Day 40 and Feeling Like Cr*p

Here it is, about 20 days away from the end of the 60-day Challenge.  And I'm not doing a darn thing.  I fully intended to get busy, but then I ... got busy.  And I got sick.  So now I don't feel like doing anything.

I seem to have the annual tradition of getting a horrible cold.  It starts in my head, where I feel kind of "odd" for a few hours, then the congestion hits, and I start sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose a lot.  And then it gets worse.

Back in 1995, when I was pregnant with my third child, I got really sick.  I tend to avoid doctors as much as possible, but when it reached the point where every breath was so painful I wanted to cry, I went in.  Turns out I had pneumonia AND pleurisy.  Not a fun combination.  I am pretty sure that's when this cold thing became an annual beginning-of-summer/change-of-weather tradition.  And because of that, it always ends up being a horrible chest cold.

In my experience, this thing always lasts at least 2 weeks and often 3, and I spend several days coughing so much that I think one of my lungs will finally come up my throat.  Sometimes I do cough enough to throw up.  I go through a LOT of tissues.  I start stealing and hoarding all the pillows I can find, so I can try to make myself a recliner in bed with which to sleep propped up.  I dose myself with Nyquil so I can actually get some sleep.

I'm now to the stage where the glands in my neck are swollen and painful, and I can feel the congestion settling into my lungs.  I'm really hoping this time around I can beat it, but we shall see.  I'm trying to take vitamins/herbs/supplements to counteract this nemesis, but I'm also pretty forgetful.  Some of the things I have been, or should be taking or using are as follows:

• Colloidal silver.  You can buy this at many places, but we actually make our own.  It's pretty awesome stuff.
• Vitamin C.  I was completely out and just bought some more yesterday, so now I have to remember to take megadoses of this wonderful vitamin.
• Immune supporting herb combination capsules.  I had a couple different brands of these, but they contain things like echinacea, goldenseal, myrrh, and other stuff that I can't remember right now.
• Herbal teas, made with things like yarrow, mullein, rabbit tobacco, mint, and whatever else I feel like adding to the mix.  Most of these are herbs that I wild harvested and dried myself!
• Garlic.  Like, a half a head of garlic to a pint of soup.  Yum!
• Broth.  Good, homemade broth, from whatever animal I've recently eaten; chicken, pheasant, goat.  I like to add onion, garlic, and ginger to the broth.
• Congestion rub.  Something like Vick's, but without all the nasty petroleum stuff in it.  I found a recipe online, and made some myself.  My husband said it needed to smell like eucalyptus, though, to be "real", so I added some essential oils to the finished product.

I'm sure there are other things I could be doing, but I can't remember any of them right now.  Oh yeah, SLEEP! I should be doing a lot more of that!  Like, right now, in fact.

Please add to my list in the comment section.  Maybe I'll actually try some of them!