After the Fever
Ray and I were supposed to be in Puerta Vallarta last month, for a whole week. We had bid on the trip (not our norm) to support The Study Hall, an after school program for underprivileged kids that Ray has been actively involved with for 15 years. No one else placed a bid.
We were supposed to go last year but put it off for a year, due to Covid, so we'd been thinking about it for two years now. We planned to snorkel, fish and even to swim with the dolphins!
A week before we were scheduled to fly to Mexico, Ray came down with a fever. A test showed that he didn’t have Covid. He had no other symptoms. That first night, it went up to 103.5. I called for reassurance from my naturopath, Helen, and did the things she'd taught me to do with my kids when they had fevers. I put cool wet socks on his feet, to pull the fever away from his brain, and gave him homeopathic fever/infection drops. Another good thing to do is to take a lukewarm bath, but he just couldn't bear the thought of that. The fever never rose above 103 again, but for the next six days, it would go from 99 to 103 over the course of each day. I have learned from several sources, over the past few decades, how beneficial it can be to your immune system and in fighting bacteria to allow your body to have a fever (to a point of course.) Here is a NY Times article about fever that may surprise you.
Despite the lack of bullseye bites anywhere on his body (there were still bite marks,) we continued the Lyme protocol that we'd been doing since our camping trip a few weeks earlier. We’d been covered in seed ticks and decided to assume we may have Lyme and start treatment right away. He got a Lyme test but hasn’t yet received the results. Ray has been back to normal for a week now. He is continuing the Lyme protocol, just to be sure. The fever seems to have helped him to heal. He never showed signs of being affected in his brain, at all. He was shocked by how lucid he still felt even while it was so high.
I would not wish this worrisome week on anyone.
But, there were some silver linings.
I am in training to become an enneagram coach. I have taken one intensive workshop. The next five-day intensive class I needed was happening while we were in Puerta Vallarta. Because we didn’t go, I got to take the class!! Knowing how much I wanted to take it, Ray accused me of manifesting his fever.
I learned a LOT about helping people to find their enneagram type in this one. If you are interested, for the time being, I am typing people for free! Reach out if you want to know more about the Enneagram, or want me to help you find your type. It is a powerful, deep system of self-development.
The second silver lining was that Ray’s sleep was so bad during the feverish week that we were finally inspired to invest in a grounding mat to see if it could help. By taking supplements and with better sleep hygiene, he has been sleeping much better the past few years but still gets restless legs periodically, and can wake up at 4am and not get back to sleep. This plugged-in grounding mat on the bed (easily placed under the sheet) worked! From the first night! The free, natural and simple way to get grounded is to follow kids' intuition and walk around barefoot outside. But for chilly months, for sleep and computer use, some of these grounding tools are working great for us. If you didn’t watch it when I devoted a newsletter to Earthing, then I recommend you watch this film.
Lastly, as a result of not swimming with the dolphins last weekend, I was able (on breaks in my enneagram class) to organize our wild and crazy crowded jars and bags of spices by using this cool idea from my ever-inspiring friend and mentor, Hannah Marcotti. They are now stored in two drawers in 4 ounce bell jars that I labeled:
Ray and I have been picking spice-filled meals to make all week in order to feel the joy of locating what is needed!
May you be finding your spicy, most grounded self.
With love,
Madeline
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