The Path of a Healer

Here is a beautiful story from one of the BLOG members.  She gave permission for me to post it so all could share her touching story.  I am posting it exactly as she wrote it.

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I had a very intense healing and learning experience this past summer that I would share.

A friend called me that his son had a burn.  I had helped him heal 2nd and 3rd degree burns about two years ago when he was working on a furnace that exploded.  He had gone to the emergency clinic and they wrapped it and gave him a pain pill and told him to go to the burn unit on Monday.  His dad called me (for it was only Friday afternoon) and he came and I used aloe and essential oils for several hours to take the heat out of the burn.   Then I made a paste of wheat germ, honey, comfrey, helichrysum, lavender and rose hip seed.  Less than three weeks later, it was completely healed and there were no scars on his face, neck, hands or arms.

So his father called me a second time.   My husband and I were on our way to a 4^th of July celebration.  He didn’t present it as a big deal, so I pre-mixed a small bottle of aloe and oils for his burn.  10 minutes later he shows up with his entire right arm severely burned and skin is hanging in several places where it had literally melted off.  His right side was 1/3 burned and I could immediately see at least 2 significant spots that were 3rd degree burns (the rest 2nd degree).  His wife explained that gasoline was sparked by a piece of equipment.   I sat aside the little bottle and grabbed a bottle of cayenne (unfortunately I had let myself run out of capsules).  I put 1/2 t in cold water and had him drink it every 10-15 minutes to keep him from shock.  Then I opened a gallon of Aloe and began pouring bottles of essential oils:  Roman Chamomile, Helichrysum, Fine Population Lavender and Frankincense into the gallon container.  I saturated wash cloths in the mixture and covered his burns with them.  Every few minutes the cotton was heated from his burning skin and I would quickly replace them and start the process over.  

My husband came downstairs from a shower and quietly took his shocked wife into the other room and showed her burn and pain acupressure points and taught her about shock symptoms.  He explained what we would be doing and he showed her how to help.  She had been frightened when she arrived, but she re-entered the room calm and we all went to work.  My husband grabbed the pressure points at his feet and she began working the points on his hands and shoulders.  We did that until 10:30 that night.  When his father learned of the severity of the burns, he and his wife came over and gave us a break to eat dinner.  We all took turns working on him until we were all exhausted.  His pain had finally eased.  He asked to go home and go to bed.  I sent him home with the paste and more of the aloe/oil mixture. He slept fairly well.  

I had been watching him while we were working on him.   I've learned to connect with someone's mind during the healing process.  I do not take their free will, but I do create very strong pictures in my mind of healing and of being of service to someone that builds trust and lets them relax and follow my mind during a crisis.  It lets them focus on breathing and healing.  I do not take their authority, I take a place in their mind where I act as a bridge between their conscious mind and their spirit during the healing process (pain almost always separates people from their spirit).  I've learned that the faster they reconnect, the less pain and healing time is needed.  

As I was going to sleep, I replayed the evening in my mind, I also had the awareness of how much he had done for himself.  When I was a child, I learned to use my will to override pain.  It became a way of being that I realized in adulthood was not healthy, as it kept me from listening to my body.  I trained myself for years to overcome this unconscious way of being.  I saw how he had put it to good use that evening.  

 I called to check on him in the morning and he was doing well.  His wife called in the afternoon.  They had tried the paste and his arm heated up and his pain was unbearable.  I told them to come back.  I'd never had that happen before.  I've used it on burns of equal severity and have always been told it's soothing and eases pain.  The end results are truly phenomenal.

When he got there, he was hurting and I started the process all over with aloe and oils. I felt a difference in his mind several times, but I was really busy trying to help him cool off and relieve his pain.  After several more hours, he seemed much more comfortable.  I looked carefully.  No signs of infection, the tissue was already healing.  It needed to be scrubbed, but he was not ready for that.  I had him stay the night and sent his wife home to get a good night's sleep, as she was exhausted.  I put him on the couch to sleep and took the second couch next to him to keep an eye on him.  He awoke a few times for more aloe mixture, but he did rest.  I awoke about 2:00 am as I my thoughtswere churning.  Why was the paste not working?  I had a moment ofinsecurity about what we had done.  What did I do wrong?

As soon as that thought came into my mind, I caught it.  I became very aware deeply and for the first time consciously, that I had a fear of failure.  My mind flitted through other times when I had experienced this feeling without realizing it.  I did something that I thought was helpful and then doubted myself, created obstacles to using my own will because I was afraid that I was not doing enough.  Where did this come from?  I quickly realized that it didn't matter why, but I was given a very special opportunity to heal this within myself and help him, too.

I connected to his mind and asked him what I could do to help him.  I saw the reason the herbs and oils were not working this time were because of the doubt he had within himself.  He saw the burns as much worse than the last time.  He was tired from pain and he just wanted it to go away.  He was being impatient.  I saw that impatience was at least part of the reason for the fire.   He had thought I could give him a quick fix and it would be a miracle like last time.  The miracle didn’t happen and he was afraid that it wasn't going to work and that he should have gone to the hospital.  His wife’s family had come to see him earlier that day and had begged him to go to the hospital. They were afraid and had no understanding of natural healing.

I stepped back a bit more and saw that he does not have the same kind of faith that his father has.  His dad is completely committed to natural healing and his spiritual path.  His son is attracted to it, but doesn't really believe that it can work this way.  He also didn't want to disappoint his dad or hurt my feelings.

The next morning, I awoke and tried to call his wife.  She did not answer so I called his dad and told him what I had experienced.  He understood that we both needed to step back and allow his son to make his own choice.  It was his beliefs and his learning that were the most important.  There was a reason for these burns and it was his choice that would help him heal.

When he woke up, I told him that I really admired him for his ability to handle pain.  Then I just looked at him and said, I would help him however he wanted it.  What do you want to do?  If you want to go the hospital I support you.

I could see his relief and he said yes quickly.  His dad came and took him to the Springfield burn unit.

They took one look at him and decided he was going to need skin grafts.  They drugged him stupid and took him into one of the treatment rooms and scrubbed him down and removed the dead skin.   Then they came out and asked what we had done, that it was obvious the burns were already healing. How long had he been like this?  His dad gave them the list of oils I'd used and they humphed.  They kept him overnight for observation and said they would determine the next day how many grafts he would need on the side and arms.  His wife had taken photos of him when it happened.  She showed them the photos.  They humphed but his dad later told me that a male nurse looked at them in detail and seemed interested and commented on how much improvement there had been.

The next morning, the doctor asked him again what we had used on him.  When his dad arrived he gave the list of oils to the doctor.  He shook his head and said that given the pictures and the first look when he arrived, he was expecting to do 3 skin grafts.  However, this morning he can see that his tissue is healing fine.  Robert admitted he had put the aloe/oils on his son after he got out of the scrub down and left them for his wife to continue using.  The doctor told his father to keep it up.  They released him determining that he needed no skin grafts. 

He was checked out of the hospital and went home.  Unfortunately his wife did not continue to use the oils at the hospital or at home  Two days later he became infected.  He returned to the hospital and they treated him for infections that are common to hospital environments!  At that time, the head clinician determined that he would need two skin grafts and they did surgery the next morning.

I am so grateful for this experience; that I was able to observe my fear of failure and pull out of it to see the bigger picture and let him decide how he wanted his learning to proceed.  I was very grateful for the opportunity to set aside my own ego and see it from a much greater perspective, even though I was pretty tired and had so much energy invested in his healing process.  The truth is it wasn't about me.  It was about his learning.

A few weeks later his dad talked to him about the experience.  The grafting was extremely painful and kept him from working for over a month.  He told his dad that he really let his wife’s family influence him and that he regretted that decision.  The doctor told him the infection came from the hospital environment (he couldn’t remember the name of it).  He had been able to return to work in days after his last burn using natural healing methods and he’d had no pain after the first day of the burn.  He and his father were able to identify the difference in his thoughts and attitudes.  His father shared that they had a very deep conversation about the power of belief and building authority for one’s self by listening to the heart when making choices and not being driven by fear.  He believes his son made good steps towards building that understanding.

I’ve always held the ideal that if children are taught to embrace their spiritual learning, that pain would not be necessary --  for pain is nothing more than a signal that the spirit and body are not in alignment.   Learning and moving forward in our lives is always the best relief for any pain I've encountered in myself or as a healer.  I think this young man learned quite a bit about identifying with learning and how unproductive fear and in his case, impatience truly are.

I am very grateful for this experience. With great joy, I surrender my own fear of failure to maintaining my perspective of "wholeness" and reverence for free will.