The photo below is my Chest X-ray. And yes it does not look good. As of this writing I am already on medication for Pneumonia for 3 days. Although I am considering this as Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis due to allergies.

I just want to share my experience about taking both herbal medicine and conventional medicine and why they should go together and how they contributed to my healing.

My illness started on June 10, it started with a sore throat. As a nurse, I am educated more regarding conventional medicine but I also do not discount the facts that herbal medicines have cured a lot of people too. I also know that conventional medicine, if not taken properly can do more harm than good, but so does herbal medicine.

During the course of my illness, I never took any conventional medicine instead I resorted to drinking lemon with honey and a teaspoon of turmeric every morning. It made me feel better. And I think it really did well on making me feel better that I cough less often and never had the sore throat again for the following weeks thereafter.

After two weeks, about the first week of July, my children acquired flu although having been immunized for flu. But due to their immunization, they did not have fever but only presented symptoms such as cough and runny nose. A few days after my husband also had the flu, apart from the cough and runny nose, he also complained of muscle weakness and fatigue.

My whole family now had the flu except me, I thought I was feeling fine, I never had muscle weakness nor fatigue except for occasional coughing and sneezing, which I thought was due to my allergic rhinitis.

Until last July 15, when I felt like I have sore throat again. And so I thought the magic remedy of lemon and honey with turmeric will be there to rescue. But the coughing won't go away, and whenever I cough I feel like it wants to suck all my lungs out. i really felt terrible.

I tried to observe my self for a few more days, I was considering it as an allergy, because where I work, in the print shop, there were lots of allergens. And I also have the same case of inflamed lungs due to allergies way back in 2008.

In the afternoon, my coughing got worse but in the morning I felt better. I usually drink my herbal tea in the morning, so I thought maybe I have to drink it in the evening too. But it really did me no good. On July 18 I finally decided to have a checkup, I was already feeling so weak that morning. Like I don't have energy to do any household chores, and lying down made me feel better.

My internist told me it was really allergies that was causing my cough, but gave me medications and and antibiotics for prophylaxis. On my way to the X-ray, I can hardly talk to the technician due to my persistent cough. And the results was set to be released the following day.

So I bought my medicines, immediately took Klaricort for my allergies and so the coughing subsided temporarily. I then went home and nebulized with Salbutamol. I guess rest was all I needed that time.

As a nurse, I was exposed to different kinds of physicians, some who were there to really help, some who were they only for the money. Due to my previous experiences, I find it hard to trust a doctor, unless they have really gained my trust, just like my children's pediatrician. and my OB. And this was the reason why I resorted to using herbal remedies instead, because I haven't found an internist that I can really trust.

Lesson of the story, it is acceptable to use herbal remedies to cure one's illness but we should also use conventional medicine to help us diagnose the sickness and provide the correct medication for our illness. I was feeling so healthy because of the herbal remedies I was taking but inside of me my lungs was slowly getting sicker and sicker as time goes by.

And of course, prevention is always better than cure. ;-)

My follow up check up is due tomorrow so I will be updating this page after my internist reviewed my X-ray results.

For the meantime, you can share you experiences on taking herbal remedies and conventional medicine on the comments section below. :-)


This was the exact honey I used:

This was still straight from my mom's balikbayan box.

I purchased lemon from Robinsons or KCC. It costs 30 pesos each in Robinsons and 22 pesos each at KCC.

My children loves to eat cookies, I mean who doesn't? But they are picky eaters as well, especially my youngest. So on finding snacks and food to feed them, it has to be delicious and it has to suit their taste.

My daughters love the taste of butter, so I decided to make butter cookies and looked for a great recipe that is easy to make and can use up the ingredients in our pantry.

So here it is, the Melt in your Mouth Butter Cookie Recipe:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup or 1 1/2 stick of  (Elle & Vire) butter, softened, preferrably unsalted
1 cup Sugar

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla


Instructions:

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

2. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar using an electric mixer at medium high speed until mixture gets pale and fluffy. Then beat in egg and vanilla.

3. Reduce mixer to low speed, then add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.

4. Form dough into a 12-inch log (2 inches in diameter) on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll up dough in plastic wrap. Chill dough on a baking sheet until firm, at least 4 hours.

4. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.

5. Cut enough 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick slices from log with a heavy knife to fill 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging slices about 1 inch apart (chill remainder of log, wrapped in plastic wrap). If garnishing with coarse sugar, sprinkle slices with it.

6. Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes total. Cool on sheets 3 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies with remaining dough on cooled baking sheets.

Disclaimer: This recipe is derived  from Epicurious.com

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 I have always been on a quest for finding foods that my little toddler girl would eat. She really is a picky eater and with her sweet tooth most of the time, what she consumes are the unhealthy staple food from the supermarket, such as cookies and cake. We all know that these foods are processed and contains synthetic sugars which are not advisable for children and adults alike.

So while surfing the web, I stumbled on the use of oat flour, which I believe is way better than all purpose flour which is made from wheat. And since oats have more health benefits than wheat flour, I decided to use it for baking and making treats for my picky toddler.

Filipino Polvoron is one of my favorite dessert, I had my little toddler Chamomile try it. She liked the House of Polvoron Classic Flavor, so I thought of making her polvoron out of oat flour. And I'd like to share with you my recipe.

Haven't posted on this blog for quite a while, been busy with my other sites and attending to my toddler who has skin asthma. So in my attempt to make healthy food for my children especially for my toddler I tried to test different cookie recipes, because she loves to eat cookies. And since almost all cookies from the supermarket are jam packed with unhealthy sugars, I decided to bake their cookies from scratch.

I really love Anzac cookies so I made my own version and replaced the dessicated coconut with bananas instead. And oh they are really yummy, I lessened the sugar because bananas are already sweet and I don't want my cookies to be too sweet because it may make my kiddos hyperactive.

I am the type of cook who like to cook recipes that are easy to cook and light on the budget. So this first recipe for my 15 Minute Recipe series, is something that is made out of ingredients that are readily available in my fridge. As of this writing, I have corn and beef inside the fridge, so I made up something out of it and here it is: Stir Fried Beef and Corn.