Every year Whole Earth Nature School holds our seven day overnight, Big Bear Camp. Kids from across the county sign up for an epic adventure of survival camping, archery, creek walks, gnarly hikes, friction fires, and crazy night games such as “Invisible Capture the Flag”. Each year this camp grows in leaps and bounds and Whole Earth is proud to say that we had 27 wild kids sharing nature with us.
The more kids though equals more need for first aid and I had the distinct honor of acting as ‘Camp Healer’. I have found it a challenge to practice my herbal healing and first aid skills since I am not going through medical school or any other training that requires constant practice and repetition. Even with a couple of re-certifications in First Aid/CPR and Wilderness First Aid it’s just not enough practice to become proficient or automatic.
Still I value every opportunity where I can help heal someone whether it be physical or emotional. Most of ‘camp’ first aid is simple – a bandage here or an ice pack there. However, I find the simplicity to be deceiving for what I am truly gaining skill in is tracking.
Diagnosis is probably one of the most scariest and exciting aspects of treating people especially working with children. There is always SO much going on underneath that even the child may not know! Practicing the ‘art of questioning’ while diagnosing a person is crucial to getting to the ‘meat’ of the problem.
We do some pretty dangerous activities at camp that involve sharp implements, hot, dry weather, flying objects, off-trail hazards, bees, allergies, sharp sticks, fire, and cooking. Yet I only had two “serious” cuts, one wasp bite, one vomiting kid, two belly aches, and a various assortment of ailments. Pretty good for seven days in the woods.
My job is fairly easy when I have a kid with a cut and visible blood. Always my first response is “Let’s go get some plantain!”. Having the child pick a plant, chew it up, and put it on the cut does wonders for their mental state and he can see the wound change for the better by his own actions.
When a kid comes to me with no wounds and no visible ailments then my tracker mind has to come out along with a barrage of questions. I have learned to never take a situation by just face value – dig, dig, dig! Here is a great example:
A 12 year old boy comes to me complaining of itching arms. “Oh my god they itch!” he exclaims as he frantically scrapes his nails up and down both arms. I took his hands to stop the scratching and to get a good look at his arms. No redness, no swelling, no hives, no bites. So I pump him for more details and from what I gathered the arms had just started itching a few minutes ago, he hasn’t had this before, he has no known allergies, and it is driving him insane.
I pull out my lavender essential oil and put a little on to make sure it didn’t make things worse. It does not so I liberally apply his arms while he prances around the room doing the ‘itch dance’. It seems to calm him more but not by much. Meanwhile as I am applying I grill him more about the circumstances, then a question struck me that I hadn’t asked before. “What were you doing when the itching started?” He replies “I just put my hands in the dish water to do the dishes.” Ah ha! Well that narrowed it down to two things 1) he has a sensitivity to the soap or the warm water was causing the blood to go to his arms and 2) perhaps you can guess this one?
I decided to use a different tactic. The boy wasn’t in real distress he actually seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the attention. One plant I always keep in my first aid kit is Osha Root because some herbalists believe it can stop allergic reactions. (I have had personal success when one evening I started getting hives, of which I have never had before, and took three drops of Osha under the tongue and within two minutes my reaction went away. ) Because of the nature of the situation I wasn’t concerned with any sort of major allergic reaction or systemic reaction and so did not automatically reach for Benedryl. Instead I asked him to smell the Osha first. FYI it is a very strong aromatic if you have never tasted or smelled it before. He said “Oh it smells like maple syrup!” Sure I’ll take that. I put one single teeny drop on his tongue and away he whirled like a dust devil running to rinse out his mouth. “Yuck! That’s like insane maple syrup!”
I always carry with me peppermint candies and pulled out my bag to give him one to take away the taste. He looks at the bag and notices some ginger candy. “What are those orange things?” he asks. I tell him and he wants to try one. Gingerly I hand a small chunk to him and once again he is whirling around the room screaming about it being spicy and what not. He yells for the peppermint candy and runs out the door and I never hear another word about itching arms.
I am always looking to expand my knowledge and experiences in order to blend herbalism with conventional medicine. To me I think it is a perfect blend of heroic medicine and holistic healing.
There are a couple of herbalists I would love to work with in order to be a better first aid herbalist. Charles Garcia of the California School of Traditional Hispanic Herbalism and 7Song of Northeast School of Botanical Medicine are a couple of folks I would recommend and give my eye teeth to study with!
Happy healing!
