Pondering Progress – oils not working for you?

Wow! What a week. My youngest son had an emergency appendectomy on Tuesday morning. Short story – we spent the entire week in the hospital. It would be a trying week on anyone’s body, so it was a real test for my Fibro Wellness. Good news – my son is now fine and we are all home together again. AND I am still declaring myself “well”. But I won’t sugar coat it, either. Five days of little sleep, irregular meals, and sleeping on the equivalent of a padded park bench…..I did make a dive for the pain medicine when I got home today.

Enough about me. I have put the Songbird blend on a few other Fibro gals in the last couple of weeks and they have not had the awesome results I did. So I am left pondering the difference. I still am a firm believer in the oils. If you need some affirmation of them visit http://www.oil-testimonials.com. Tons and tons of people made well by the oils. What I’m wondering is: if the one thing that is critical to eradicating the pain is the Raindrop (detox) that I did as soon as I started oils. Its no doubt that detox is important to healing. I would even say imperative to healing. So I can continue to research. If you are following my BLOG and I’ve given you oils, or you have gone out and trying it on your own, don’t give up! I’m still researching. I KNOW this works, I just have to figure out what exactly worked! Was it was combination of diet + raindrop + oils? Would just the Raindrop oils work? We are going to figure this out!

I was so blessed while at the hospital to have a couple opportunities to talk about oils! Not just to talk about the oils….but really, it was more of a blessing to have the opportunity to be able to talk with others about their health struggles. If nothing else, I hope that being able to talk to someone else who really understands “unwell”, made them feel better. Maybe I also gave them hope.

“Freed”…The Good Samaritan…& CO-Pie-eeeee-ba.

I’m happy to say that no news is good news. All the days since my last blog have been pain free except for one. Want to guess why? Beef. I made beef tips for my family and “chicken tips” for myself. I fished out two tiny little pieces of beef because the recipe is so good! And I paid for it in pain by the hour all the next day. The moral: “’cause after all, beef is still beef no matter how small”

So Sunday was a great day to be at worship. Our minister spoke on a topic and I came away with insight that I’m sure was not his intention. It was great insight, however! He had two main scripture references. The first is found in Mark 5. It’s the account of the woman who was ill and was healed by merely touching the cloak of Jesus. Two things stood out to me. First Mark tells us that she had suffered for 12 years and had been cared for by many doctors (sound familiar?). Secondly, verse 29 says:

Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was FREED from her suffering.

(NIV)

Most translations say “cured” but if you are suffering from a chronic condition: illness, pain, depression, addiction, insomnia, I think you will agree that FREED is an awesome concept! These illnesses control our lives. They control where we go, what we do, who we see, what we eat (don’t eat). We are in bondage to these illnesses. I am seeking freedom from the pain and fatigue. I want to be free to enjoy activities with my kids. Free to make commitments because I will be capable of keeping them. Free from the prescriptions that eat into my pocket book and alter me physically, emotionally, and mentally. So for this reason, as I research and learn about the oils my new “Fibro Bomb” recipe blend will be called “Freed”!

The next part of the sermon was about “The Good Samaritan”, a well known biblical account of a man who stopped to help a poor soul on the side of the road. Luke Chapter 10.

He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

In those days using oils to heal was as common as the Neosporin us Moms carry in our purses and glove departments. This is one of the many, many, many references to oil found in the bible. Of course the idea of healing and oils is close to my heart so this verse naturally stood out. Now here is the biggest leap anyone has ever made from such a sermon, but I believe the bible speaks to all of us individually, in different ways. Once the injured man was taken care of by the “Good Samaritan” he asked how he could repay him.

Luke 10:37
“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

I have prayed for healing for a long time, but not as long as some of you reading this. I think God answers our prayers in the most unpredictable ways. I am not healed, wholly, but I am getting there. God didn’t just put one person in my life to tell me about these oils, he put two people. I didn’t pay attention the first time. So here I am, with the oils, spending pain free days, and finding ways to completely resolve this illness. A mercy I most assuredly do not deserve. So I read this passage and the message is clear: Go and do the same. I don’t want to sell you oils. If I was wealthy I would give them away to everyone in need of them. I want you to be FREED. I want to share my pathway to freedom with you. Thus the purpose of this BLOG.

Finally…..CO-Pie-eeeee-ba!!! Copaiba. (but it so much more fun to say it the other way) I learned that copaiba is not only an anti-inflammatory but it calms the nervous system. *Ding Ding* Why is that important, Fibro Friends? Because our neuro-transmitters are freaking out! I don’t currently have any on hand so I borrowed a few drops from Beth to make what YL distributors refer to as a “morphine bomb” (no, of course it doesn’t have morphine!) It has balsam fir, frankincense, and CO-Pie-eeeee-ba. It goes in a capsule and you swallow it. (REMEMBER what I said….do NOT ingest any oils other than ones you know to be truely 100% oils…i.e. Young Living. You could poison yourself.) Anyway, the night after my run in with the beef tips I decided to break out the “morphine bomb”. Wow! Not only did it work better than any script that I have tried, it worked twice as fast. A nice side effect is that it made me super sleepy. Which was great as I have had trouble sleeping lately. So Copaiba will be making its way into my “Freed” blend. This oil also has the ability to “boost” the effects of other oils, among many other qualities. You can learn more here

So that’s the word for today. (say it with me co-pie-eeee-ba) 🙂

If you would like to get these oils click here.

The Mack Truck Disguised as Steak Fingers

My husband has an addiction you may be familiar with – its called Groupon. If you know anyone else with this particular addiction you know that means that all restaurant Groupons are targets. Restaurants that we’ve never been to before are even more so. So, he buys this Groupon to a restaurant we have never been to before and is only open for dinner two nights per week. So naturally it’s imperative we eat there, and fast! It’s a good, down home cooking kind of place with a “Bean Bar” on Thursday nights and steak fingers with mashed potatoes and gravy on the menu. Mmmmmm. It should be obvious where this is going but in case it’s not, let me decode this much: yummy breaded fried steak fingers = breaded fried BEEF fingers (whereby beef = agony). I really stink at algebra, but that equation I get….and ignored.

When the alarm went off this morning, I could hardly rouse enough to turn it off. It’s hardly the worst day I’ve had with Fibro but it has been the worst I’ve had since starting with the oils. So it was a disappointing day. But it was made better by a Healing Oils of the Bible Class (based on a book by David Stewart, Ph.D.) My whole family went with me and we all came home smelling like frankincense, hyssop, myrrh, and 11 other ancient oils. I really love hyssop! After coming home we engaged in our favorite friday night activity; We move our king size mattress into the living room and we all “camp out” on it, and the sectional, and watch movies. This is your friendly neighborhood spiderman projected on our 30ft wall. 🙂 Good for the soul.

The only change, yesterday, from my regular routine was the beef consumption, and maybe one or two (or four) snack cakes earlier in the week. Seriously people, our food is killing us and I know better. Since I have no resistance to snack cakes it would probably be best if we stopped buying them. This diet abuse is registering in my gut as well as the rest of my body.

I added more nutmeg to my blend today so we’ll see what that does. I was happy to be able to share this blend with a fellow Fibro gal I met tonight. I wish her luck!

We are also going to try diffusing Thieves Blend where we our sleeping because our cocker spaniel has a respiratory infection.

So the Fibro Report for today is:

Pain Level: 4-5
Fatigue Level: 7-8

Activities Yesterday: normal, housework, Mom work, etc.

Oils Applied: Songbird Blend, Raindrop in a bottle, Exodus II, Valor

Incidental Oils: Valor, Lavender, Thieves.

If you would like to get these oils click here

I like rain….and nutmeg.

It has been a long time since I have actually enjoyed a rainy day.  Usually it brings the promise of aches and pains and I can count the day out with the rise of the barometer.  But not today.  Today in fact has been entirely pain-free.  I wish I could speak as well of the fatigue but I did my normal 4:30 pm crash.  It was a productive day, however. So the plan is to get a repeat – another pain-free day tomorrow.  Here are the schematics for my “yesterday”:

Activities: Worked 1/2 day, ran errands, came home to be Mom.  Not a terribly productive day around the house as most work/errand days are.

Applied Oils: Songbird Blend (during the day), Exodus II and Vetiver before bed.

Incidental Oils (oils I applied to someone else but were on my hands): Valor, Peace & Calming.

Prescriptions: all the usual, plus Vit. D.

Tonight I plan on not taking my prescriptions for sleep and see how that goes. I’m also thinking that since fatigue is an obstacle for me, I might add more Nutmeg to the mix. I was reading that not only is it used for nerve pain (neuropathy), and fatigue, but it also increases growth hormone.  That’s interesting because just a couple of days ago I was reading research that said that Fibromyalgia patients have less growth hormone produced compared to healthy people and in a study, Fibro patients who were given the growth hormone reported less pain. So I think I will double the amount tomorrow and may reduce the amount of Eucalyptus since there are already several other anti-inflammatory oils in this mix, to see if it works a little better. It makes me think that if you had or were making this for someone with CFS/ME you would definitely want more nutmeg!

That is the wonderful thing about these oils. You learn and try out things and see what works best for yoru body. Since they all work together you don’t need to worry about them conflicting.  There are no lists of oils that have negative “interactions” with other oils.

If you would like to get these oils click here

It starts here….

That’s not true, of course.  We all are nothing more than our years of experiences, but the bigger point is that we can be newer, better, happier.  So we start: here.

There are historic posts imported from my old blog which will give the long story of how I got to “here”. It’s been a journey, for sure. But lets begin “here” with a very short synopsis.

In 2008 I became symptomatic with pain which was located primarily in my lower back, but also shoulders and hips.  I couldn’t sleep, stand, sit or, on some days, walk.  As if that wasn’t bad enough I had such fatigue that it was an enormous effort to do normal, every day activities. This was the beginning of what would turn out to be a four-year journey of almost every trial imaginable.

In 2010 I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and began my fact-finding mission. I was finally in the hands of a very good Rheumatologist and I started working through what that diagnosis means. ( I will write a full post on that bit of the journey, but for now, we are “here”.)  Over the past three years I have been committed to getting “well”.  I started one year ago, in 2012, with a diet change. No beef, and as little processed foods as practical.  After one month I was feeling better. After three-month the results were impressive but I was still nowhere near “well”. But better – better is good. I held to that constant with flares coming once every few weeks.  I thought maybe that would be as good as it gets…..but then, enter Beth.

Beth and I have been friends for about 15 years. She’s awesome, truly. Level headed, intelligent, wise. Though we were friends for so long, life is busy and we hadn’t spent a lot of time together in a long time. Circumstances in both our lives brought us together for some chats, and some heart to hearts, and a lot of catch up.  Her lifestyle had taken on many changes due to food allergies and it was through her that I was introduced to “the oils”. Not my first experience with essential oils – I have another friend dear to me that, once upon a time, made her own, including a line of body care products.  She was most knowledgable and I loved being involved with her in this venture….but I wasn’t sick, then. However, it was that background that already had given me the history with oils that I had respect for them not only as good smelling ointments, but for their inherent healing properties.  But back to “here”. Beth, over time, without making any outlandish claims that anyone with a chronic illness tires  of hearing, introduced me to her lifestyle, and eventually sent me home with two vials of oils. Overnight, I experienced a near miracle! I was pain-free for the first time since 2008. I was amazed! Not every day has been painf-free but still the decrease in pain and the amount of pain medication I am taking is….well, it is just amazing to me.  Fellow Fibro Friends are skepitical…others in my life are curious…so I decided to start a new BLOG.

“Here” is a time of transformation. It is a time of healing. A time of learning. Most importantly, however, it is a time of sharing! I want you to follow me. I am going to write what I learn. My trials and errors and successes. This BLOG is my testimony. I have seen others in this very short time, have their suffering taken from them with the help of these oils. I am ecstatic to see it happen.  I want to share what I learn so that if you happen to be that person whose life  has been bound by an illness or and emotional burden, you can have hope. The hardest part about getting well? Is having the energy to try to get well.  Healthy people don’t understand this. I’m far enough in that I have the energy now. I will experiment, and you can just follow along and read. I hope this is uplifting for you and an encouragement that no matter where you start, no matter what has happened, “here” is where you want it to be.  It’s today. It’s the time you find yourself willing to believe that you can be better. Welcome to my “here”.