I never thought of myself as a camper. I might've even thought campers were just a little weird. I didn't understand who would choose to load up half the house, drive it 3 hours away, pay money to rent a spot to squeeze it all into a little space that you share with ants and mosquitos, and very close neighbors. I didn't get who would choose to vacation with strangers in such close vicinity that you get a chorus of "Bless you's" from all around you when you sneeze.
I understand now- It's called parenting.
Life changes when you get unexpected news. Riah's Drs. tried to encourage us by saying there's many MD kids that live until 21 years of age. They meant well, but it didn't do anything for me. And even though he's well enough now that his disease is not very noticeable to you, it is to us and its never far from our minds. And believe me, nothing slows life down as quickly as being told your child will most likely die a slow early death. Suddenly all we wanted to do was play with our kids, do things, take pictures, make memories and still the time.
So if our kids wanna go camping and we get to spend more family time together, then we're going camping. They love it. They don't care about the dirt and bugs and neighbors and beds so small your feet hang over the edge and the tiny bathroom you have to back into because there's no room to turn around once you're in.
On the way there, driving 3 hours to our destination with the kids asleep, I had time to research essential oils, what they were known to do and how they could possibly help Riah. My sister introduced me to them a while ago and I've been using them for 'everyday things'. Belly-aches, cuts and scrapes, head-aches, ear-aches, bumps and bruises. I've always been a little skeptical of 'natural ' healing but I still enjoyed the oils. I love the thought of remedies in a bottle, and flowery aromatherapy. But I never expected to use them for a life threatening disease.
The bumps and bruises thing.. It worked for me recently when I got a huge nasty goose egg on my head (I won't go into detail about how it happened because I do have my pride) I was ready to go to somewhere when it happened. It hurt, I could feel it swelling up and I actually felt nauseous. More worried about how it looked then the pain I applied lavender 2 or 3 times, hoping the swelling would go down. It did and although there was a little red mark on it, and a sore spot for a week or two, there was no huge bump. I went to my thing and nobody mentioned it so either it really wasn't noticeable or they were too polite to say anything. But no, there was family there, so forget the polite part. It was the lavender.
I actually use it all the time for Riah's head bumps that he gets a lot of from his falling so I know it works. Now that I know what it feels like I feel even sorrier for him when it happens...
Two other favorites: I've had years of neck and shoulder pain and when I did get it checked out there were quite a few vertebrae out of place, probably from a childhood fall. I had some major work done to it and was told I needed to have ongoing physical therapy. I never followed up though, just used the oils and I haven't been to a chiropractor for almost 2 years. Its still my sensitive spot, whether from stress or overdoing it, but if I feel the pain and soreness coming, I use oils to combat it. They feel SO good with a heating pad and so far I've always managed to get the pain to disappear. I'm convinced they work for that.
We're experimenting with oils for our hot tub. We let the kids go in it everyday, in hopes of soothing Riah's muscles. I hated the chemicals in it so I researched and found Geranuim and Theives supposedly work to keep the water clean. We drained and refilled it adding 10 drops each of Geranium and the oil blend Theives. It seemed a little weird to think of adding such a tiny amount to such a huge amount of water expecting it to keep it clean.. but it worked! 24 hours later the water was still clear, still smelled great and my kids came out smelling like flowers instead of the usual clorine.
But sometimes things are just to good too last.. a few days before our camping expedition we found a source of grass fed beef that had to be picked up immedietely and my little freezer was full so we had to go buy a new one. While we're installing the big freezer in our basement our two littlest were nicely playing with the packaging (we thought), only to discover they were actually taking the Styrofoam and cardboard and crumbling it up, into the hot tub that I had JUST treated again with the oils. We were so discouraged we just shut it off and closed it, figuring we'll deal with it later. Just before we left though I peeked in.. and it really didn't look that bad. Maybe the oils will be able to clear that up too.
So the next part of my plan.. focusing on how this particular kind of MD works, which part of the body it affects, and how to target each symptom with essential oils. I don't pretend to understand it all completely, but I know there's inflammation, scar tissue, cramping, gradual weakening of skeletal muscles.
When I had looked into using essential oils with muscular dystrophy there were a handful that popped up. Frankinscense, wintergreem, basil, marjoram, lemongrass. That didn't mean much to me until I researched about how the body works and then again how the oils work.
I don't know how you are but I don't use products unless I know how and why they work. I don't have much patience with miracle products that cure everything. I've even found some for MD. Great for all muscular dystrophies, all for $69.99. Click on the link to buy. What, their product can miracously grow back the missing gene? MD is different then other disease, there's a piece of your body missing and unless you can tell me how your product is going to help, I'm not interested. Especially not when time is of importance.
But I know the essential oils can be powerful and I guess I look at them a little different then I do supplements you take. After all, they've been around forever. They're mentioned in the bible hundereds of times and I've never read that vitamins and minerals and protein shakes are. They're also something you use externally, which especially in this case I like because I can massage then directly onto the affected areas, and it feels as if I'm actually DOING something helpful, not just giving him things to swallow hoping it'll get to the right place!
After doing lots of research, testimonies I've found online, books I've read and people I've talked to (because you just can't be too careful) I'm ready to try them.
My reference guide for Young Living Essential Oils says this;
Wintergreen for inflammation. Frankinscense for internal scar tissue. Lemongrass for tissue regeneration. Oregano for anti-flammatory. And many more.. A different essential oil for each different malfunction going on in Riah's body. Treating the symptoms. Usually I hate treating the symptoms because I'd rather get to the source of the problem, correct it and often your symptoms will disappear. Unfortunetly in this case, I can't do that. So while we wait for a cure for MD we'll use Essential Oils.
We survived our 2nd camping trip. The first time we went, I spent most of the day before we left loading up the camper, stacking everything nice and neat, taking everything I could possibly think of that that we might need. This second time I figured we know how its done and we won't need as much stuff so I waited until a few hours before we left and just kinda threw stuff in. Next time I'm hoping to reach the in between mark.
I didn't forget my small stash of Essential oils, which was a very good thing, because I forgot sun screen, pillows, silverware, soap, contact lenses, coffee cups, tablecloth, sheets, dish cloths and ketchup.
Making a list of what I used; Lavender for sun burn, (no sun screen) a blend of wintergreen, peppermint, oregano, coconut oil for the sore necks and backs (no pillows) Purifiaction to keep away mosquiotos, peppermint to keep flies off of me while sleeping (no sheets) Peppermint and Digize for digestion (allergy to corn syrup in store bought ketchup). Peace and calming since we strayed off of Riah's no sugar diet. Thieves for swimmers ear. Stress Away for when it rained, when the toilet leaked, when I wore a new flowery beach dress and one of the kids patted my belly telling me that big flower is just beautiful, when laying out in the sun self conscious of close neighbors I ask my husband how fat I look and I realize his incredulous response was because he thought I asked how flat I look.
We decided we love camping.
Back to Essential oils, please know that the only ones I've ever used are from Young Living. These remedies I've mentioned worked for us, I do not know whether other brands will do the same, and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Please be careful because they are strong oils!
Since I've been doing and will keep on doing more research about essential oils I will probably continue to write about them and especially if they work for Riah's Md symptoms I will want to tell the whole world! So going against yet another thing I've always thought I would never do, I might eventually have one of those annoying links to buy now. If that were to ever happen though, I will do my best to tell you as much as I know about them.
Young Living is one of those companies where you get paid to refer and teach others what you've learned. I usually stay away from that when it comes to health because I don't want anyone to ever think I care more about their money then their health. But the truth is, all these natural approaches we're taking will eventually end up being expensive and obviously insurance doesn't cover anything (Maybe we should move to France, I've heard there insurance covers the use of Essential Oils and Corn syrup is banned) and if I can get paid to pass on information then I guess I'll do it.
But in the meantime, in the good old USA, I'll continue to research, learn and share as I go.. and if you want to know more about essential oils (or anything else I'm trying) please send me an email! Or if you're local, I'll be happy to meet with you and help how I can. Also, tomorrow August 13, at 1 in the afternoon and 7 in the evening I'll have someone at my house explain more about Essential oils. Join us if you're interested! I'll probably be doing more in the future if tomorrow happens to be too short notice to fit in your schedule.:/
Oh, the many, many things we do as parents that we never thought we'd do...
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