I set the baking trays on the two cool pots on the back burners not being used. I have done this for decades — every time I make cookies. I wasn’t making cookies. This time I was making some egg/cheese/sausage breakfast-on-the-go muffins which needed to be removed from the hot pan rather than hanging out for a while. I had an oven glove on, but that didn’t stop me from burning my forearm not once, but twice, in quick succession. I went back for more! 😫
Needless to say, it hurt like the dickens*.
I immediately sprayed a product which is sadly no longer for sale, Similasan’s Burn Recovery. Why it’s no longer for sale, I have no idea, but it was a marvelous product.** This spray gave a certain amount of immediate relief, but it wasn’t lasting. I then took a dose of Cantharis 30x which was sitting in the kitchen cupboard. Nothing. I sprayed the spray again, to the same effect (immediate non-lasting relief). I then took Cantharis 200c and by the time I ate dinner a couple of hours later, I barely felt it. By the time I went to bed, I no longer felt any pain. I didn’t need to repeat the spray or the pellets.
The top burn, as you can see in the photo, bubbled and raised immediately. It felt sticky. When I woke up in the morning, it was smooth and completely painless.
What to make of all this?
Well, I’m a big fan of having multiple potencies of important remedies in close proximity to where accidents can happen. My kitchen cupboard has a number of items to treat burns and bites and cuts, etc., and over the years various potencies of the same remedies have gathered together here. It works for me.
Sometimes potency matters. Having said that, if I hadn’t had a 200c handy, I would have put the 30x into some water and repeated it more frequently. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it probably would have taken a little longer to get where it got, but I think it most likely would have done the trick eventually. But, the one single dose of 200c kicked in very quickly.
Baking season is going to be here any day — make sure you pay attention to how far your oven mitts actually extend up your arm and have some Cantharis handy!
Julia Coyte, CHom
Classically Practical homeopath
#wellnessawaits
*I suddenly thought, what the heck are “dickens”, anyway? Writing Explained says it’s a substitute word for devil. Shakespeare used in Merry Wives of Windsor, 1600.
**Fortunately for us, we can make our own topical burn relief: the ingredients are:
Calendula 4x
Cantharis 6x
Echinacea 4x
Urtica urens 4x
Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have written about my kitchen burn mishaps — slightly different scenario this time, so at least I’m not repeating the identical mistakes! See also, Kitchen Quickies: Burns.