Comfrey Poultice Revisited: I am, although generally tough and robust, a pansy about my feet. The other day I was attracted by a large pot of Gotu Kola growing in the back of our greenhouse, wanting to grab it up and transplant it outdoors--they do so well in the summer garden--and in my haste stepped wonky on a concrete block. It toppled over beneath my weight and as I fell my foot (upper arch) came down full force on the corner of the block. The wound was deep, ragged, triangular, bloody, and ghoulishly garlanded by gouts of meat extruding from the corners (if that was a bit graphic at least I spared you a photo--my feet are not even photogenic on a GOOD day...). Limping out of the greenhouse with my Gotu Kola in hand, I knew that a comfrey poultice was in my future. We cleaned and bound the wound and I put on some heavy boots and finished out the rest of my day in pain, which is one way to stay in awareness... That night we unbound the foot and I sat on the rim of the bathtub, plunging it first into a basin of hot Epsom salts, and then into cold running water. This osmotic pump is a necessary prerequisite to comfrey poultice therapy as the comfrey will speed healing of the outer skin, and if there is a foreign object or infected matter deep inside the wound, well, it can spell trouble. Please take it from me, before applying the comfrey poultice to such a wound, clean it out with the hot Epsom salts and cold plunges. Its part of the process. One of my tasks that day had been to dig comfrey for all the fine folks who buy live roots from us, and as I dug, I saved aside some of the long lateral roots for the purpose of making the poultice. Back at home I washed them well (no, I didnt scrape off the black skin of the root, give me a break!), and cut them in 1 inch pieces, put them in the blender, and added just enough water to encourage the whole to vortex. The blender whirred, gurgled, and almost stopped upon encountering the excessive resistance of the gooey mass. But I exhorted it to go on for some time more, and the comfrey swelled into a flubbery mass, dome shaped, glistening with mucilage. I poured this onto a fine white T-shirt and, limping pathetically, carried it to the bed. When poulticing, you want a lot of mass. This is because the thicker it is, the less likely it is to dry out, and the more effective it will be at drawing out toxins, the more medicine there will be there to work the magic. You have no idea how difficult it is for a worker like me to take a break. I sighed and laid back, the goo completely covering my foot, the t-shirt tucked in around the corners, foot elevated slightly on a towel, bedclothes protected from slime. Unable to rest my mind, I called for my guitar, and made music and sang Hare Krishna while the comfrey did its work. Hours later, I put away my guitar, wiped off the poultice with a towel, went pee, had corn chowder for dinner, laid back again in my spot on the bed, rested the foot on another towel, and had a nice dose of full strength goldenseal tincture doused right into the wound. Then, stinging, I went to sleep. In the morning, the wound was pain free, closed up, unswollen, half healed. There was a little comfrey root adhered to the skin, but nothing much. Thats one reason to make the poultice so big--if it doesnt dry out, you have less remainders to work with. It wipes off pretty easily. I bandaged up my foot, pulled on a pair of socks, put on my boots, and went to work, a limper but not a whimper. Remember the Comfrey poultice, people, it will save you in the end.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 14:00:33 +0000
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