It has now been three weeks since my daughter broke her collarbone, and if I hadn't seen her healing with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it.
The medical profession saysa collarbone typically takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal.
My daughter's took two.
Many of you, like my wife, won't be surprised by this, but having not come from an herbalist's background, things like this still amaze me.
My wife has been studying herbs and natural healing for quite a while, so as she saw this healing occur her reaction was simply "Well yeah, that's the way it works.
" On a Monday morning my 4-year-old little girl fell off the couch and landed just right to breakher collarbone.
She immediately began screaming in pain, and not just the kind of screaming when a kid falls down and gets bumped.
This was the type of screaming where you immediately know something is definitely wrong.
All you parents know exactly what I'm talking about.
She couldn't be touched, she couldn't be consoled, and she wouldn't calm down.
Suspecting that something might be broken, we quickly went to the doctor's office to get x-rays.
The x-ray confirmed our suspicions and clearly showed her broken clavicle.
While very nice and professional, the only thing the doctor suggested was a sling and gave her a prescription for Tylenol3.
We thanked him very much, didn't bother to fill the prescription, and went home.
Now that we knew it was a broken bone, we knew exactly where to start working.
We immediately started giving her Comfrey tea with Willow to drink.
Comfrey is a bone and tissue healer while Willow helps to relieve pain (Aspirin was actually derived from Willow).
We put a Complete Tissue And Bone (formerly known as Bone Flesh and Cartilage or BF&C formula) fomentation on her collarbone and kept it there for the rest of the day.
We also gave her homeopathic Arnica dissolved in water frequently.
Arnica has been used since the 1500s for treating injuries such as sprains, breaks and bruises.
Our routine over the next several days included 5 to 6 cups of Comfrey tea with Willow in it, fomentations most of the day and at night, Complete Tissue And Bone powder added to our green drinks in the morning, Complete Tissue And Bone oil rubbed on her clavicle, and homeopathic Arnica dissolved in water 3 or 4 times during the day.
So what were the results? On Tuesday, the day after the accident, her collarbone was very painful, and she needed help with everything including going to the bathroom.
She couldn't color, and she spent the day watching movies, which kept her still.
Wednesday she had a lot less pain and was generally moving around a lot more.
Thursday her cousins came over and she played with them for several hours.
She wore a sling for a few hours that day to remind her not to move her arm too much.
Friday she went to see a ballet, took the sling off because it was annoying her, and was active all day.
By Sunday she was happy and playing, carrying her baby dolls, dressing up, and even running, though her collarbone hurt slightly while running.
Over the following week she kept getting better and better.
We kept the routine of giving her Comfrey tea with Willow, rubbing oil on her clavicle during the day, and putting fomentations on at night, though we reduced the frequency.
By the following Tuesday, now two weeks since the break, she was acting as if it had never happened.
In fact she even went swimming and was later bragging that she was able to do all of her strokes: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and even butterfly.
Later in the week she was even crawling.
It has now been three weeks and we still rub Complete Tissue And Bone oil on her collarbone and she has at least one cup of Comfrey tea each day.
We also still add Complete Tissue And Bone powder to our green drinks in the morning.
She is acting like our active 4-year-old little girl again and, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never even guess that she ever broke her collarbone.
Herbs really are nature's blessing for health.
The medical profession saysa collarbone typically takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal.
My daughter's took two.
Many of you, like my wife, won't be surprised by this, but having not come from an herbalist's background, things like this still amaze me.
My wife has been studying herbs and natural healing for quite a while, so as she saw this healing occur her reaction was simply "Well yeah, that's the way it works.
" On a Monday morning my 4-year-old little girl fell off the couch and landed just right to breakher collarbone.
She immediately began screaming in pain, and not just the kind of screaming when a kid falls down and gets bumped.
This was the type of screaming where you immediately know something is definitely wrong.
All you parents know exactly what I'm talking about.
She couldn't be touched, she couldn't be consoled, and she wouldn't calm down.
Suspecting that something might be broken, we quickly went to the doctor's office to get x-rays.
The x-ray confirmed our suspicions and clearly showed her broken clavicle.
While very nice and professional, the only thing the doctor suggested was a sling and gave her a prescription for Tylenol3.
We thanked him very much, didn't bother to fill the prescription, and went home.
Now that we knew it was a broken bone, we knew exactly where to start working.
We immediately started giving her Comfrey tea with Willow to drink.
Comfrey is a bone and tissue healer while Willow helps to relieve pain (Aspirin was actually derived from Willow).
We put a Complete Tissue And Bone (formerly known as Bone Flesh and Cartilage or BF&C formula) fomentation on her collarbone and kept it there for the rest of the day.
We also gave her homeopathic Arnica dissolved in water frequently.
Arnica has been used since the 1500s for treating injuries such as sprains, breaks and bruises.
Our routine over the next several days included 5 to 6 cups of Comfrey tea with Willow in it, fomentations most of the day and at night, Complete Tissue And Bone powder added to our green drinks in the morning, Complete Tissue And Bone oil rubbed on her clavicle, and homeopathic Arnica dissolved in water 3 or 4 times during the day.
So what were the results? On Tuesday, the day after the accident, her collarbone was very painful, and she needed help with everything including going to the bathroom.
She couldn't color, and she spent the day watching movies, which kept her still.
Wednesday she had a lot less pain and was generally moving around a lot more.
Thursday her cousins came over and she played with them for several hours.
She wore a sling for a few hours that day to remind her not to move her arm too much.
Friday she went to see a ballet, took the sling off because it was annoying her, and was active all day.
By Sunday she was happy and playing, carrying her baby dolls, dressing up, and even running, though her collarbone hurt slightly while running.
Over the following week she kept getting better and better.
We kept the routine of giving her Comfrey tea with Willow, rubbing oil on her clavicle during the day, and putting fomentations on at night, though we reduced the frequency.
By the following Tuesday, now two weeks since the break, she was acting as if it had never happened.
In fact she even went swimming and was later bragging that she was able to do all of her strokes: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and even butterfly.
Later in the week she was even crawling.
It has now been three weeks and we still rub Complete Tissue And Bone oil on her collarbone and she has at least one cup of Comfrey tea each day.
We also still add Complete Tissue And Bone powder to our green drinks in the morning.
She is acting like our active 4-year-old little girl again and, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never even guess that she ever broke her collarbone.
Herbs really are nature's blessing for health.