Sheesh.  I have no one to blame but myself.  Imagine that.  Six days ago I mowed the yard and a few hours later got a scratchy throat and dry cough.  I went to bed and woke up in full blown sinus and chest congestion.  Ok, hay fever I thought, and I used my neti pot, upped my Vitamin C in case it was a cold and began drinking my Breathe Easy tea.  I didn’t think much more of it, it’ll pass in a day or two.  But it didn’t.  By day 3, I was coughing a lot with filled sinuses and a giant sinus pressure headache, as well as feeling I had broken ribs from the coughing.  I ran out of steam within 4-5 hours of getting up.  I’d slept 16 hours a day for the first 3 days.  But I was so wrapped up in the final layout of the July Horizons that I didn’t stop to think – now what do I know about this sinus/coughing thang?  On day 5 I asked on Facebook, “Ok, day 5 of a heavily congested chest – help! What REALLY works to clear it?” When the first person mentioned Mucinex, my first thought was – “I don’t know if I want to be putting chemicals in my body.”   When I researched to see what was in it and saw the word guaifenesin, something clicked in my brain.  It occurred to me to search my blog to see if I’d mentioned it before.  I was surprised to find I’d written just 4 months ago Guaifenesin – Generic Mucinex – to the Rescue.

Now, granted, when I write my blog posts, many are just thoughts floating through my head that I haven’t given much thought time to.  I don’t expect to remember those.  But I’d like to remember the helpful ones, like that if I began taking the Mucinex 4 days ago I might have cleared it up sooner.   But I just gave it no real thought time.  Since the mucous was thin and clear, I knew it wasn’t a viral or bacterial infection, but there was so much of it.  But I was wrapped up in phone calls and typing nonstop and at the end of the day just wanted to crash and not think.

So this is what I get for not thinking. And it doesn’t help that I forget to open the medicine cabinet door to remind myself of all the sinus stuff I keep on hand.  It’s mostly that I just don’t make the time to give the matter any thought – which is always what calls forth an answer.  And I know better.

Except for the feeling like I’m drowning part, it hasn’t been too bad.  I’d been stressed the week before and so I was ripe to attract the hay fever reaction.  If that’s what it was. It also occurs to me that I’ve been eating really lightly the past 2 weeks, partially because of no appetite and partially because I’m in this experiment to see how particular foods act in my system.  So maybe it’s a result of that as well, a detoxing reaction.  (Yay! No appetite! I’ve lost 11 pounds in the last 11 days!)

Whatever it is, I could have WAY lessened the time I had it if I’d just made the time the first day to stop and think “What do I know about this?”

That also works for any problems and conflicts, too, “what do I know about this?”

Because if I don’t ask, I may not hear the answer.