Okay so I think I need to give a little backstory before I actually explain my new experiment. At the end of February of this year (2011), I was boiling hot water to make a cup of tea in my favorite, huge, glass mug. My roommate informed me that my water was boiling so I went to the kitchen to turn off the stove (I am notorious for leaving pots of boiling water on too long and eventually burning the pot). As I was pouring the hot water into the glass mug, my roommate’s boyfriend walked into the front door of our apartment. Before I knew it, the glass that I was pouring the water into shattered, and hot water ran all down my right thigh, which was against the kitchen counter. I was wearing jeans and before I actually realized what exactly happened, I was screaming in pain. It took me a good 35-40 seconds to realize that my skin of my whole right thigh felt like it was on fire, and that I should remove my scalding hot jeans. I ran into my room, peeled my jeans away from my skin, and with it, came a couple layers of skin. Instantaneously my skin began to bubble. I now had a 2nd degree burn on majority of my thigh. I was in so much pain I couldn’t breathe. Thankfully my roommate and her boyfriend were there to drive me immediately to the ER as I was writhing and screaming in pain in the backseat of the car. I have had surgery before with pain medications that did not work, and this was much more painful.
So today, in my Botanical Medicine Dispensary class, my partners and I made a burn salve, from a grapeseed/castor oil infusion with Comfrey, Gotu Kola, Lavender, Rose, Plantain, and Calendula.
This is a picture of the actual burn infused oil. It turned a great olive green color from infusion of the dry herbs (fresh herb has too high of a water content and will tend to have a shorter shelf life) into the half grapeseed half castor oil mixture.
This is the finished product, after 30 grams (~1 ounce) of beeswax and 1 teaspoon of Vitamin E was added to the warmed oil, then set to cool.
So my experiment is to use the burn salve that my partners and I made during class, every day to document the progression and improvement of the burn scar during the duration of the “treatment”. I’d like to give updates during this time to let you guys know how its doing, with scar reformation and remodeling. Since the intention is for healing and collagen reorganization, rather than pain modification, we did not use Hypericum or Arnica herbs within the salve or oil.
I intend on taking a picture of the before and after, which I will post in my last blog about this topic, so stay tuned 
I will start this tomorrow and periodically give updates on my success with it! Please let me know if you have any questions!
Do you have any treatments that work great for reducing the scar? Please comment below, I’d love to read about them!
Okay so I think I need to give a little backstory before I actually explain my new experiment. At the end of February of this year (2011), I was boiling hot water to make a cup of tea in my favorite, huge, glass mug. My roommate informed me that my water was boiling so I went to the kitchen to turn off the stove (I am notorious for leaving pots of boiling water on too long and eventually burning the pot). As I was pouring the hot water into the glass mug, my roommate’s boyfriend walked into the front door of our apartment. Before I knew it, the glass that I was pouring the water into shattered, and hot water ran all down my right thigh, which was against the kitchen counter. I was wearing jeans and before I actually realized what exactly happened, I was screaming in pain. It took me a good 35-40 seconds to realize that my skin of my whole right thigh felt like it was on fire, and that I should remove my scalding hot jeans. I ran into my room, peeled my jeans away from my skin, and with it, came a couple layers of skin. Instantaneously my skin began to bubble. I now had a 2nd degree burn on majority of my thigh. I was in so much pain I couldn’t breathe. Thankfully my roommate and her boyfriend were there to drive me immediately to the ER as I was writhing and screaming in pain in the backseat of the car. I have had surgery before with pain medications that did not work, and this was much more painful.
So today, in my Botanical Medicine Dispensary class, my partners and I made a burn salve, from a grapeseed/castor oil infusion with Comfrey, Gotu Kola, Lavender, Rose, Plantain, and Calendula.
This is a picture of the actual burn infused oil. It turned a great olive green color from infusion of the dry herbs (fresh herb has too high of a water content and will tend to have a shorter shelf life) into the half grapeseed half castor oil mixture.
This is the finished product, after 30 grams (~1 ounce) of beeswax and 1 teaspoon of Vitamin E was added to the warmed oil, then set to cool.
So my experiment is to use the burn salve that my partners and I made during class, every day to document the progression and improvement of the burn scar during the duration of the “treatment”. I’d like to give updates during this time to let you guys know how its doing, with scar reformation and remodeling. Since the intention is for healing and collagen reorganization, rather than pain modification, we did not use Hypericum or Arnica herbs within the salve or oil.
I intend on taking a picture of the before and after, which I will post in my last blog about this topic, so stay tuned
I will start this tomorrow and periodically give updates on my success with it! Please let me know if you have any questions!
Do you have any treatments that work great for reducing the scar? Please comment below, I’d love to read about them!