Confessions of a Humbled Mother

I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that our family had spent a weekend clearing our back pasture. As Paul Harvey would say....Here's the rest of the story.

Several days before we worked in the pasture, I had met up with Tnfarmgirl (her blog link is in our sidebar). I purchased a bar of Chocolate Ice Soap, (that soap was soooo good it deserves its own blog post), healing salve, and poison ivy salve. I felt armed and ready for whatever may come our way. That weekend we headed off to the pasture. As we were headed out there, I thought I am sure one of our kids will get poison ivy from this and I will get to try out that new salve. You see I am actually the skeptical customer that Tnfarmgirl refers too. I am always amazed when natural things work. I have actually called her on the phone and said, "You aren't going to believe this but such and such REALLY worked"! So when I realized that my children would be coming into contact with poison ivy, I was actually excited. This was going to be a great experiment for me. I am not allergic to poison ivy so I couldn't try it out on myself, and I was willing to let those darling little ones be my Guinea pigs. By Monday morning, I noticed my neck was itching. By Monday afternoon, my whole body was itching. I had a major case of poison ivy for the first time in my whole life. (God does have a sense of humor)! I quickly put the poison ivy salve on my spots. I was surprised at how much it helped control the itching. I used it frequently, and I noticed that the patches did not spread. I had a large patch on my right cheek and right side of my nose. I was faithful to use the salve on my face, and it helped the itching so much. It had a cooling effect on my face. However, one morning my daughter and I were headed out for a girls' day, and I decided not to use the salve on my face. I did not use any make up that day. After we got home later that afternoon, the poison ivy had spread to the lower lid of my eye. My eye was so puffy that I could see it when I looked down. I promptly put on more of the salve. My kids were suggesting a trip to the Dr. for a steroid shot. I told them that if by the next day it wasn't better, then I would go get a steroid shot. I just wanted to avoid that if at all possible, and I already had confidence in the salve that I was using. By that evening, my face was better. The swelling under my eye had gone down. I was very thankful to avoid a trip to the Dr.
My experiment worked. The poison ivy salve did a much better job than the pink calamine lotion that our family had always used in the past. It controlled the itching, and it helped the patches not grow larger. It wasn't a miracle cure to make poison ivy be gone in 3o minutes or less, but I believe without a doubt it was the reason that I was able to avoid a steroid shot. Plus it helped keep the itching under control. When the itching started, I would go use the salve, and I felt so much better. My medicine cabinet will be well stocked with this salve from this day forward.

My children did get a small amount of poison ivy, but it was nothing like they usually get. I had to ask forgiveness from them for all the times in the past I told them "Just don't scratch and it will feel better soon". That is like saying "Just don't breath, and you will feel all better soon".

And now you know the REST of the story......

grace and peace,
julie