriorating and at one point was groaning in some pain. So it was decided that we needed a doctor to call. But it was "too late" for our GP practice to send a doctor. We had to wait for some three hours till "after hours" for the out-of-hours Harmoni doctor to call. W...

Didn't really kick in this year till about two weeks ago. Even then it has not been at all bad. But Saturday was a different story. Cousin has flown in to see her supervisor. As she often does, she took us out for a meal and we went to a nice Thai restaurant. Good food it was. Took my anti-histamine pill as usual. Fell asleep at some point. Then at about midnight it seemed, fireworks went off. Someone close by were letting off fireworks with loud bangs at every second for a while. Why do people wait till midnight to do this? And to celebrate what? Totally inconsiderate. Any way, didn't manage to get back to sleep with my nose thickening up. After getting up every minute or so to blow my nose into hankies which were getting sodden, it was time to move into the bathroom. I sit on the 'throne' reading, and blow my nose into the sink whenever necessary. Dab hot water all over the face. That way it gets a 'steaming' effect and the tubes are cleared a little. I read m...

It's the not-so-very-nice hay fever season. Thankfully I have yet to run out of hankies as I did last year. Apart from a constantly blocked nose which then occasionally runs like a tap -- but the congestion does not clear up -- this year's effect was felt more in the (teary) eyes and (itching) throat. Basically it's horrid. Worse, son seems to have developed symptoms. He's only seven. A friend said we must move to Spain to get rid of the hay fever symptoms. Truth is, the plan is to spend more holiday time in Singapore. Not so much for the weather (hot, humid, hotter, more humid), but for culture. My son needs to learn more about the culture that his mum grew up in, or at best, some of what she remembers of it. The current Singapore is so different from the one she left 16 years ago. The past two weeks have been horrendously busy. Last week we had a briefing meeting for parents whose sons are going into 'Middle School'. It's a totally new world from Junior Sc...

Hayfever bad over last weekend. It was so bad last Friday I used up all my hankies (could not turn them around quickly enough). Even borrowed some of my son's old hankies. When even these ran out, I had to resort to paper. Big mistake. Nose was already pink from constant pressure of nose-blowing. Within minutes of using paper, nose turned a bright red. It was painful and I had to take to bed. Sunday morning was still bad and I had to take to bed instead of going to church. Monday morning, met my ladies for prayer as usual and they prayed for some relief for me. Found myself saying, 'It's not that bad because I know it's not going to last forever.' Have been trying a new regime now for the week: (1) wipe nose with soft cloth hankie (organic cotton of course), (2) smear Vaseline all over nose area to prevent chafing and inside nostrils to trap pollen, and (3) slick on some Vicks Vapourub if necessary to clear the air channels. High pollen count in the last few days bu...