This is a quick story of what is going on right now in my life. The reason I am sharing is I want to help empower you to think twice about medical advice when the first course of action is antibiotic use or antibiotic use and a radical trauma that may or may not heal the problem.

My husband was lying down in bed when the kitty (Luce) decided to pounce on his feet! This is something that is common place at our home with the 8 cats (yes I said it out loud) that currently live with us. This particular time Luce scratched Michael’s big toe  in the crevasse where the nail goes into the skin. I know that it bled a bit and was painful that night and thought that was the end of it. A few days later I looked down at his foot and his toe was bright reddish purple and HOT! I was astounded he did not say anything to me about it (the big dummy) and so I needed to develop a healing plan ASAP!

We soaked in Epsom salts 2 x day, poured Hydrogen Peroxide over the area and let it bubble and finished with antibiotic cream (which I had to purchase). I put on a band-aid to keep out the dirt and had him wear flip-flops no tennies and thought we were making great progress.

It was no longer reddish purple but still a different color in the pink tones and about the 5th day I noticed a slight swelling along the outside of the scratch extending about 1/4 inch above the toenail towards the knuckle. I didn’t like the looks of that and it was becoming very painful. I did a minor probing that evening with some needle-nose tweezers to see if by chance there was a piece of cuticle under the nail. While doing this I started to peel a bit of the top layer of the inflamed skin to try to open the abscess. My husband did not enjoy this one bit, it was super painful and getting him to hold the flashlight for me and stay still while I create pain was…..let’s just say better for me. I was successful however in opening up the abscess and helped it drain some! I felt that was all that we could do and that needed to be done.

The next day Michael was in pain and he wanted a doctor take a look. The Doctor gave us two options after looking at the toe for 30 seconds both of which seemed a bit radical: The first was a round of hard-core antibiotics plus antibiotic cream and soak the toe in Hydrogen Peroxide 2 x day for 7 days; The second option was to take off the toenail right away to clean the abscess, additionally take antibiotics for 7 days and let the toenail regrow. That was it, the only 2 choices given. This guy was a whack job!

I looked at Michael who was about to pass out on the table after being told that they wanted to rip off his perfectly attached and intact toe nail. I gave him a smile and a reassuring squeeze and told the doctor we were definitely not taking off the nail and secondly my husband needs to proceed with caution regarding antibiotic use due to his battle with C Difficile. I requested that we take the most gentle treatment to move forward with and soak the toe in the peroxide and put an antibiotic cream on. He seemed a bit miffed and said that if it didn’t work in 7 days to come back and he will remove the nail and left the room!

For the first 2 days I filled a shot glass full of Hydrogen Peroxide and had Michael lie face down on the bed with his feet hanging over the edge. I placed a stool under his foot and stuck his big toe in a shot glass full of Hydrogen Peroxide and let it soak for 10 minutes. Boy did it fizzzzzz! Afterwards I put on the cream as recommended by the doctor. I followed the instructions for the first 24 hours.  On the second night instead of the antibiotic cream I used doTerra Melaleuca oil. I thought my husband would jump off the bed since it can burn a wound like crazy…..To my surprise it didn’t burn! Recognized by its more common name “tea tree”, Melaleuca has been revered for its cleansing and regenerative properties, especially for the skin. Composed of more than ninety different compounds, Melaleuca has limitless therapeutic applications.

The next day there was a noticeable improvement and the pink color was fading to normal toe color. I added to the oil regimen the addition of lavender and oregano (super hot) oils and again these did not burn his toe at all! Lavender is widely used and accepted for its calming and relaxing qualities.  Hippocrates, the father of medicine, used oregano as a cleansing agent as well as for digestive and respiratory support. High in antioxidant activity, oregano contains phenolic acids and flavonoids (dilute when using topically). Not only were we making warp speed healing progress my man smelled like a little herbal drug store!

By Sunday morning the abscess had completely healed from the inside!  and all that was left was a callused outer skin with a small little red spot from the night I opened it up with the tweezers.

I will always use antibiotics when I feel they are warranted but what I learned most from this experience is to trust my inner healing goddess (which we all have) and allow my incredible CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade oils a chance to heal the body more gently.

If you would like any information on doTerra Oils and herbal healing please let me know. I would love to introduce a more natural way of healing for you and your family.