Essential Oils to the Rescue | Story Time With Jo

A few years ago, I hosted a friend who had come to visit and who had sprained her ankle a few days prior to the visit. To assist her in the healing of her ankle, I offered to prepare her an epsom salt foot soak. She was a sales rep for a very popular essential oil company and I knew she would be traveling with some of her oils. I thought, the oils with the epsom salt would make a fantastic combo to help the swelling. After she had been soaking her foot/ankle for a while, I boiled some water in a kettle to warm up her soak. As I was pouring the freshly boiled water into the basin, I absent-mindedly put my hand under the stream of the boiling water which immediately burned my palm and the webbing in-between my fingers. 

Fortunately, my friend acted quickly and immediately started dousing my hand with oils. Among them were Frankincense, Peppermint and Lavender (possibly also Myrrh?). My hand felt like it was on fire! I couldn’t believe what a dumb thing I had done to myself. As you can imagine, being an Acupuncturist, I was concerned I would have to cancel seeing my patients the next day since my hand was not likely to be in a good state, and I obviously use my hands to work. It was so intensely red and throbbing in pain. Every few minutes, my friend would re-douse my hand in oils. At one point, she had added so many different kinds that I asked her “are you sure these are helpful for burns?” and she responded with “I don’t know but they are worth a try”. She felt so bad that I had burned my hand trying to help her ankle. Meanwhile I felt bad that she was using so many of her precious, and pricey, oils on my hand. 

All of this happened in the evening and eventually I went to bed with my hand still throbbing and very red. For several hours I could feel the discomfort and sensitivity (heaven forbid the sheet would accidentally rub against my palm…yikes!). At some point though, I did fall asleep. When I woke up in the morning, I mentally prepared myself to look down at my hand and find it blistered and angry. To my surprise, my palm looked completely normal! The webbing in between my fingers had started to develop the protective scab your skin builds after a burn. Otherwise, there was no evidence of anything happening. I did have some minor sensitivity/tenderness but that was it…I was a believer! The essential oils had worked their magic and I was able to go to work that day with zero issues. My friend made sure to douse my hand in oils before going to work and again after I came home. Actually, she left me a bunch of oil bottles for me to use even after her visit had ended. 

The lesson of essential oils was repeated again for me just yesterday. I was making a frittata and placed my pan in the oven, as one does when making a frittata. I pulled the pan out of the oven and walked away for a minute to do something else (perhaps prepare some tea). When I turned around to cut the slices in my frittata, I didn’t even think twice and just reached for the handle of the pan with my bare hand. Ouch! I rushed over to the sink, turned on the cold water and placed my hand under the stream. While the coolness of the water felt good initially, the throbbing of the burn was starting to come on. I remembered that feeling and I was not looking forward to what was to come. I immediately remembered to reach for essential oils. I just so happened to have a blend of Peppermint, Eucalyptus and Lavender oils in a base of Hemp oil (I call this blend “Soothing Elixir” and it was a product I made and stocked for my Apothecary before 2020) sitting on the counter. I covered my palm in the oils and placed it over the vent of my air purifier. Cool air on the burn felt good but the hot, throbbing sensation was very much there. As soon as the oils would absorb, I would apply another heavy layer, aka douse my hand with oils. I then remembered that I had colloidal silver gel and I applied that on top. 

Within a few minutes, the throbbing started to reduce in intensity and the redness seemed to reach its peak. More layers of oils and colloidal silver gel were applied as soon as they would start to dry on my skin. After 15 minutes, the throbbing had pretty much gone and the redness was much more reduced. Still had a lot of sensitivity in my hand but it felt like the worst was over. I continued the pattern of dousing, allowing it to absorb and re-dousing for about an hour and a half total. Within 2 hours, my hand looked almost completely normal. There was a little bit of swelling and some mild tenderness but you would never have known that I had gripped the handle of a pan that was inside a 350ºF oven, just 2 hours prior. I somehow thought to take “progress pics” as all of this was going down and I shared them on this IG post if you want to reference them. 

I had a massage appointment scheduled for that evening, that I was very much looking forward too, and I contemplated wearing a glove and telling my bodyworker that my hand was off limits. However, by the time my appointment time rolled around, my hand felt completely fine! No tenderness, no redness, no swelling. I developed zero blisters and zero scabs. 

At this point in my life, I didn’t need any more reasons to believe in the power of essential oils. My belief was already cemented after the experience I had with the boiling water meeting my very non-heat resistant hand years ago. I will admit that I might have also used arnica at some point after the first burn and that I used colloidal silver gel with the second burn. I also used heavy amounts of prayer in both instances. However, essential oils were the first treatment strategy to reach my hands and the ones most abundantly used in the healing process. 

I’m sharing this story to remind you to always place pot holders on hot handles that come out of the oven, and to share a healing modality that you mind find useful should you ever have a similar, unfortunate encounter with hot items. Depending on where you live, you may even find small companies that grow the plants and distill their own essential oils locally. I know a guy who has a small lavender farm on his property just 30 minutes away from me (his oil was one of the ones I used). While you should do your research on which essential oils to buy, and which are good quality, I do encourage you to keep some essential oils on hand. They have a myriad of uses from first aid to household cleaning and air freshening. You can even use oils over Acupuncture points for added therapeutic benefits. 

This is my first “story time with Jo” post. I hope that you enjoyed this type of post in which I quite literally recant a story about a past experience, and hopefully pass along some wisdom in the process. As always, feel free to share with someone who may find this useful. Thank you for taking the time to read and be here with me in my little corner of the inter webs. Have a happy and safe, burn free, New Year :)