My husband Charlie and I are battling some sort of infection this week (we think it's tonsillitis, but that will be confirmed by the doctor tomorrow), and last week our son was also sick with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. Needless to say, it's been a hard week for all of us. Since we all seem to be jumping at the chance to be sick, it's been difficult to take care of each other. We've been managing, but let's just say that my homemade turkey soup went mostly uneaten (it was pretty bad) and that Caius has been watching a lot more Baby Einstein the past few days.
A few things we have been doing, however, are drinking a lot of water, taking Tylenol (for me) and Motrin (for Charlie) for the pain and fever, getting a lot of rest, and covering ourselves with so many blankets that we sweat at night. The thing is, I'm not totally sure that "sweating it out" is actually a medically sound way of battling a fever. Both Charlie and I have memories of our mothers forcing us under heavy piles of blankets whenever we were sick. We were told that we would sweat out the sickness, and it's a method that has stuck with both of us. My mother told me about how her halmoni did the same thing to her, so it must be pretty ingraned in Korean tradition. I actually did a little bit of internet research yesterday and found a website about how to care for children with fever, and it explicitly says "You do not sweat out a fever."
That said, the blankets are the only thing that can keep us warm when we've got the chills. Granted, when the chills pass we're left sweating through the sheets, but at least then we can throw the blankets off. Still, I know if our mothers had their way, we'd be forced to keep those blankets on up to our chins less we fail to sweat out the sickness within. So, internet peoples, what do you think? Charlie is convinced that it truly works, and I have to admit that I always feel better after a good long nap under the blankets. Is it just another Korean old wives' tale or does it really help the evil sickness go away?
-Nina
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