Using egg white under feet to lower a high temperature

Yeah, sounds really odd, but mothers get into a panic when their children have a fever and they try anything to help their children. Basti was really ill last night and I was searching the Internet for some answers, help, or tips, and I came across a site called Earth Clinic and a post about a home remedy using egg whites under the feet to reduce a fever quickly.

I did not get to try the fever reducing egg white home remedy, as I'd already tried a whole bunch of other things to bring Basti's high temperature down, and one or some of them must have worked, because when I took his temperature again, it was down. Had it not been down, I would have certainly tried putting sloshy egg whites under his feet. I would have tried just about anything.

The Earth Clinic site does have a disclaimer saying that what they write, or that people comments (who comment on what is written or what others write) should basically not be the end of looking for answers and that a doctor should be the one to be contacted for a completely correct diagnosis and proper treatment, but I was still blown away at how many people were commenting about how the egg white remedy was working or had worked on themselves or on their children, and, in most cases, it seemed to work very quickly.

Mothers (and parents in general) get really desperate when their children are ill. A very high fever can result in fits, and possible brain damage.

I took both boys to the doctor yesterday morning as Basti in particular had a high temperature and sore throat. His face and whole body was hot; his lips were dry.

No infection as such was discovered, and the doctor was reluctant to prescribe antibiotics. When I convinced her to, she said not to use the antibiotics for a day or two to first see how Basti was improving without them, but he got worse and worse and I started using the antibiotics yesterday afternoon.

This is how the evening progressed from 8pm onwards:

8pm temp 39.5

9pm temp 39.8
gave Ponstan

9.15pm temp 39.5

10.45pm temp 39.8

Every 20 to 30 minutes during the above I was giving Basti water to drink and wiping his head, face, neck, throat, ankles and under his arms with a cloth with cold water. And I would leave a folded damp cold cloth on his forehead inbetween, even though it (the cloth) generally warmed up within 5 minutes.

11.pm made him take a shower (on his own; he's 12 and capable even if feeling miserable) in very lukewarm water, bordering on cold, and change into dry clean clothes. I stood outside the door to listen and shout instructions to make sure he stood under the shower spray for about 3 minutes, even though he was moaning he was so cold.

11.10pm temp 39.5
gave Ponstan syrup, left cool cloth on head, put towel on pillow

11.40pm temp 39.4
gave half a glass of water

00.50am temp 38.3
had Basti change his tshirt as wet with sweat
gave half a glass of water and Ponstan syrup

4.40am temp 37.00
gave half a glass of water, Demezin, and Ponstan syrup;
change tshirt and towel on pillow

9.00am temp 36.7
after breakfast gave antibiotic, a bronchodialor syrup, and a Ponstel tablet

Keeping an eye on Basti and making him stay pretty calm; he's chesty and back in bed now (11am), after having played on the computer for half an hour, and writing a blog post for his own blog about how he felt last night. Will be posting it for him shortly. Update: here's Basti's blog post about his high temperature.

During this bout of illness, Zooty's temperature has not yet gone above 37.7 and let's hope and pray it stays that way.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

Car wheels spashing in water from a burst water pipe in East London

I enjoyed taking these photos this morning of cars slooshing through water that was running across the road from a burst water pipe, in Garcia Street, Cambridge, near to where we live.  I couldn't get too close (to the cars) for fear of my camera getting wet, and I don't have a zoom lens, but I'm quite happy with these photos.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

More on the burst pipe matter:

Daily Dispatch DispatchNow blog - Well done BCM!

Burst water pipe lifts concrete gutter and floods road

Broken concrete gutter and wet road

I wanted dad to let go of my leash

We boil our drinking water here in South Africa

Not that we drink much water on it's own, actually, and we still find ourselves just opening the tap to fill a glass with water when we want to swallow a tablet, or mix it with cooldrink mix for the boys' school lunches, but we boil water quite regularly because we drink a lot of coffee. Thinking of coffee and tablets, and water, sometimes we will even let our coffee cool a bit, and use that to swallow a tablet - swallowing tablets usually calls for quite a large gulp, especially when there's large capsules involved, or pills that taste absolutely disgusting and dissolve in the mouth too quickly.

Apparently the drinking water in South Africa, from dams, is still relatively okay and healthy, so we drink it from time to time without doing anything extra to it - and it hasn't killed the dogs in the household yet either, so we assume it's pretty much okay. Doesn't taste too wonderful though. We really ought to start drinking more water - it's so beneficial for so many different aspects of life - not to mention survival, and I guess, if we do (start drinking more water), we'll probably buy bottled water from supermarkets, and we'll know it's been purified already, or, who knows, down the line we might get our own home water purifier - or, what's wrong with just boiling it (water from the taps in one's home) - isn't that enough to kill any germs? Baby's bottles are often cleaned and sterilized in just boiling water, so maybe it's enough to do that - but, hey, it's always so much easier, and yummier, to switch the kettle on, add coffee, milk and sugar to a cup, with boiling water, and sit back and relax with a good cup of coffee - so much better than swallowing tablets with cold drinking water from taps!

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010