Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly

Timeline:

Saturday, March 20: Saw the eastern doctor, he told me to come back and get the tea. Monday, March 22, started on the tea.

Tuesday, March 23-25, the number of patches and the severity of them grew. Called the eastern doctor and told him it was getting worse, he told me to stop drinking the tea.

Wednesday, at the insistence of a friend I tried applying a topical ointment (non-steroid in a base of petroleum jelly and castor oil). The texture of the trial spot on my arm changed and the color went down some, but not back to normal. Pretty much this entire week my arms and hands felt like they were on fire. It was spreading to be in between my fingers, on both hands, and both arms. The picture here is of my left arm, which is still worse. Sunday of that week (the 21) I went grocery shopping and got a bag of grapefruits and sweet potatoes among other things. I was planning to make a raw sweet potato soup for lunch. I end up eating mostly raw fruits and vegetables, not intentionally but just listening to what my body wants. Though I'm still applying the ointment from my friend, which was not natural.

Friday, March 26: I go to work, and I feel like crap. I thought about calling in but didn't, only to go home at lunchtime. My hands and arms are the worst they've been, I'm miserable and my entire body aches. I'm having warm flushes and feeling like I need to be in bed. I get a detox bath and go home.

Over the weekend, I decided to try staying raw, cut out cheese, coffee, and chocolate (I was already vegetarian). Saturday the 28, I physically felt better and it was looking less inflamed. It was still itching all the time though and I almost broke down and used some hydro-cortisone ointment. At the encouragement of a friend who was staying with my partner & I, I resisted. I tried some apple cider vinegar instead. It burned, but did quiet the itching. I took the vinegar internally as well.

Sunday the 28 was better again, and physically I was feeling like a new woman. The patches looked better than the day before, but not great. I took the apple cider vinegar again, and decided to not put anything on my skin topically and just let it heal from the inside. The only exception to this is right before bed after washing up I put a small amount of coconut oil on my skin.

Monday the 29th I learn in school that it takes about 3-4 weeks for the upper layer of skin to regenerate, and about 100 days for the entire skin layer to regenerate. I feel much better with this knowledge, knowing that I just need to be patient and let my body heal itself. I'm still not putting anything on as an ointment, and just trying to wash my hands as little as possible.

These pictures are from last Tuesday, March 30, taken with a camera phone so the detail isn't great. I now believe that the tea I had from the eastern doctor started the detox process, and in the course of that brought all the toxins to the surface.
All those red places were raised up and the skin around the patches was angry too. These pictures indicate an improvement from how it originally was!

More about the nutritional therapy in another post.....