Cold Sores!

This past week my oldest daughter, Kellie, has been very sick. It started after she came home from girls camp. Fatigue, swollen lymph, sore throat, low-grade fever and ulcers in the mouth. It was awful. We thought it might be strep and decided to have a culture taken. The Dr. took one look at it and decided to do a test for herpes as well. It turns out that she did have an outbreak of cold sores. After a great deal of research we decided to try helping it heal the natural way. My sister is a Master Herbalist and so I called her for help with the swollen lymph. She suggested Mullein oil. I'm not sure that helped for this particular case but I've been using it for my hands and it seems to be soothing the excema. I have been using essential oils for years and decided that I would see what I can find. I used my trusty resource, "The Fragrant Pharmacy," by Valeria Ann Worwood. Sure enough she had a couple of formulas. We used this one:

Geranium - 8 drops
Lemon - 3 drops
Chamomile German - 6 drops
Tea Tree - 8 drops
Lavender - 5 drops

Luckily, all of these essential oils are ones I use a lot and I had them on hand. I mixed the oils, took out about 10 drops, added this to a small amount of water, added a bit of salt and had her swish this for about a minute. It was instant relief. It didn't take the cold sores away, but calmed them down and helped relieve the inflammation of the gums. Chamomile and lavender are both very soothing. I made a balm from a few drops of the mixture with an avocado butter base. I've also had her drink a cup of chamomile tea at least once a day. This also was very soothing for her. Now we just need to build up her immune system so this doesn't happen again!