Shingles & EO's

[Guest guest]

> Shingles has been discussed on any of the lists. I just remembered that

> there was some discussion on the subject. I hadn't been feeling well

and I

> had a mole that looked funny so I went to our family dermatologist

of over

> 40 years in my family. He is from the old school. He looked at it

and said,

> " Guess what? You have shingles. I will give you a prescription. " I

thanked

> him for his prescription and went home to start looking at what I

had in my

> arsenal of oils. Oregano came to mind first but before I did I wanted to

> ask about your personal experiences over the years. Thank you for

sharing.

> You answered my questions. The pain and the fatigue are the main

problems.

> I thought that I had burnout from the stress this past summer but

found out

> otherwise. Now I can get to work on putting this case of shingles into

> remission. It's hard to remember what you know when you don't feel good.

 

Hi Rhavda,

First and foremost: please try to take it easy during this bout of

shingles! The easier you are on yourself the easier it's going to be

overall.

I first had shingles back in 2002, a scant week after having half of

my thyroid removed. I was *very* stressed out at the time as a live-in

caregiver for a woman with Alzheimer's who was gravely ill. I'd only

taken 2 days off before going back to work (with only a whisper of a

voice and a very hard of hearing charge!) and that was easily the

cause of the outbreak.

I broke down in tears when the doctor told me my swollen glands and

painful spot on my inner thigh was shingles. Just the word terrified

me! In addition to a painkiller, the doctor gave me a prescription for

something that was supposed to decrease the length of the outbreak

since we'd caught it early enough.

I was fortunate enough to have someone here in San Diego with a good

selection of EO's and carriers who brought me a blend of Ravensara in

Calophyllum carrier oil in a roller bottle. It worked okay for me. I'd

like to say the dilution was 10%. (I was only applying it directly to

the outbreak and desperate for relief.)

If my memory serves, Marcia sent me a message shortly after saying

that capsicum is quite useful for shingles. Hopefully she'll chime in

as well. :-)

The good news? In my case, each successive outbreak of shingles was

considerably less painful than the last. I think I had 4 outbreaks

total over a 2 year period.

 

Take care,

Stacey

[Guest guest]

Hi Rhavda,

 

> Thank you for your advice. I will take it easy. I have already

started to

> do this and I am seeing some results but it is hard for an A-Type

> personality like myself. I really did not realize until I stopped and

> started thinking about how much stress that I have and am still under.

 

Maybe try to think of it as a not-too-gentle wake-up call from your

body to *slow down*, just for now. You can do it! Maybe consider the

downtime as a chance for you to watch those DVD's you've been wanting

to see and to read those books you've been wanting to read. :-D

 

Ta,

Stacey