Thursday, September 2, 2010
Something Pinched Me!
We were at the beach a few weeks ago and my 4 year old had walked toward the water. She came running back whining that, "Something pinched me!" I looked at her foot and saw nothing. I figured it was a grain of sand in her shoe or something. She stood by me for a few minutes and after a few minutes, she got very agitated insisting that something had pinched her. I took off her shoe again and found a large stinger with the bum of a bee still attached! Poor thing. When she saw the stinger she began to wail. Her foot had begun to swell and the site was reddening. I got the stinger out and immediately called for my other two children to search for plantain. They brought me a pile which we crushed and placed on my daughter's foot. I changed it literally every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes- basically as soon as the leaves were hot I changed them. After about 5 minutes, I kept a wad of leaves on for a few more minutes. Within 20 minutes, she had scrambled off my lap, foot restored to perfect health with no indication of a sting, no swelling, and no pain. The day at the beach was saved by plantain!
Spider Bites- OUCH!!!
Over the last couple of weeks, I received a few spider bites. OUCH. I am convinced that one of them was a black widow bite because of the sickness and toxicity I experienced as well as the localized pain and intense itching... thank goodness for herbs though! Now on to my experience.
I was at the park for a picnic and after sitting on a bench for a while, I noticed a very itchy welt on my calf near the back of my knee. I figured it was a mosquito bite because it resembled a fresh mosquito bite with its raised whitish welt appearance. I quickly grabbed some plantain leaves and crushed them up to place on my bite. It gave a little relief but not the relief I am used to with a mosquito bite. I got more plantain and crushed it up and placed it on the bite. A little more relief followed... it was time to go home and I had to put kids to bed so I wasn't able to deal with it much. I can't remember if I put some old plantain ointment on it or not but the next day it was worse. All day I kept plantain ointment and fresh plantain packed on it but it still got worse. Over the course of the day, my calf swelled up, my leg got a bit stiff, and it hurt to walk! Boy did it itch too. By night, my calf was totally red, swollen, and hot. It still hurt and it itched. I kept at my plantain and added a little BFC to it. That seemed to ease some of the itching. I had to keep off my leg and use some ice to bring down the inflammation. I ended up resting all day because it was so miserable of a bite. On the fourth day, I remembered the Immucalm or Kid-e-Soothe formula. I took a couple droppers of Kid-e-Soothe (that is what I had on hand and it is the same as Immucalm with marshmallow and astragalus). Almost immediately the swelling started to go down. Now it looked like I had a weird old bruise surrounding a bite site. I kept at the Kid-e-soothe as well as more Complete Tissue because I figured there was some tissue damage given the looks of the bite site. By the fifth day, that weird bruise look had shrunk and I just had an occasionally itchy red dot. Over the next few days I used the Complete Tissue and Kid-e-soothe as needed. Success!
Fast forward a few weeks. I was sitting in a chair at this old amusement park and all of a sudden my ankle was itching HORRIBLY! I looked down and there was a bite (looked like the same swollen bite I had had a few weeks before). We rushed home to get some plantain for me. This time it was unbearably itchy immediately. Worse than a mosquito. I downed some Immucalm and kept at it the whole time. This time my ankle did swell up but not as much. As long as I kept the immucalm and some plantain ointment that had some comfrey in it on the bite, I was mostly itch free. Thank goodness for that Immucalm!
I was at the park for a picnic and after sitting on a bench for a while, I noticed a very itchy welt on my calf near the back of my knee. I figured it was a mosquito bite because it resembled a fresh mosquito bite with its raised whitish welt appearance. I quickly grabbed some plantain leaves and crushed them up to place on my bite. It gave a little relief but not the relief I am used to with a mosquito bite. I got more plantain and crushed it up and placed it on the bite. A little more relief followed... it was time to go home and I had to put kids to bed so I wasn't able to deal with it much. I can't remember if I put some old plantain ointment on it or not but the next day it was worse. All day I kept plantain ointment and fresh plantain packed on it but it still got worse. Over the course of the day, my calf swelled up, my leg got a bit stiff, and it hurt to walk! Boy did it itch too. By night, my calf was totally red, swollen, and hot. It still hurt and it itched. I kept at my plantain and added a little BFC to it. That seemed to ease some of the itching. I had to keep off my leg and use some ice to bring down the inflammation. I ended up resting all day because it was so miserable of a bite. On the fourth day, I remembered the Immucalm or Kid-e-Soothe formula. I took a couple droppers of Kid-e-Soothe (that is what I had on hand and it is the same as Immucalm with marshmallow and astragalus). Almost immediately the swelling started to go down. Now it looked like I had a weird old bruise surrounding a bite site. I kept at the Kid-e-soothe as well as more Complete Tissue because I figured there was some tissue damage given the looks of the bite site. By the fifth day, that weird bruise look had shrunk and I just had an occasionally itchy red dot. Over the next few days I used the Complete Tissue and Kid-e-soothe as needed. Success!
Fast forward a few weeks. I was sitting in a chair at this old amusement park and all of a sudden my ankle was itching HORRIBLY! I looked down and there was a bite (looked like the same swollen bite I had had a few weeks before). We rushed home to get some plantain for me. This time it was unbearably itchy immediately. Worse than a mosquito. I downed some Immucalm and kept at it the whole time. This time my ankle did swell up but not as much. As long as I kept the immucalm and some plantain ointment that had some comfrey in it on the bite, I was mostly itch free. Thank goodness for that Immucalm!
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