Actually .. will have to drink one liquorice tea a day for now

My consultant did reduce some of my meds .. he said the back of my mouth was looking a lot better .. I'd just told the junior doc that everything was much the same .. well I can't really look back there and it usually is just the same .. and it still hurts.

I wondered if that could be the teas too because that would be a place they'd coat quite well and they're meant to increase the actions of corticosteroids without adding anymore of the medication which in the case of steroids could be wonderful .. but maybe just as a covering rather having an effect throughout the body. I have to say that the corticosteroid mouthwash didn't help at all.

And why not? Lots of medicines have come from plants .. as we all know that's one of the reasons they're worried about the destruction of the rain forest .. wondering how many medicines will be lost through the destruction of plants that medicine will never get a chance to test for their healing properties.

If it is helping it's a very slow process. I think there might've been a bit of improvement on the back of my head now too .. because the nurse said something about granulation .. which is the wound starting to create new cells that will slowly form skin. I may be wrong about that though as she was saying to becareful when washing my hair. I'll ask how things are getting on there next appointment.

I have to say that my consultant looked a bit grim today .. guess I should've waved a teabag infront of his face. Will write to him actually about it all. I've talked to my GP about them but not to him.

Have to say I'm feeling the best that I've felt for a long time .. still got the pain and still feel very rough .. obviously, Still feel awful when I get up .. but it's not as bad as it was .. my mind used to drift to swiss clinics .. especially if I was going through the most puffy stage of a cold .. and it was just getting worse and worse .. two days with ONE liquorice tea bag and one to two star anises and I'm not doing that anymore. I'm only letting my teas brew for 7 mins before drinking again now as I did in the beginning.

Someone said that it looked as if I liked crystalized ginger .. I'd bought some on special offer so had stocked up a bit .. and I have to say that I do .. for more reasons than one .. it's certainly good for the stomach .. though I wish it could be crystalized without sugar .. lol!! My stomach yearns for it in the morning now .. rushes me .. well, perhaps that's an exageration .. over to the bag of ginger .. though I usually wait til I've had breakfast before eating it.

Certainly nicer than the cyclazine .. can't remember how you spell it now .. the anti-sickness pill I used to take .. well, the first one .. it was changed .. and then as my stomach muscles eased up a bit I stopped needing to take them all together. Have to say that neither pill was as nice as the crystalized ginger.

And they didn't always stop me from being sick .. no protection against a really hefty stomach spasm. I'd seen this in hospital too .. when people upchucked on the floor after having an anti-sickness pill. There are different kinds though and you can have injections too .. if I remember rightly I sometimes had the medicine through my cannula .. the little device they put on the back of your hand incase you need some medicine delivered very quickly into your bloodstream.

I doubt if ginger would stop me being sick in a situation like that either though.

Not sure how long I've been drinking the teas now ... six weeks or so .. and they sure have made a difference .. they might be going to do more good in a round about way .. and might've been the reason my doc decided it would be safe to reduce my meds .. he'd had tests confirming that the illness is under control even if these sores aren't healing .. I'm wondering if it's the mycrophenolate .. the ones that can cause skin cancer .. that is having a two pronged effect .. it might be helping the steroids keep the auto immune illness under control .. but it also might be doing something to my skin that is hampering the healing process.

Fingers crossed that I can stay on the reduced dose .. maybe I should stay drinking one liquorice tea a day and just make sure I eat healthily and make sure I get enough potassium .. after all it is just one under a half teabag .. I will certainly up it if I .. I mean .. when .. I get the flu to two or one totally liquorice teabag.

Actually I've been taking them for quite a few weeks now and I take meds that reduce potassium .. my cortico meds .. and I'm fine. Guess that's fine then. Did worry me a bit when I read the contraindications .. but I thought things would be ok if I was sensible .. though I said I'd give them a rest every few weeks.

As I said I don't like taking this all the time but I think, for now, it looks like I'm going to have to cause there's a chance my sores could get worse in my mouth .. then I'd have to go back on the meds that have just been reduced and then I'm in more danger from the flu.

So, for me, I don't think there's any choice but to stay on .. just the one I'm drinking every morning .. without a break until I've had the flu.