the healing miracle of aloe

During my small soiree on Saturday, I burned myself. Really badly. I'm normally pretty tolerant, but I was nearly in tears with the searing pain.

From First Aid certifications, I remembered that it's best to run a burn under warmish water... not to cold and not too hot, so I did so for about 30 seconds.

Then I grabbed the exacto-knife and lobbed off the tip of one of my aloe leaves.

Now, this little aloe plant has come a long way. Able-Bodied Boy's mom gave it to us a year or so ago. It sits on the kitchen window sill, just begging for me to kill it. But I haven't. We water it every week or so and it has already produced two babies (I had no idea they sprouted new shoots!): one went to Awesome Boss Lady; the other sat on the sill in it's own container, produced two more babies of it's own, and finally went home with Beth, Girl Explorer. The momma aloe looks a little worse for wear. She's sacrificed appendages for sunburns and crock-pot spill-overs and other minor 1st degree burns. But this was her first 2nd degree burn.

So, I lobbed off a small bit, split it open, and smeared it gently on the top pad of my ring finger. Oh the pain!!! Able-Bodied Boy got me a bandage, which he tried to apply to my finger. The pain was too much for me, so I took over, trying not to put any pressure on the finger tip.

The first aloe miracle was the end of the pain, in less than an hour. No pain. What. so. ever. I took off the bandage and fascinated myself with the painless blister. This is nifty!

Before bed, I smeared a ton more aloe on the finger and on a bandage and applied the bandage. A little bit smelly, but I knew it would help a bit.

The second aloe miracle was discovered the next morning. Still no pain, and the edges of the burn were already healing. The blister had already reduced in size by about 15%.

At this point, I stopped applying aloe.

The third aloe miracle happened yesterday, when I visibly noticed the blister reducing in size all day. And this morning, when the blister was gone entirely. The skin is still slightly red and papery, but still...

Two and a half days, from 2nd degree burn to just a slight red mark. Aloe rocks my world. And my finger.

I'll probably try more sprouting in the spring, when momma will get more light and more consistent temperatures.


Do you grow any fabulous healing plants? What plant, and how does it help?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl