I already told you in my previous blogs about my personal life. Our status is just that we are poor, so our parents are always reminding us not to get hurt and that we should take care of ourselves because if we get hurt or ill, we don't have money for hospital bills and medicines.
Since I was in grade 5, we have been living with our grandparents since our parents are in Manila working. So living with our grandparents, every time we got sick like a fever, cough, or cold, they were the ones who were taking care of us.
So we didn't really expect them to buy us some medicines in the drugstores or even let us go to the hospital when our illnesses were not severe. Because my grandpa always plants some vegetables and herbal medicines, we can find them everywhere around and nearby in our house.
So for today's blog, we were answering another question or topic from @ladiesofhive Community.
2️⃣ Spices and herbs are often used for medicinal purposes.
What is your favorite and what do you use it for?
And after reading their question number 2, it made me remember my childhood and how our grandparents took care of us when we were sick
As you can see above, I have drawn my three favorite herbal medicines, which are oregano, guava leaves, and peppermint. Those are always the medicines that our grandparents gave us, especially the oregano.
OREGANO LEAVES
The oregano leaves are what I really hate the most when I am sick, especially if I have the flu. Cough, or itchy throat? My grandma always told my grandfather to get some oregano leaves, and she would boil them, then squeeze them until the water came out, and she would mix it with the calamansi juice or lemon.
I really hate drinking it because, when I am sick, the taste is so very bitter, and I really hate the smell. They always laughed when we drank it because it was too bitter.
Yet it became my favorite because it's really good medicine and it can heal us right away.
GUAVA LEAVES
Guava leaves are also one of the herbal medicines that I hate the most. Because who would have thought that leaves could also be used as medicine? We just ate the guava fruit when we were kids, but when my cousin got home from school because of swollen gums, the only thing that I remembered was that they got guava leaves, and I don't know the procedure for how they use it as a medicine. However, for me, my experience with guava leaves was when I had diarrhea. My grandma told me to chew the small leaves of the guava leaf. And so it became my favorite herbal medicine because I had a funny memory of it. It was when I cried before, because how could I chew it? I am not even a goat. But they told me that it was medicine, so I didn't have a choice but to chew some when I had diarrhea, and we don't have any medicine for that.
PEPPERMINT (Yerbabuena)
We used it when we had a headache or fever. According to my grandma, the procedure to use this is crush the leaves and apply it to the forehead, arms, feet, and back.
Actually, all of the herbal medicines taste bitter, and their smell is not my type. But I can't do anything about it since it can make me feel better, and I trust my grandparents for the herbal medicines they use.
Conclusion...
All those herbal medicines that I mentioned above are one of those herbal medicines that I really hate. However, despite the reasons why I hate them, I still like those herbal medicines because they have become part of my life. It saved me from those illnesses, and it became the reason why I am still alive in this world.
And if you are living here in the province, these are some of the simple medicines that some old people could give you if you were sick or ill.
So this is all my answer for the Ladies of Hive community blog contest #124 question, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Thanks for your time reading!
Disclaimer: I am not an expert in herbal medicines. I just want to share what I know about these herbal medicines that I have used since childhood. Please do some research to find out more about those herbal medicines that I mentioned above before using them. Thank you.
PUBLISHED BY: @xanreo | HIVE
DATE: March 6, 2023
