For me, December was a blur. The entire household was sick, with one thing after another. Colds, more colds, something nasty and viral, another round of colds and so forth. I think one of the parts of the whole stay at home mom gig I dislike the most is the lack of sick days. Taking care of everyone else, exhausted, rundown, so darn stuffed up I can’t sleep; when does mom get a break, hunh?
One particularly lousy night I was trying to sleep propped up on the couch. I had tried various cold remedies to no avail, and had given up on the idea of actually laying down to sleep, as I was so stuffed up I simply couldn’t breath. And then it came to me…. I should put Vick’s on my feet!
Let me back things up so you understand where this wacky idea was coming from…. A few months ago the girls were stuffed up with a cold and my mother-in-law called me up to tell me about a trick she’d read (I’d love to credit the source here, but I haven’t a clue where she originally found this tip). She told me to apply Vick’s Vaporub to the soles of their feet, and then put socks on over top of the Vick’s. She said it would take ten to fifteen minutes to kick in, but that it would help open up their airways and let them breathe.
I gave it a shot on the five year old, and it seemed to help. To be honest I wasn’t sure if it really made a difference, or if it was just a placebo effect. Maybe just the act of me telling her it would help, and going through the ritual of rubbing something on her feet, was enough to get her to calm down and fall asleep.
So here I am several months later, it’s the middle of the night, I’m miserable and I feel like I’m suffocating. And it occurs to me maybe I should try this Vick’s trick out for myself. I slathered my soles with Vaporub, covered my feet with a pair of warm fuzzy socks and impatiently waited for results. Nothing. I was feeling grumpy and unimpressed. If it wasn’t three o’clock in the morning I just might have called my mother-in-law back to tell her that her tip was a bust. But then…. Wait… Holy cow, I’m breathing?? I can breath?!? It took a bit to kick in, but I did find myself able to breathe well enough to doze off, which seemed like a really exciting victory at the time. I was to repeat this experiment several times over the following week, and each time it granted me some relief.
I was so excited by the success of my experiment I wanted to write and tell you guys about it, but I was so darn busy taking care of everyone I didn’t find the time. So here I am a month later sharing the story of my Vick’s feet. And yes, it does sound a little wacky, doesn’t it? But I seriously recommend giving it a shot.
Disclosure: I am a P&G Mom, and as such I received a sample of Vick’s Vaporub in my latest box of P&G goodies. However, this post isn’t in any way endorsed by the good people at Vick’s, who probably think I’m nuts for putting their ointment on my feet.
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