Shingles Before and After

Ok, so the first photo is how Josh looked before I knew he had shingles. I had covered the rash with antibiotic ointment and then protected it with band-aids before I knew what it was. After a day of that, it definitely looked worse! His poor skin is so sensitive that he had a reaction to the band-aids, which is why it's all red around the rash in the first photo. The rash itself was really more like the size of a silver dollar. Since Saturday I've been using Forever Young's Geranium Oil, and ShingleDerm Rescue Plus by Peaceful Mountain. Within a day, the rash was noticeably less red, and within two days it had started to completely scab over. The last photo was taken today (Tuesday). Can you believe how good that looks? (I mean, compared to how it looked Friday night?). I am so thankful for natural remedies. It is so empowering to be able to heal yourself. The blisters keep popping up everywhere, but I've been diligent about dabbing them with geranium oil (administered with a Q-Tip) , and then a smear of the ShingleDerm gel. Within an hour of adding the remedies, the blisters have been vanishing. Of course, they do keep popping up in other places, but they are responding beautifully as long as I stay right on top of them. I wish I had thought to take a picture last night, because his entire body had started to be covered with red puffy bumps, (pre-blisters, I guess you would call them) and I carefully added the oil and gel, and by morning he was back to having clear skin. I can't believe my eyes! The books I'm reading say that we can expect 3-4 weeks until we're officially finished with this, but I don't know how much of that actually consists of new rashes appearing. It's way fun over here, let me tell ya!

Oh, lest I forget, we're also doing some internal remedies... Dr. Christopher's Blood Circulation Formula, and Goldenseal.

I am not a doctor, of course, so please don't take this as medical advise. I'm just telling you what's working for us. I always think it's exciting to find natural remedies that have found success for others. I think our biggest benefit is that we are catching the rash as it pops up, rather than waiting for it to get worse. That seems to be making a big difference. But again, this is just my experience.

One cute thing... as I was dabbing the geranium oil on Josh this morning he said, "Ah... I love geranium oil. It's the smell of healing." It was just so cute coming from a 14 year old. Yes, 14. His birthday is in a week. I can't believe it!

m.e.g.