Praying for you.

I pray that God will give your doctor wisdom in knowing what to do to help you with the pains. I am sorry you are going through this. Hope you feel better soon.

I looked it up. Here's what it says

"Dos and Don'ts of Essential Oils"

"Young children and the elderly may be more sensitive to essential oils. So you may need to dilute them more. And you should totally avoid some oils, like birch and wintergreen. In even small amounts, those may cause serious problems in kids 6 or younger because they contain a chemical called methyl salicylate. Don’t use essential oils on a baby unless your pediatrician says it’s OK."

"Don't be afraid to try them

Used the right way, they can help you feel better with few side effects. For example, you may feel less nauseated from chemotherapy cancer treatment if you breathe in ginger vapors. You may be able to fight certain bacterial or fungal infections, including the dangerous MRSA bacteria, with tea tree oil. In one study, tea tree oil was as effective as a prescription antifungal cream in easing symptoms of a fungal foot infection."

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/ss/slideshow-essential-oils

Thanks, Jobbie, for the information. I have some at home, could be too old. They smell nice in warm water with the steam coming up. The tea tree oil works great on facial skin molds.

You are in my prayers.

More prayers

I am praying healing prayers, I pray for your doctors as well that they are able to help you and know the right medication for your body. Stay strong

I woke up at 3 am screaming from the pain. I decided I was done, and would take some prednisone. I took 5 mg, then another 10 mg during the day. I feel normal, except for my left knee, which has mechanical issues!

I didn't contact my rheumatologist, plus we are 5 hours away from home in a lost valley. We spent a few hours in the hot springs, wonderful!

So thank you for all the prayers. I know God answered all your prayers. God is so good!

Sadly, I realized my kidneys are back not functioning well. I was taking Prevacid for my stomach daily, cause I ran out of the other pills. Plus, I also took 2 pills of Gabapentin. It's also hard on the kidneys. I'm not sure what I am supposed to do! I need Gabapentin because my fibromyalgia pain together with RA pain is unbearable.

I do appreciate the prayers and caring from everyone!

Jobbie, I appreciate your input, however, you don't understand Rheumatoid Arthritis.

It is a systematic disease, where the immune system turns and attacks you. It damages joints, but also organs, like heart, lungs, kidneys, skin and brain.

For me, my RA is so severe, I require 2 cancer drugs, I inject weekly. These are scientifically tested in double blind studies. So, some people get the meds, and some do not, but neither the medical personnel, nor the patients know who got the drug, and who did not.. Everyone gets their hands xrayed before they start the study.

What you are talking about, where someone with cancer survived longer than expected, because she was using essential oils. This is anecdotal evidence. It means that it only happened to 1 person, no controls, such as amount taken, and how convinced they person was it would work, or not work.

That is why science uses large trials of people, and no one knows who got the med, and who did not. In the 1990's, a University near where I lived, did a study on Remicade, a biologic to suppress the autoimmune system. Everyone was xrayed before the study. All the patients were treated the same. At the end of the first year, they asked everyone in the 2 groups, whether they had improved or not on the new medication, still not knowing who got what.

52% of the people in the Placebo group felt much improved. The researchers opened the double blind studies, to realize over half the people who thought they had improved, did not get the drug. So, they xrayed everyone's hands again. Most of the people in the group who got the real drug, experienced no degeneration. But the 52% of the people who did not get the drug, showed considerably more damage and erosions.

So, even though they got worse, they were so convinced that the drug worked, and they had the drug, they were believing a lie,

The ethics committee of the university met, and decided to discontinue the double blind aspect, so there was no Placebo group, getting saline solution.

This is called Placebo Effect. It means that people in the control group, not receiving the study drug, convinced themselves they were feeling better, even though they were getting worse.

So, this person with cancer you mentioned, was not properly tested. Would essential oils do well in a large, double blind study, where done got the oils, done did not? I think it would do terribly. Especially if they used someone like me in the group that got the oils. My RA is far too severe to respond to smelling oils. I shoot large needles full of cancer drugs into myself that are toxic. But, people who use biologics, live 5-10 years longer than someone who does not. Besides twisting my joints so badly I need to have reconstruction surgeries, and joint replacements. RA has attacked my heart with CAD. RA has attacked my lungs with Rheumatoid Lung Disease. My heart and lungs are fairly stable, I do take heart meds daily. My lungs are not progressing, and my allergies & asthma are gone! Now that is a real miracle. I've had asthma and allergies for 35 years, and they are gone. I took nothing to get rid of it, but, I am healed.

So now you know that many illnesses will not be healed using essential oils. I would love to see some big studies to see whether these oils work at all.

PS The meds I take for RA cost over $3000 a month in Canada, but double or more in the US. I was on a drug for 3 years which killed all the B cells in the body , called Rituxan. I was paying $2000 each for 2 infusions, 6 weeks apart. So $4000 for 2 infusions. I had 2 American friends who were paying $55,000 and the other $75,000 for the 2 infusions. Plus, between private insurance and provincial subsidies, I only paid $25 per infusion. So $50 as opposed to $75,000.

Over the years, I have been in drugs which attack TNF, IL1, T or B cells, Jaknase molecules, IL6, etc. That stops my immune system from attacking me. No, essential oils are not going to destroy part of my immune system, to stop the progression of the disease. L

I hope I haven't been to harsh. This is just some of what I have learned over the last 25 years of having RA.

I hope you get better everyday. My husband is on Gabapentin and Topiramate and recently had a small kidney stone that I am not sure has passed yet. His neurologist told us Topiramate causes kidney stone. I guess Gabapentin does that too from what you said. Topiramate also controls seizures. The neurologist wants to take my husband off the Topiramate but is concerned about him possibly gets seizures. She sent him for EEG to check the condition of the seizures which he actually has not had for 30 years. I have been praying for everyone in the group and will continue to do so.

I've was on Topamax for 3 years. I was not able to store memories during that time. I can't even begin to imagine why Topamax would be prescribed. It is not a good drug. Plus, you don't even realize you don't remember anything, till years later someone says, "Remember what we did in 2021?" And everyone remembers except you,

I didn't get kidney stones from Gabapentin. After 10 years, it interferes with kidney function. But I need to take it, because my fibromyalgia pain gets bad if I don't!

Not sure what to say about seizures. If he hasn't had them in 30 years, does he need to be on seizure meds? Praying with you!

The two pills are for headaches. The Topiramate, which is what it says on the bottle what it is (not sure it is the same as Topamax). happens to help control seizures. Because of his multiple brain surgeries, they probably think they can shot two birds with one bullet.

I hope you are on your way to get better everyday. Thanks for your prayers for us.

Topamirate is the generic name for Topamax. I just use it because it is shorter to spell. I was on the generic, too.

I'm sorry he has to take these meds. I think I was actually on Topamirate for migraines, and it did help. But eventually I figured out the underlying cause, which was leaky gut! If I ate an over ripe banana or citrus fruits, it would go directly to my brain and give me massive migraines. So, I stopped eating citrus & bananas, and the migraines faded away. I get them rarely, mostly from taking too many supplements at a time. So I am careful. The hilarious thing about stopping citrus fruits, was I ended up getting scurvy from a lack of vitamin C. First, my teeth got loose, my hair started falling out. All the hairs on my legs got red, and the hair curled out. It's called screw hairs or something. I looked it up on the internet, never having heard of the leg thing, and I had all the symptoms. I saw my very useless doctor at the time, and he didn't even know the symptoms for scurvy and looked them up! Sure enough, I had it. So, by that time I was able to eat oranges, and I started taking Vitamin C supplements. It reversed itself quickly, with no long term side effects. I think that was when it really hit me how badly I was absorbing nutrients from food. I use collagen now, plus pre-& pro-biotics, plus vitamin & mineral supplements, and I'm doing a lot better!