Home Remedies

Hi, Y'all,
In case you are wondering about the title of today's posting - I stopped at my brother, Hugh's, house on my way home from having taken my stress test at the cardiologist's. We started talking about how our mom would dose us up with all kinds of home remedies when we were ill.

We got on to the subject when I was telling him how Gramps did not want to get up this morning because he said his head was hurting. I gave him a couple of tylenol capsules and told him to sleep another hour. He got up about 10 a.m. and I had to leave at 11 a.m. for my appointed time at the vascular heart and lung clinic at U.T. Hospital. I decided to leave him alone with asking Mark to check on him in mid afternoon.

So, there we were (Hugh, Imazo, and I) talking about our mom's home remedies. Hugh brought up a home cure that I had not thought about in years: Musterole. It was used to rub on the chest or neck to open up pores and treat the common cold or sprains, or any ailment that one might have. it burned like the dickens, and the main ingredient was, I believe, oil of mustard. Many people swore by it and believed devoutly in its ability to cure anything that ailed you.

Then we got to talking about other remedies, like castor oil. Ugh! I can remember taking that stuff if I had a belly ache. If you weren't in bad shape when you took it, it wouldn't be long until you were. We were also given a spoonful of sugar with a few drops of turpentine in it to cure colds. I think we recovered out of sheer desperation not to be given the cure anymore. Another cold medicine was Vicks Vaporub which was put into the nostril, also a small peasize amount was swallowed, and some was put onto a cloth and applied to the chest. We also put some in hot water and inhale the vapors with our head over the water and head covered with a towel so that we could get the full effect of the vapors.

Another solution for colds was camphorated oil, put onto a cloth and then applied to the childish chest and boy, did it ever stink! It was awful to go to school the following day with that smell clinging to the clothing. I have also heard of asefedita bags, but we never had to go through that stinky stuff.

Let me tell you now about a chemical stress test, in case you have never had one. The first thing they do after you fill out a questionnaire, is to take you back into a room where you get a thing put into your vein so that they can inject you with whatever they are going to use. Then you get to put on a hospital gown and tie it (in front, of course) and a wrapper to go overthe gown, but still opening in front. This is so that later they can put the sticky pads on your chest to hook up to a heart monitor later. I came out of the dressing room with my hands up like Rocky Balboa, doing the "da da da, da da da" theme song. Of course, the other ladies that were in there waiting with me, laughed. (My intention, of course, was to get that reaction.)

The next thing they do is inject a radioactive dye into your vein so that they can place you on a table and let a machine move over your chest and take pictures of the action inside the heart, showing where the dye goes. You wait for 20 minutes in a waiting room for the dye to get where it needs to go. When you do get to the picture taking room, you have to lie on your back, with your arms resting above your head and the machine goes back and forth taking pictures for about 15 or 20 minutes. Inevitably, your nose or the inside of your ear will begin to itch and you can't scratch it (at least, mine did). Just when you think you are going to die of the itching, the machine stops and you arise and go into another room.

You lie on your back once more and the afore mentioned pads are attatched to the various places on the chest, and you are hooked up to the ekg machine, and a blood pressure cuff checks your pressure; then they hook up the IV and begin a six and 1/2 minute injection of adenosine which simulates the same reaction in your body that walking on the treadmill would produce. The top of your head feels like it is coming off (major headache), you feel tightness in the throat and chest, shortness of breath. It comes and goes, and then three minutes into the IV, the nurse comes in and injects another dye which is used to do more pictures later. The last 3 and 1/2 minutes of the adenosine is continued.

After the six and 1/2 minutes is up, and you begin to feel normal again,you are unhooked from the IV, the needle is removed and you are allowed to go into a waiting area for about 20 minutes,where you get to eat a snack and drink some juice or milk. I had brought a Fiber Choice breakfast bar with me, so I ate that and drank a small carton of milk and read the book that I had carried in with me.

After that 20 minute period was up, back to the table to do the second 20 minutes picture taking. More stillness. More nose itchiness. While you are in the picture taking room, you have 3 of the leads on your chest hooked up to the ekg machine. After the picture taking is over, you get to go back to the dressing room, get dressed and then leave.

I hope all of this is well-described to you. Probably many of you have had this procedure done. It is not a great deal of fun - but not too bad either.

I stopped on the way home and visited a couple of minutes with Hugh and Imazo, and then stopped at Buddy's Bar-b-q and took our supper home with me. Yum.

Just a few minutes ago, I put some BIO FREEZE on Gramps neck and hopefully it will help the pain in his neck lessen. That is about all for this evening. I am quite tired, but doing okay otherwise. This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for the night. More tomorrow. Love to all. Bye for now.