What could I do with no equipment?
So, my husband and I are on holiday in Norway.
As we are in a hotel where all the meals are provided and laundry facilities are available, we decided to book only cabin luggage; no large suitcase in the hold full of lots of stuff. This has been a bit of a challenge – as apart from clothes, my laptop, and our books, we just about had space for my husband’s medication, but not my little herbal first aid bag.
The weather is hot, the rooms comfortable, we can see the fjord, so all is well.
But then, I get a message from a family member who is at the hotel with us. Someone has an inflamed eye and an irritating rash over their face. Not quite eczema but looks similar. It is so uncomfortable, puffy, and itchy that they have remained in their room for two days. Have I got anything to help?
Short answer, really, is no.
But then I remember two things.
- I had brought a few Chamomile tea bags
- Someone had given me a small bottle of organic Greek olive oil from a farm they had just visited.
So, what could I do with these?
I remembered when one of my sons had an inflamed eye in the middle of the night when he was about ten. The irritation woke him up and the eye was swollen, puffy, and red. All I had at that time was Chamomile tea bags. I made a strong Chamomile tea, let it cool, bathed the eye in the tea then squeezed the tea bag so it wasn’t dripping and fastened it over his closed eye, wrapped bandages around it to keep in place and sent him back to bed. Next morning his eye was fine – no redness, no swelling, no irritation. In remembrance of this I handed two of my Chamomile tea bags to them and told them to do the same.
That evening I got a message to say that the eye was ‘definitely improving’ with just the Chamomile infusion and poultice.
I strolled around the grounds of the hotel looking for weeds medicinal herbs, and I found some. Not all these plants would have been my first choice for a healing topical oil, but still -medicinal herbs none the less. I found Chamomile, Plantain, Yarrow and Shepherd’s Purse. I cleaned them and snipped them into a pan of warming oil [we had a kitchenette in our suite], I left them on low for 4-5 hours, then switched off the hob and left them in the oil overnight. Next day I syphoned the oil off the herbs into a bowl and gave the oil to them with instructions to apply small amounts around the eye and over the irritating rash.
- Chamomile: Anti-inflammatory, Vulnerary [wound healer], and Anti-allergic
- Plantain: Anti-allergy/anti-histamine, Vulnerary, Emollient
- Yarrow: Anti-inflammatory, Astringent, Antiseptic.
- Shepherd’s Purse: Anti-microbial, Anti-inflammatory
I was particularly pleased with two of the herbs having anti-allergic properties, because it seemed likely that the skin flare up was an allergic reaction to something. Tomorrow I will have to find out if it has helped, but the recipient texted me to say thanks for ‘the medicine’. Sometimes, it is just nice to be able to something which could be useful.
P.S. The day after application of the oil the skin was actually better, and looked clear. Just saying…
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