today's medical lesson, part 2

So the Tylenol wore off, as Tylenol tends to do, and the fever came back and so we hurriedly took more Tylenol while Ruth was downstairs doing something. Well then she came back upstairs and said that Mac looked very red and asked had I checked for fever. I didn't tell her that I'd given him more Tylenol; I didn't want her to pull the green onions out of the veggie bin in the fridge, so I started talking about the headache he had.

During this conversation, Mac decided he wanted to eat some soup but by the time he got downstairs, he decided he wanted to take a nap, so we headed back upstairs and I told Ruth just to leave the heated-up soup in the pan on the stove.

As I was getting Mac settled back into my bed, Ruth came in with thinly sliced potatoes and a white pillowcase. Mac thought he was going to have to eat the raw potato and was ready to have a fit, when she started putting the potatoes slices around his forehead and then wrapped his head up with the pillowcase. Apparently the potatoes draw the headache out and the pillowcase has to be white because white clothes reduce fever.

Who knew?

She left shortly after this tribal ritual and Mac informed me that he hated the smell of raw potatoes and that it was torture to lay there with these potatoes on his head. He said the potatoes were drying up on his head and I said that was a good thing because they must be pulling out the headache. I'm not schooled in such remedies but surely that's what was happening right? He then asked if headaches were "dry" (I guess because the potatoes were drying out from pulling out the "dry" headache.) I assured him that yes, headaches were dry.

With the shaman gone from our home. we ceremoniously removed the pillowcase and the potatoes. But I leave you with photos of my very own Mr. Potato Head!