Despite the occasional cold or stuffy nose, my boys and I tend to be pretty healthy and I’m very happy about that. Considering the fact that the last time our family had to visit the emergency room, the wait was over six hours, it’s not an experience I enjoy. And most of the time, going to a walk-in medical clinic isn’t much better.

But of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still health concerns that I’d like to see a doctor about! It does mean that unless there’s a serious problem, trying to deal with it on my own is easier than braving the long waits at a doctor. And like so many others, that often used to mean that I’d turn to Doctor Google.

Cold sores were one of those medical issues that I wasn’t too concerned with seeing a doctor about. Instead, I kept a tube of Abreva in the bathroom, but often I wouldn’t realize I was about to have an outbreak in time and Abreva doesn’t do too much once the cold sore’s appeared. I tried almost every online remedy I could find to speed healing, from holding an ice cube on the sore to dabbing it with vanilla. Some helped slightly, but others seemed to make the sores even worse! [Read more…]