Flesh Wound, Fungus Fighter

What a title, huh?

Well, happy Friday to you anyhow!

(WARNING: if you do not like to see small wounds

or barefeet,

you may wish to skip this post.)

If you knew you were going to be stranded on a deserted island

and were given one choice of medicine to take with you,

what would it be:

Aspiring, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Tums?

(Wait a minute, does this mean I am getting old

if I'm thinking about what medicine I would take if stranded on

a deserted island?)

 My medicine of choice would be a plant:

my good friend garlic.

I have found garlic to be indispensable in my life.

Not only does it ad flavor to food,

it is a natural anti-biotic.

I've already said how I found it amazing for ear aches,

but it's also great for wounds.

When I recently had a tooth worked on,

it gave me a lot of pain for a couple of weeks.

I was afraid a root canal was going to be prescribed,

so a couple times a day, I cut a small piece of garlic and

rested it against the gum line.

After the initial shock of it's powerful, raw taste,

the garlic would penetrate through the skin

bringing relief from pain while I knew it was also healing.

I never needed a root canal on that tooth,

and it healed well.

 This little cut on my finger doesn't look like much,

but had something about it that concerned me.

It seemed to be getting worse rather than better.

Hand wounds are forced to deal with more abuse

especially when cooking raw meats,

scrubbing apples that have lied on the ground where wild animals have eaten

and defecated,

feeding and dealing with animals in the barn,

and caring for little people who don't seem to understand 

either the meaning of dirty or gross.

My finger became swollen,

the cut was oozing,

and the pain seemed to be going up my arm

even though I'd applied salves to it as well as peroxide and alcohol. 

My husband suggested garlic,

and I wondered why I hadn't thought of it myself.

Sometimes he's smarter than I am.

(Okay, well, often, but let's not get into that here.)

(This picture was taken after a full day of garlic treatment,

and it's already looking much better).

(Also, please excuse the paint on my nails. It just won't come of:

I'm afraid I'm a very bad hand model).

I applied the garlic like this:

 I cut a slice off like this.

 The garlic slice is then centered on the bandaid.

The bandaid is wrapped tightly so that the garlic is securely in place.

It looks a little strange,

but this held on for the day.

I can always tell when garlic is eating infection

because it does not hurt the skin at all.

When it starts to hurt, it should be removed

because it will burn the skin.  That's why care should be taken

when using garlic on children.

I have used it on my daughter,

but only for a minute or so

and I just reapply a few times a day.

I am not a doctor,

so this is just a discussion of what I find effective for myself.

I know that garlic can have altering affects if used with certain medications,

so you will need to look into using it for yourself.

It has altering affects because it is powerful.

As for my hand wound,

I have worn the garlic in bandaid for two days:

the first day, through the night.

The second, I took it off at night.

I will probably do one more treatment through today.

For my final word, I want to mention toenail fungus.

After I had babies and while nursing,

my body seemed to be low in it's resistance.

I felt like I had no idea what was going on.

Hormones are great that way.

I developed toenail fungus in two of my toes.

(Did I just admit this to the whole world?

What a pleasant confession).

When my baby was eating food so that my milk was not her primary source,

I applied garlic treatments to my toes.

An even more effective approach is to soak the foot in hot water

and then apply.  This softening seems to make the toe

absorb more of the garlic's power.

Be forewarned however:

when I tried this method, it killed the skin around the toe

as well as the fungus.

Also, I minced the garlic and applied for this treatment.

It takes several treatments to get rid of it,

possibly weeks depending on how bad it is,

but it worked for me.

How I manage to get spots of paint even on my toes, however,

is a difficulty I cannot explain.

There are countless articles about garlic on the web.

>Here is just one I found.<

Just type in Garlic Health to find lots more.

Again, I am not a doctor and cannot be specific with your own needs;

this is all just one woman's discussion

of finding a natural way to health.