Is it possible for scents to relieve pain, transform mood and heal conditions when medications fail to do so? The answer might surprise you! When I say essential oils transformed my life and helped me heal, I’m not exaggerating. This is my story of healing and transformation.
I’ve been blind since birth, but that’s never been my main disability. At the age of 16, I started experiencing extremely excruciating pain in my left foot. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I was miserable and found the pain much more disabling than my blindness ever had been .
Doctors had no idea what was wrong with me. My foot was swollen, turning various shades of red and blue, extremely cold or hot at times, sensitive to touch and felt like it was on fire. I tried using a cast boot, ace bandages and special insoles to support my foot, physical therapy and medication. Doctors took x-rays and MRIS, but none revealed the problem. I began to wonder if the problem was all in my head. All I could do was limp around and be miserable. After six months of suspense, a doctor finally diagnosed me with a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Basically, my body had suffered an injury but hadn’t realized that it had healed. My nervous system was continuing to over-react.
I’ll spare you much of the story of the last 20 years of medical details, but let’s just say that doctors tried numerous treatments including many strong medications, injections near the nerves, more PT in the pool and on land, infusions and coping skills such as learning to control things like muscle tension, limb temperature and breathing. Even with all of these efforts, my pain was uncontrollable. It was a very dark time in my life. I struggled with depression and anxiety and even needed psychological hospitalization due to the hopelessness I felt from being unable to do much for myself. I had wanted to be a social worker, but due to the pain and the limitations it put on me, I couldn’t complete the internships needed to get my social work license.
I went through a lot of psychotherapy, specifically Dialectical Behavior Therapy. After 2013, I began to accept my pain and deal with the suicidal thoughts. I managed to graduate from college with a custom major, but with the severity of my pain, I couldn’t function well enough to spend much time out of the house. There’s quite a lot that happened in my life in the next several years, my mom’s death for example, but even with the grief, I still began to get some services I needed. Even so, I ranked my pain at a 10 on the pain scale every day. Overall, I felt that I had a very low quality of life!
Enter aromatherapy and essential oils. I’d heard of essential oils about 15 years ago in an elective class on complementary and integrative medicine. During college and had since used them occasionally during bubble baths. Even so, I hadn’t learned very much about them. That changed during 2020 during the heights of the pandemic. The American Council of the Blind, an organization I belong to, started holding zoom calls to help provide connection during that period of isolation. One call was about using essential oils.
The more I learned, the more I wanted to try essential oils and see if they would work for me. The woman who led the calls works with Doterra, a company which makes pure essential oils and supplements. One week, they had a BOGO box, which allowed us to buy certain products and get another product free. I decided to try one blend and a few other oils. I was blown away by the success of the products! I started with a product for stress and anxiety, some lavender and a blend for sleep. Surprisingly, I got significant relief from the anxiety, some relief from my headaches from the lavender and began to get some help sleeping. It was amazing! That gave me hope that I might receive relief from the other symptoms.
I’ve been using oils and supplements from Doterra for about two years now and I’ve been blown away by the results. As I mentioned, I’d experienced pain of a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale almost every day. Once I started taking some supplements and using several other oils, I got significant relief. I actually rank my pain as an eight or nine on the pain scale most of the time. While that is still not where I want to be, I can function much better. What’s more, people who’ve known me for years notice the changes! They see and hear a difference in my behavior, tone of voice and my overall countenance.
It’s very hard to tell my story in a short blog post, but I can honestly say that Doterra has given me back more of a life. The oils make the difference between my sitting at home afraid to do anything outside of the house because I’m afraid to get a migraine or be in too much pain and suffering symptoms I can’t control and going out to do things a few days a week. It’s the difference between living with my parents, or just my dad after Mom’s death because I can’t do much for myself and living in my own apartment Now, when I’ve got a migraine, I take a small roller bottle and use it on my head to relieve my pain. I make up lotion bar sticks with a blend that helps my nerve pain and use it on whichever area is most painful. When I’m anxious, I can diffuse oils, take a supplement or use a roller bottle of oils that can help relieve my symptoms. I often find that my symptoms, whether it be pain, depression, insomnia, anxiety, migraines, asthma or any number of other maladies are relieved more quickly and at least as effectively as they have been by my medications. Just to be clear, I didn’t go off medications and switch to oils without consulting my doctors.
I strongly encourage you to try essential oils. In future posts, I’ll discuss which oils I’ve used for which ailments and why I prefer Doterra is the best company, but I hope my story gives you hope that essential oils can help and that if you’re dealing with severe pain, especially CRPS, you can feel better!
Nickie’s Nook: Oils and Books 
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