Morning has broken...

Ellie's fever finally broke last night and with it her appetite returned. She is still coughing a lot, but not every waking moment, and is still tired and snotty but definitely on the mend. She is playing more and in good spirits. The antibiotics seem to be working which is good because I hate giving her antibiotics, especially before it was established that her pneumonia was bacterial or viral.

Here are the others things I have been giving her to help her fight the pneumonia and heal:

1. Essential Oils of eucalyptus and lavender and frankincense in her humidifier. The eucalyptus helps to open her airways and lungs. Lavender because it is especially anti viral and helps her relax, and frankincense because that is what my gut told me to give her. We had been using frankincense (one drop to 3 drops olive oil) on her feet because it brings oxygen to the brain as it is a turpenoid (not sure I have spelled that right). I am not sure if it is helping here, but my inner voice kept telling me to put it in her humidifier last night so I did. If you don’t know what an inner voice is, first of all I am so sorry for you, second of all, don’t worry because your are probably hearing it all the time, especially when you are about to do something you should not. So just listen up and you will find yours quite useful.

A word on essential oils:

My friend Pey, who is an excellent aroma-therapist, advised me to only give them to Ellie 6 days a week and then give her a rest. They are pretty intense and you never put them on a child directly or internally! Dilute, dilute, dilute! This is why they go in her humidifier and just a few drops are necessary.

If you are buying them, make sure they are organic and wild crafted. Whole Foods carries some commercial brands, but these lose their effectiveness in the mass production. Essential oils effect a person’s energy and body and emotions. In the US I get them from my friend Kerry at Useful Weeds. You can also order them for Materia Aromatica in the UK.

2. Freshly squeezed vegetable juices: carrot, beet, ginger, garlic juice once a day and given directly after being juiced. All of these provide live enzymes to help her system overall. The ginger will help her body burn out the infection in her lungs and garlic, especially fresh squeezed is an excellent antiviral, antibacterial, anti fungal, anti most bad stuff that effects the body. If I weren’t chickenshit I could have just tried giving Ellie these things instead of the antibiotic. But I am chickenshit and did want to experiment on her in this way especially since she was so sick. NOTE: The first day on the juices I used 1/3 freshly juiced combo as described above to 2/3 filtered water. Two days after that I used a 50/50 ratio. I cut the juice because this combination is very strong for a child.

3. Stopped giving her the goat's milk formula she normally gets as it was making her too gunky as most milk products are phlegm inducing.

4. Giving her the whey protein I described here. I am happy to report she is doing great on it. Even though whey is a derivative of milk - remember curds and whey - it does not contain lactic acid which is the thing in milk responsible for making people allergic to it, phlegm being one of the major symptoms of lactose intolerance.

5. Chest PT – meaning with a cupped hand you tap her rib cage in order to loosen up the phlegm in her lungs. The nurses showed me how to do this. I am so glad to have the nursing care when Ellie is sick because, especially in this instance, it is the only thing keeping us out of the hospital.

6. Red Lentil, beet, carrot, garlic soup – very watered down for some easy to digest and nutrient rich calories and more garlic.

7. Water and more water as well as watered down cereal. When Ellie was going through the worst of this on Monday and Tuesday she could not handle any solids and her system just needed fluids to keep all that phlegm moving up and out.

8. Tylenol Infant Drops. See, I walked both paths here – allopathic and naturopathic. Sacrilege I know, but she was in pain and coughing constantly and when her fever got up there I gave it to her and she was able to sleep. I was also able to sleep without the fear that her fever would get high during the night without me knowing it.

9. Flovent. The doctors prescribed this steroid to help open up her lungs and bring up the phlegm. It works even though it is difficult to administer.

10. Lots of hugs and love and sleep. I have been covered in Ellie who could only stop coughing if she were on her side on my chest. So there we were for a couple of days. I have never been covered in so much snot since I was probably her age. Sigh.

I am very happy to say that she is doing much, much better and able to laugh once again even though it makes her cough, which is a good thing to get all the “yuckies” out of her lungs.

Here are some more pictures of our trip. The first pic is of Ellie all dressed in a red velvet dress at her Nanny’s wedding. Someone else asked me what the hyperbaric tank looked like and you can see it here with Column (sorry to misspell your name!) Column volunteers his time to run the chamber for Advance. He is an ex-diver among other things. I think he is also an ex- 007 type, but he won’t admit to it. There are 3-4 gentlemen at Advance who volunteer their time to help out with the Hyperbaric chamber. Thanks to all of them. The last picture is of Ellie and Great Grandmother Bridie. Bridie is having a little "nurse" with Ellie. "Nurse" being the Irish phrase for having a snuggle. Ellie loves being the center of attention and getting lots of love from all manner of Grannies, Grandpas, Aunties and Uncles and Great Uncles and cousins in Ireland when we visit her family there. Wish we weren't so far away.

Disclaimer: These are the things I am doing to help Ellie get better but I am not writing this post to recommend these things for anyone else. Work with your own medical or naturopathic practitioners and your own inner guidance to help your child or yourself. I am just a mom when it comes to this, not an expert. This post might give you some helpful ideas but that is all it is intended to do as well as to let everyone who cares know that our little warrior princess has conquered pneumonia (because she so rocks!).