I want my mommy

A sign that spring is coming is the constant sound of sneezes both at home and at the office.
My sneezes turned into a head cold last week. Head colds are commonly accompanied by a stuffy nose, drainage and headaches — symptoms that might be relieved by over-the-counter medicines, if you can pick the right formula. I couldn’t.
The last of the Tylenol Cold daytime pills, leftover from last spring, got me through Friday. I tried a severe formula on Saturday and gave up on it Sunday when it didn’t help.
Starve a cold, feed a fever, right? I wasn’t hungry Saturday, but I wasn’t awake much either. Long enough to finish a bowl of cereal after three bites, pop another pair of pills and the last of my vitamin C chewables and crawl back under covers.
It isn’t “starve a cold, feed a fever” nor is it “starve a fever, feed a cold.” WebMD says starving is never the correct answer.
If a person has a cold, eating foods high in antioxidants, such as beta-carotenes and vitamins C and E, eating more raw fruits and vegetables and drinking lots of liquids are said to be ideal. But in the last days of winter, who’s going to find apricots, asparagus (yuck), beef liver (double yuck), beets, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, corn, guava, kale, mangoes, mustard and collard greens, nectarines, peaches, pink grapefruit, pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, tangerines, tomatoes and watermelon right there in the food aisle? Who, in their right mind, is even going to feel like fixing any of it between sneezes, aches, pains and blowing the nose?
Mom might, but back in the days when I lived at home, my brother and I spent however long it took in bed, a thermometer still tasting of rubbing alcohol under the tongue, and Mom’s cool hand on a hot forehead.
Lunch was Campbell’s chicken noodle soup and crackers followed by Jell-O. The best was always raspberry with applesauce. We drank orange juice in the morning and again at lunch and had ginger ale the rest of the time, usually right after cough syrup and a vapor rub. And when the chicken soup ran out, tomato took its place, complete with oyster crackers.
But nothing works better than a mother’s love.
Last Sunday, the chicken noodle soup went down easily for the most part. It was even better than Campbell’s, but the crackers sunk the ship. The liquids were enough to keep my nose running and my eyes watering. There was no energy to make mom’s heal-all Jell-O, and the orange juice was too acidic.
Grown women aren’t supposed to say, “I want my mommy,” but between sweats and an inability to find comfort, I did.
Buzzle.com offers suggestions like blow your nose regularly and drink hot liquids to help relieve the congestion. The Web site recommends limejuice, and next time I may try it in a warm glass of water with a teaspoon of honey.
Garlic has antibiotic properties. I love garlic, but not on an empty or upset stomach. I have a can of chicken noodle soup left over that I will add some garlic powder to, just to see.
I plan to restock the fridge with apple juice, and if this cold doesn’t clear up soon, I might even try taking powdered cinnamon and mixing it with honey three times a day to clear my sinuses.
I am tempted to dive into my stash of essential oils to find some eucalyptus to use near my nose.
But nothing is going to keep me from wanting a little motherly love to help shake this cold just in time to get ready for allergy season.