The flu….it’s everywhere and the rumors are that it is bad this year. Our family got hit with the flu a few weeks back but we definitely survived and thankfully we were only ill for a few days. This year it seemed like a combination of the classic flu, stomach flu and strep throat combined into one. However, if you have the right tools at your disposal, you can get through the flu faster with only a few days of downtime. I found it interesting that this one flu presented itself so differently among the members of my family.

My 8 year old daughter started feeling tired with a sore throat when she got home from school and she soon developed a high fever. That’s when I reached for Aconite and Belladonna since her symptoms came on so suddenly. A little while later, her symptoms progressed to deep bone pain for which Eupatorium Perfoliatum was given. I dosed the Belladonna and Eupatorium 3-4 times over the next several hours. Her fever began to subside so I discontinued the Belladonna but the pain continued so I continued the Eupatorium along with Influenzinum once I realized that this was not a run of the mill cold. The next day she rested with a low fever and then she started to experience stomach pain and nausea along with hyper sensitivity to noises and odors. I then gave her Nux Vomica to help with these new symptoms. She began feeling much better by day 3 and was back to her old self on day 4.

My husband, on the other hand, experienced a completely different flu. He started feeling head congestion with a headache first so he took a dose of Aconite as well as Influenzinum. Since he had a bad headache along with feeling very lethargic and heavy, he also took a few doses of Gelsemium over the next day. He was feeling much better but not quite 100% by the third day with just some fatigue lingering.

For my youngest daughter, we had started her on Oscillococcinum to help lessen the effects of what was coming her way. I have to say that it definitely did help. She ended up having much milder symptoms but when they started I again reached for the Aconite. She developed a fever but not as fast and high as her sister so I gave her Ferrum Phosphoricum cell salt along with Influenzinum.

My 3 month old son started experiencing some thick, stringy congestion and a low grade fever about a day later so I gave him Aconite like everyone else and Ferrum Phos along with Kali Bichromicum and by the next day he was good as new!

Out of all of us, I drew the long straw. Perhaps it was the increase in elderberry syrup that I took or the zinc and Oscillococcinum but I got lucky. I only had a minor headache with some achy muscles that felt better when I was moving around so I reached for the Rhus Tox and that was the end of it! I honestly was waiting for the rest of the symptoms to show but they never did!

The human body just amazes me. One flu but so many different presentations requiring completely different remedies. I’m so very thankful for homeopathy! It helped make this flu season not as bad as the rumors made it out to be.