- This is why you shouldn’t rub your eyes
- A perfect remedy for a common eye problem
- How we need to look after our Posties… Bless ‘em all!
I thought I had just been doing too much reading.
A slightly sore, itchy and scratchy feeling in my eye turned out to be something worse though…
…I had developed a stye.
Over the next 24 hours it felt as though the pig had moved in too!
My eye swelled, went red and was very, very painful.
For those who have never suffered let me explain what was happening.
A stye is a bacterial infection in the follicle of an eyelash.
This causes a swollen red lump on the eyelid, or in my case right on the very edge and inside too.
The causes are typically rubbing your eyes with unclean hands, sharing facecloths or towels with someone else or unclean contact lenses.
In my case it would have been from the first option as I know I regularly rub my eyes when I have been working, and despite washing my hands at least forty times a day I know there would have been one rogue bacterium that got through my routines.
So I hunted around for some advice on how to treat my poor painful orbit.
The first option I found was using my old faithful – Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV).
ACV has great anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, therefore it helps reduce inflammation and even fight infection.
The advice was to put 2 teaspoons of organic apple cider vinegar in a cup of hot water.
Then soak a cotton ball in this solution and apply it on the affected area for about a minute. Follow this remedy three times daily for a few days.
I did think of doing this, but actually my saviour came from a combination of two other options… one of which was most unsuspected.
Mothers Knuckle Duster Remedy…
The first treatment for the stye was to use a cold teabag.
After making one of my favourite Kenyan black teas, I put the bag aside to cool enough to touch and then placed it over my eye for five minutes or so.
It really proved to be very soothing and helped reduce the swelling very quickly – I thought it was doing a fantastic job, then another option presented itself too.
But first I need to explain something to you.
As a child I wasn’t always the easiest to look after.
My tendency was to be out playing whenever I could, and for as long as I could.
Making camps, climbing trees, scrumping apples and netting crayfish… even in the rain!
Mum used to spend half of her life trying to find me, and the other half telling me off for whatever scrape I had ended up in.
Her ultimate weapon was a swift slap on the back of the head (I know that this may not be an option now, but back then it was commonplace.)
She didn’t exert much force and in reality it was meant as a tap rather than a smack, but she always forgot one thing.
Her massive gold knuckle duster that Dad gave her the day they wed!
This wedding ring is a thick gold band and if she caught you with it when she gave you a jab, you ended up seeing stars.
At which point she would be full of remorse and give you a big hug! So not quite the effect she had been after… but I still never learnt my lesson.
So, why am I telling you all about my misspent childhood? Well it is that ring that holds the key.
As I dropped her shopping of on Monday she asked what was wrong with my eye, so I told her about my stye.
“What have you been doing to help it?” She asked, and nodded sagely as I told her about the teabag trick, before adding. “You should also rub your eye with my wedding ring.”
She offered the torment of my childhood and I did as she asked, rubbing the shiny cool gold over my eyelid for about two minutes.
And it worked!
The combination of tea and gold have evicted the pig, and torn down his stye in two days, that’s pretty good going if you ask me.
So, if you find yourself with a similar problem I would recommend these two options… but you’ll have to get your own gold ring.
Or even a festive ‘Five Gold Rings!’
Busy Posties need a break…
For some professions Christmas isn’t all joy and delight because the amount of work increases.
Such is the lot for our poor postmen and women.
This year things are even worse though.
The pandemic has reduced the numbers of people able to work in the sorting offices, it has also increased the amount of packages and parcels being sent and with fewer families getting together has also seen more Christmas cards sent than any year previously.
So, there are a few delays in deliveries.
This has had a knock on effect for our products too. Even though your orders are picked and packed within 24 hours we know that some of them are taking longer to get to you.
This is not what we want, but at the same time we have always supported the Royal Mail as a professional and reliable service, and we have no plans to change this.
But I have heard from a few of you who were worried about getting stuff through before the festive break, especially the Dr Heff’s Remarkable Mints which I mentioned last week.
Don’t worry, they will get through.
All the orders we received have been sent out, but my advice to anyone still thinking of getting a few packs in to help protect their teeth over the break is to get an order in now – last posting for Christmas is this Friday the 18th.
