moonwatcher's slow motion miracle
Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:20 pm
Moonwatcher's Slow Motion Miracle
Last week I sat on a yellow jacket. Apparently, anyway. Never saw it. It was very warm out, around noon. (The fact that I was outside and not weak and shaky because of it is a victory in itself.) The friend who helps me with landscaping was hauling brush out of the yard and I sat down on the back porch steps while we discussed our next steps as he walked by to his truck. At first I thought the cement was awfully warm (I had a skirt on) then realized I was getting stung at the top of my thigh just outside the panty line. I immediately got up and went in for some lemon balm oil. Yep, definitely stung, and in a very inconvenient place. I went back out to fetch some fresh lemon balm leaves for a poultice, and applied those to the sting area (Lots of fun trying to affix that with band-aids).
Now what does this have to do with MS and this way of eating? Over the years I have been stung in August and September, it just happens when it’s hot, I’m out in the garden and they are cruising, winding down their short sharp lives. We say around here they are pissed off they’re dying, so they’ll sting anybody just because. ☺
Before this way of eating, the message that I had been stung was like a fire alarm stuck in the “on” position in all nerve endings. I couldn’t even see straight or walk around the “alarm” was so intense. And it often took hours, sometimes a whole day for that to calm down. And the pain of the poison from the sting being drawn out by the lemon balm was protracted and exhausting and nauseating. I would be on the couch or in bed for the rest of the day.
This time it hurt, but the alarm seemed had cotton all over it, was in the background, pretty much localized to the sting site, and not completely systemic. It hurt, don’t get me wrong. But the inflammatory response was reduced dramatically. In fact I didn’t even tell the landscaper, until several minutes later, when I had it all bandaged up with the lemon balm and was writing him a check (wouldn’t have been able to do such a thing so soon after a sting because my hands would have been shaking and/or not able to.
The rest of the day went pretty much as if I had not been stung at all. In a couple of hours it was fine to take the poultice off, there was no swelling or tenderness. It all took a fraction of the time it once took.
So even when I happen to sit on a yellow jacket, things go better because of this way of eating. ☺
I’ll be writing about these kinds of little victories, food I eat, and other insights about this lifestyle here. Next post will provide some background about my health issues and some about how I came to this way of eating. I hope you'll join me now and then.
moonwatcher
Last week I sat on a yellow jacket. Apparently, anyway. Never saw it. It was very warm out, around noon. (The fact that I was outside and not weak and shaky because of it is a victory in itself.) The friend who helps me with landscaping was hauling brush out of the yard and I sat down on the back porch steps while we discussed our next steps as he walked by to his truck. At first I thought the cement was awfully warm (I had a skirt on) then realized I was getting stung at the top of my thigh just outside the panty line. I immediately got up and went in for some lemon balm oil. Yep, definitely stung, and in a very inconvenient place. I went back out to fetch some fresh lemon balm leaves for a poultice, and applied those to the sting area (Lots of fun trying to affix that with band-aids).
Now what does this have to do with MS and this way of eating? Over the years I have been stung in August and September, it just happens when it’s hot, I’m out in the garden and they are cruising, winding down their short sharp lives. We say around here they are pissed off they’re dying, so they’ll sting anybody just because. ☺
Before this way of eating, the message that I had been stung was like a fire alarm stuck in the “on” position in all nerve endings. I couldn’t even see straight or walk around the “alarm” was so intense. And it often took hours, sometimes a whole day for that to calm down. And the pain of the poison from the sting being drawn out by the lemon balm was protracted and exhausting and nauseating. I would be on the couch or in bed for the rest of the day.
This time it hurt, but the alarm seemed had cotton all over it, was in the background, pretty much localized to the sting site, and not completely systemic. It hurt, don’t get me wrong. But the inflammatory response was reduced dramatically. In fact I didn’t even tell the landscaper, until several minutes later, when I had it all bandaged up with the lemon balm and was writing him a check (wouldn’t have been able to do such a thing so soon after a sting because my hands would have been shaking and/or not able to.
The rest of the day went pretty much as if I had not been stung at all. In a couple of hours it was fine to take the poultice off, there was no swelling or tenderness. It all took a fraction of the time it once took.
So even when I happen to sit on a yellow jacket, things go better because of this way of eating. ☺
I’ll be writing about these kinds of little victories, food I eat, and other insights about this lifestyle here. Next post will provide some background about my health issues and some about how I came to this way of eating. I hope you'll join me now and then.
moonwatcher