I just woke up one morning to an itchy throat. I don't know how I got it. I have several suspects:
1.) My water bottle spending too much time in the refrigerator mingling with Godzilla-Knows-What.
2.) Maybe it's time the electric fan got dusted.
3.) Unwashed fruit that went straight into my mouth.
The last bit comes from the bad habit of acting like every fruit I pop into my mouth came straight from the tree. It's not usually a problem when the fruit comes with natural packaging (oranges, bananas, lansones); or if someone else had the gumption to wash the fruit before I grabbed it. On normal days, my immune system is epic. Unfortunately, pregnancy gives you a -3 modifier to CON.
The doctor said something months ago about going straight to her if I got sick, as a 3 day cold could turn into pneumonia for the baby.
My friend google says otherwise, that the disease won't cross the placenta since it's respiratory, but that my antibodies would.
Who to trust, google or doktora?
On the second day of the sore throat, Mommy went on a mini trek to the family farm over the weekend to pick wild guavas. Figured maybe the sun and air would fix me.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
The guavas I don't regret. We gave the caretaker's 10 year-old a 20-peso bill to climb the trees for us while we waited below, growing more and more conscious of the fact that while the kid was a nimble monkey, we were a bunch of land loving butanding's. *Sob* I used to be a nimble monkey T_T
We got a big basket full that maternal lola said was enough for a jar of guava jelly. By the time I was through with the basket, we didn't even have enough for a tablespoon of jelly. Sorry guys. No guava jelly experiment from this blog yet. Maybe next time.
But I do regret the trek. Maybe halfway was healthy. The whole back and forth was not. Babycenter.com says baby should be weighing the same as an average cantaloupe by now. Baby certainly feels like a watermelon. Imagine walking a total of 40 miles while balancing a whole watermelon on your tummy. I've been having pains in my upper abdomen again since then, so I'm on bed rest on top of being sick.
We would've rested. But lola and I were so engrossed in heated debate over how to deal with feudalism in the country that resting was the farthest thing from our minds.
Lola has a situation at home with the help that made me seriously reconsider getting the customary yaya like most filipino parents. But that's a topic for a different blog post.
On the third day of disease with no signs of it letting its grip on my throat loose and my nose starting to congest, mother called the doctor. She prescribed antibiotics.
Foo.
If she was resorting to antibiotics, we figured a little folk medicine wouldn't hurt. Yes. I trust google more than doktora.
Maternal lola got me hunched over a steaming pot of Boongon leaves and covered me over with a comforter. DIY Sauna/instant ghost costume ftw!
With the throat and nostrils starting to clear, I took a warm bath (seemed like a waste to throw the herby water away after the steam was all gone) and then had the most glorious nap in the history of naps.
I woke up with a dry cough that made swallowing painful.
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| close enough |
The phlegm was starting to come out in thick disgusting blotches, so I got some ginger tea brewing to help it along, as well as soothe the throat. It works so well I wish I had a steaming ginger tea fountain by the bed.
By evening, my throat was feeling significantly better and the congestion was melting and runny. Take a second to imagine that. Maternal lola got me into the DIY sauna again, and I soaked my feet into the water.
You'd think with this kind of treatment, Mommy would feel like a pampered tribal princess.
I realize that for all the warnings about the painful kicking, now that it actually hurts, it's not so bad. You'd think 90% of the pregnancy would have me moaning and groaning over the alien poking and prodding from inside as if I was breeding Edward Scissorhands, but no. It's only the 10% that the kid seemingly transforms into Wolverine. That's what it feels like in there sometimes - like he's armed with knives.
So no, the spa treatment is a respite from knives and the incredible heaviness of baby's being.
But I have good news. I woke up today, on the fourth day of my incarceration, and the sore throat was no more!
I still have a runny nose though, and insomnia. Meanwhile, kid moves with all the energy in the world, unfazed and hopefully unaffected.
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| This is actually a good thing. I think. |
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