The flu is running rampant in my area right now. I cannot recall a time when literally everyone I know, including John and me (sort of), has been down with it.

I say sort of because I was mildly sick but never did get the flu. I feel like I just performed a little study with my wearable health tracker and some homeopathic supplements. It could just all be a coincidence, but I wanted to share in case it helps anyone else.

My husband woke up sick on a Friday. He tried to work, took a couple of phone calls, but his throat sounded thick and gross and talking caused him to cough, so by mid-morning, he was on the couch, reduced to fielding emails. By Noon, he was zonked out. Because I know him so well, I immediately thought flu. He was down for the count so to speak, which in my experience is the difference between a cold and flu, the flu just kind of takes your legs out from underneath you.

John and I are never sick together. In 34 years, I cannot think of one time. Even Covid has never struck us at the same time. We have both had it several times and always months apart, so I wasn’t too worried about catching the flu from him except that our daughter is getting married on February 22nd, so I was a little more cautious than normal.

On Saturday morning, I went to see if I could purchase an at-home flu test. I had heard that these now exist and was hoping to find one. It turns out that you can now purchase an at-home test that covers both Covid and Flu A/B! Woohoo! Sure enough John was positive for Flu A.

I will say that only one drugstore by us carried the combo test. When I tried to purchase one from CVS later in the week, there was no such thing.

We both had been taking Emergen-C, but on Saturday, we added Oscillococcinum, and I added Cold-eez, salt water gargling, and drank some green tea.

The Cold-eez made John’s throat hurt and he cannot gargle due to his paralyzed vocal cord. He also would not take more than one sip of the tea.

I also used Thieves oil on the bottom of both our feet, and I would also inhale it periodically throughout the day.

John was pretty much flat on his back with fever and cough all day on Saturday and Sunday. I had 0 symptoms through the weekend and felt fine.

On Monday, my Oura ring told me I had major symptoms but I still felt fine and my temp was 99, which doesn’t event count right? My flu/Covid test was negative. Nevertheless, I cancelled a few appointments that I had scheduled.

By Tuesday, my fever was 100 and I had the cough but I didn’t feel sick at all. The husband was shocked and was convinced that it was coming. I chose to believe that my Oura was actually giving me accurate data and that I was in fact fighting it off. Fast forward to Thursday and I was feeling fine with no fever, but I had plans to go visit our daughter Aubrey on Friday.

I would not want to cause anyone to get sick under any circumstances but we are in critical period here in the Schafer family, with Jenna days away from her wedding. Aubrey is her Matron of Honor. The best option was probably to just cancel but Aubrey and I have not had any one on one time since before John’s stroke. And I just wanted to give her a little one on one love before the actual wedding. A little Mom and Daughter time was so long overdue.

I took another flu/Covid test late Thursday afternoon and it was again negative! The only area of concern was that my Oura ring was still telling me that my body had major symptoms of fighting something off. This continued, with one day of minor signs, through Sunday. On Monday, one full week after it picked up symptoms, it returned to normal.

So what to make of all this? I am kind of amazed that my Oura ring did pick up that my body was working to fight off a virus. The biometrics it used for this were all from sleep data and included: body temp, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, and heart rate variability. I also noticed that I had reduced blood oxygen levels for a couple of nights.

I am even more amazed that I was able to fight off the flu! Was it the supplements? I am going to choose to believe that it was, but I think that it was probably because I started taking them prior to having any symptoms. This is a hard thing to do unless you start as soon as you know you were exposed. If I had waited even until my ring picked up symptoms, it would have been a full two days later than when I started.

I just wanted to share all of this because – 1) I didn’t know there was a combo at home test that covered all the yuck; 2) this wearable health tracking technology is both freaky and fascinating; and 3) taking supplements and practicing other homeopathic things like gargling and drinking green tea, seems to have made a difference.

My take away is this. The Jetson’s level future is arriving fast! But also, homeopathic supplements and following your Grandmother’s advice seems to be as valuable as ever.

And of all these things, I learned that gargling is a highly underrated practice that I plan to continue as part of my regular upkeep.

Have you had your health tracker warn you that were getting sick prior to getting sick? Have you had success with homeopathic remedies? Please share!