I'm a little late in welcoming you back, but want to let you know that you've been in my thoughts and prayers and happy to know that your recovery is underway.
Laura said:
Thebull said:
I was wondering if your having reiki, massage or any other therapies at the moment to help you with your recovery?
We do Reiki about once a week.
I went to the physiotherapist and he refused to work on me because he was afraid of doing more damage. He said my knee was such a wreck, he wouldn't touch it and we can only pray that the stem cells do something. That was kinda depressing, but better he should be cautious, I guess.
I'm using red light/near infrared on it and that feels good. I guess we'll see if it does what it promises.
This came to mind after reading about your knee, Laura... I've always had excellent results using comfrey poultices for bone breaks and joint injuries (ie. strains, sprains, tendonitis, etc)
It isn't hard to make and apply, but it'll be easier with an assistant:
-If using dried root and/or leaves, soak 1 cup of root and/or leaves in a quart of water for 12 hours.
-If using fresh, double the amount of root/leaves, chopped coarsely and skip the soaking part.
-Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
-Add about a half a cup of thickener such as cornmeal, ground flax or oat bran and a 1/8 t. of cayenne (omit if your skin is sensitive to this) to help with opening circulation to that area. Cover and remove from heat to allow thickening to occur, 20 minutes or so.
-Spread a thin layer of this mucilage out on a couple layers of woven cotton, large enough to wrap around knee and something you won't mind throwing away when done. Old flannel sheet or shirt works fine.
-Place that on a big enough piece of plastic wrap so it has an inch or more margin larger than cotton. Allow to cool, but apply as warm as you can tolerate.
-Wrap snugly and secure with tape or a couple strips of cloth tied around both ends of poultice or more plastic wrap. Leave on until nearly dry, keeping your leg raised and resting. (Putting it on before bedtime is ideal, but you may want to put old sheet underneath in case of leakage from poultice)
-Repeat as soon as you can, preferably when you can rest with it on, making sure to gently heat mucilage, but not allowing to boil, before assembling next poultice.
For chronic conditions, it seems to help prime the area by alternating hot and cold compresses, 20 minutes each, and at least 3 times for each; this helps open things up and squeeze some of the lactic acid out of tissue. Then apply the poultice, after allowing skin to come to ambient temperature. Since you're using IR, I would think that applying poultice after using IR would be as beneficial as the Hot/cold alternating compresses, the whole idea being to increase circulation.
My first success with using a comfrey poultice was almost 25 years ago, using dried leaves and roots of comfrey to make the poultice which was applied to a friend's ankle sprain. The way he recovered after the hot/cold alternating compresses before each of the three poultice applications over the course of two days was amazing! Only caution to note is that because it works so well, MAKE SURE any broken bones are set first since it does speed the bone knitting process. (I found that out first hand when son's "sprained finger" was actually broken; it had to be re-broken and yea, bones had already knitted enough from using comfrey poultice. Lesson learned!)
Dr. Shook writes (in Dr. John Christopher's book School of Natural Healing):
" It does not seem to matter much which part of the body is broken, either internally or externally; comfrey will heal it quickly. It is a great cell proliferant or new cell grower, it grows new flesh and bone alike, stops hemorrhage, and is wonderful for coughs, soothing and healing the inflamed tissues in a most remarkable manner."
Laura, I'm not sure if the condition of your knee would contraindicate using a treatment such as this. Just sharing my experience with this healing poultice, seems the least I could do after the wealth of sharing you have done with all of us.
Here's to your speedy recovery.
Write On, Laura!
