Half the Sky

Recently I saw the film Half The Sky which was originally a book. While traveling in Central America, Whitney and I went to this really cool bookstore and I came across the book and snagged it. It was the most inspiring book I have read in a LONG time and the movie was equally as motivating. Women everywhere NEED to see this (and their men)! Get your tissues ready...

Mouth Monsters: CANKER SORES

Its been awhile but I find myself looking for distractions from a paper I have been attempting to write for three days now, and have conveniently rediscovered this blog...so, here is a thought: Canker sores. What type of ungodly evil are these things?? I was the fortunate one of my three siblings to inherit the mouth monsters (my mom suffered through her life until post-baby days). I have had them since I was little and they never just come in ones or twos. Instead, these stupid sores travel in hyena like packs and ravage my mouth by the half-dozens++. Today I have six. One is conveniently located on the gummy part of my mouth where my wisdom tooth used to be. Interesting...my favorite one of all time has to be the behemoth that coated the back of my throat just months ago. So we've established one thing: canker sores are rotten. But what intrigues me is not what causes them (I've narrowed mine down to SLS containing toothpaste, lesions from carelessness *headbutts from babies, aggressive brushing, etc*, and a combination of menstrual cycle/stress/sleeplessness. My newest mission is to try to figure out how to keep these suckers at bay because I have resigned to the fact that preventing them altogether is hopeless. Things I have tried:

Vitamins: It seems that heavy doses of Zinc, Vitamin C and Iron when my mouth is under siege keeps the healing time down to just a few days. Natures Gate natural toothpaste: SLS free, noticed a huge decrease in frequency of sores after switching to this toothpaste Orajel: A waste in my opinion as the mere minutes it takes for the meds to wear off is nothing when facing three-four days of unbearable pain that leaves me sometimes angry and mute. Salt/Allum: Pain pain pain. Allum in particular is the culprit of turning my hideous sores into hideous bleeding sores. No thanks. Hydrogen Peroxide: Seems to be awesome and you would think because of its antiseptic property it would help...but I have read conflicting reports about how it might lengthen healing time? Yikes, no thanks. On the same token, Mouthwash particularly for canker sores...has the same hydrogen peroxide effect and does not seem to accelerate healing times at all (or reduce pain) Canker Covers: I have had mixed results...I am thinking maybe these are a godsend IF combined with the right other things (vitamins, mouthwash, etc?) and they are freaking glorious in that they cover the sore so it doesnt hurt for 8-12 HOURS! When you get those really really bad ones that make you want to die, these canker covers are heavy duty saviors. They look like pills and they adhere to the sore and create a patch that slowly dissolves over hours. The idea is that it makes a bandaid to give it time to heal. Some sores have LOVED this and recovered quickly..and others, not so much. I will keep them on hand for future use, definitely. Baking soda paste: Tastes gross, possibly helped healing time slighly? Not over the moon with the results. Alka Seltzer: Again, pain pain pain...but it would seem to be less pain then salt or allum. Still, only about 20 minutes of relief, maybe more. BUT I did notice a "cover" of sorts on top of the sores hours after using them. A sign of healing? Possibly. I will consider using this remedy in the future to test its validity. Maalox or generic liquid antacid mixed with the same ratio of liquid benadryl: I am not sure of the healing ability of this concoction but this definitely numbed my mouth for at least a half hour...a very much appreciated half hour. It caused little to no pain on application, did not require touching the sore to apply (touching it can re-open it and slow healing) and didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth (like orajel) Any other suggestions would be very much appreciated as I continue on in my quest to destroy the mouth monsters :) And like I have said before, damn you mother and father for passing this genetic malfunction on to me!