12:45 pm on Aug 1, 2019, just two weeks short of my upcoming birthday, my immediate world went out of total control for what seemed like several long seconds, as my car went skidding and sliding into the opposite lane of oncoming traffic. It finally came to a stop after crashing headlong into another car, and I was engulfed in gunpowder smoke, and fluffy white airbags surrounding my head and body. For a few moments it seemed as if my bewildered spirit had left my body hovering just above, as if it were all happening to someone else down below. Someone opened the door of my car from the outside and I heard my voice asking – “Am I alive?” With that I was back in my body. Death is always teasing life, isn’t it? Who knows whether the person dashing through a red light at top speed just had heard the worst of news… whatever the worst maybe for them, or had a medical emergency, or just thought they could get away with it, or maybe just like to live precariously on the edge. Who knows what urgency and needs drive people to do what they do… it doesn’t matter and it is not for me to judge, I am in awe.
I happened to be on the path of someone that day. I was going my way on the state highway at ~ 40 mph, clear lane ahead, light was green at the intersection, no need for me to slow down. I stepped on the gas pedal just as I entered the intersection, a split second before I noticed a car come barreling out from a CVS parking lot on my right… headed straight towards me in a T. We made inevitable contact and immediately recoiled from each other, objects flying, a window breaking, air bags popping, as I veered uncontrollably to the left into the opposite lane, and a couple of seconds later, slammed into an SUV waiting to take a left turn… more breaking (windshield) and more airbags popping. Two hard collisions. How did I survive? Why did I survive? I don’t know. Seemingly quite unscathed, it looks like I have more breaths left to take on this earth, and to marvel at life’s gifts and mysteries. However, my newly acquired car did not make it, and went to the junk yard. The insurance declared it a “total loss”. It all seemed to happen in agonizing slow motion (the accident)… yet it was over in a few seconds from start to finish, potentially leaving life-time effects. The brakes, the steering wheel, my screams, nobody heard, nothing responded. Then dead silence, as the dust settled… and then life was abuzz again with helpers coming. I’d like to think, as an inspired friend put it, that I was jolted and catapulted into the next part of my journey! I was reborn.
Once again, Homeopathy simply blows my mind. Countless times have I written about, talked about, and advised the use of Arnica and Aconite for situations of shock and trauma and injury, sometimes even days or years later. (NOTE: this is NOT IN LIEU of going to the ER for needed checkup and interventions!) I have heard people often tell me that the remedies make a difference and have thanked me. But, I truly understand now what they really mean after going through my own personal experience of this magnitude. It has been nothing short of jaw-dropping, and indeed has catapulted my understanding of these remedies to a new level!
I got out of the car trembling and shaking, moving gingerly to make sure I registered where it was hurting. Surrounded by firemen, paramedics, and the police, I heard someone say – “she’s bleeding”. It’s then that I noticed the blood running down my left forearm and dripping down my pants, along with the stinging pain that was coming from a finger of my left hand where there was a nasty cut of some sort, the flesh looking mangled and jagged, looked like a piece of glass may have caused that or was still stuck in there. My right breast also demanded my attention as it felt badly bruised, and I registered some pain sensation in my lower limbs. Everything else seemed to check out OK. I could breathe, walk, move my head, see, hear, and think (although I was clearly reeling from shock). But, nothing seemed to be broken. Good. After going through some formalities and protocol, my first priority as soon as I was able to, a couple of hours later, was to take a dose of Arnica 1M. I immediately felt my head clear a bit, a space open up in my chest and I took my first deep breath, and my hands stopped trembling. I took another dose 15 minutes later, and only then was I ready to get my finger looked at and tended to as it was getting more and more painful by the minute, and still bleeding. I chose to go to the Urgent Care facility in my town close to my house as I had been there before and I like it for a number of reasons – chiefly because it is never busy there, and hence it feels quiet and calming to me. Indeed, there was no one there when I arrived and I had the immediate attention of everyone on duty (doctor, nurse, radiologist). I could breathe and felt myself relax in that space as I gave myself over to them.
They checked my vitals, did their protocol for appropriate care under the circumstances, noticed and commented on the red mark line on my left collar bone streaking diagonally across my chest down, where I had presumably strained and jolted against the seat belt holding me back. That’s why my right breast felt so bruised, as if someone had struck it with a bat. Anyway, the attending doctor cleaned and examined my finger wound to remove any remnants of glass there, as I sat there clutching an ice-pack to my breast. To their astonishment, I declined the local anesthetic for the stitches that were needed… not out of bravado, but, I figured that I had already been experiencing the full pain of the laceration, how much more could it hurt? The pain was already down after the doses of Arnica and I felt sure that I could handle the needle pricks, and it really was not a problem at all. To my delight, they let me use my own Calendula cream instead of their usual triple antibiotic cream before putting a neat dressing over it. For me, that was special in itself – they understood integrative, and respected my training and experience as a homeopath. They discharged me with proper instructions for wound care, and other care and monitoring instructions…. warning me that I was going to wake up the next day feeling as if a “truck had hit me”.
I came home, put together some dinner for my family, and followed through with two more doses of the Arnica before bed that night. Back in the safety of my own home. and perhaps in the act of doing something familiar like making dinner, the emotional floodgates had somehow opened, and I let it flow. Bouts of heaving and sobbing, grateful yet unbelieving about what had transpired. I slept and woke up the next morning, feeling rested and a tad bit better actually, not as far gone as if a truck had hit me after all. Once again, I believe that is the magic of Arnica that I need to attribute that to. Needless to say, I took the day off from work. Tears were still flowing on and off, and of course, every second I was replaying the scene in my head over and over again, feeling the fear grip me tighter and tighter.
But, two doses of Aconite 200 in the course of the day changed it all. The very next day, I was able to get into a car and drive myself to work to see clients. I drove through the same intersection where the accident had occurred (it helped that I had done that pretty much every day for the past 9 years without incidence), but, this time I saw it with new eyes and observed much more about the intersection than I had ever done before. I can not exactly describe or understand fully what changed in my psyche after taking the Aconite, but, the best I can say is that the fear just suddenly went from a high to a low volume. It didn’t have that hold or charge over me any more. I still thought of the event ALL the time, and that took a while to go away, BUT, I simply wasn’t paralyzed by it any more, nor a trembling mess. There was a detachment to it, a clear boundary of where it belonged, and I felt an inner confidence that I am going to move on from this after all. Indeed, as I got into the car next morning, it felt familiar and normal to be going to work, and I did, and I saw clients just like another regular day. I was very tired at the end of it, but I felt a full awareness and amazement of the firm grounded feeling that the remedy had given me. Just wow.
In the course of the week that followed, the pain on my right breast went away pretty much in two days, and my finger continued to do well. I kept up with the use of the Calendula cream, and it kept the area infection-free through all my regular house-hold duties and everything that I normally did as a fully functioning person. Those who are familiar with the use of Calendula on open skin conditions won’t be surprised to hear that my wound was healing so fast that I had my stitches out in 5 days instead of the typical 7 days. However, I discovered another source of insistent pain from extensive bruising on my shin bone where my laptop and a heavy glass container had landed after being flung across from the passenger seat where they were at the time the accident occurred. For that, I chose and took some doses of Ruta 200 for its affinity for the periosteum of the bone, and applied topical Arnica and Ruta creams from First Aid Creams Company. The bone was pretty swollen and black and blue all over. It took weeks for that to get better, but, it improved slowly and steadily over time.
Fast forward, a month later, I have taken no further doses and needed no other remedies or interventions, have not used any pain medications of any other sort, and have continued to recover and integrate and heal from my experience at all levels, physically, mentally and emotionally. Although changed, I feel 100% well. After the initial interventions with the remedies that I used, TIME is the best healer. I believe that Arnica and Aconite are true gems in our homeopathic arsenal that should belong in any emergency room, urgent and trauma care facility. Imagine how many cases of PTSD these might help prevent! How much grace and fortitude these remedies lend to the body and spirit in process of healing! Quick and effective! Did I say I was amazed? Well, I am.
PS: Aconite 200 also benefited my 11 year old beautifully to get over the fear of losing a parent. I felt her relax and get on with her normal activities after just one dose.
PPS: Potencies mentioned here are what I chose given what I had on hand and the intensity of the symptom in the situation(s). Other potencies can also be applied effectively.
Also, homeopathic Arnica is very different than herbal Arnica, there seems to be often a confusion between the two.
The Calendula cream is however a herbal concoction. Here is what I used – https://www.amazon.com/Helios-Calendula-Cream/dp/B00A3BXV9I
More info about the remedies used (courtesy, National Center of Homeopathy):
Arnica
Aconite
Ruta
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