I had surgery with essential oils about a month ago as of the date of this post. If you are curious about the usage of essential oils in surgery, keep reading. Fortunately for me I’ve only really had three surgeries in my life, not including having teeth pulled and a few other dental procedures. I wrote about my experience with sinus and deviated septum surgery on this blog. I had this surgery back in 2007 and this was before I used and knew about essential oils. My experience with this surgery was quite a bit different than my recent experience with knee surgery where not only did I have access to essential oils at home for after surgery but I used an orthopedic doctor and surgeon who has been studying and using essential oils with surgery for at least five years now.
Here are a few of the essential oils that were used and how they were used:
- My doctor sprayed my hands with peppermint and ginger essential oil right before. The last thing I remember before being completely put out with anesthetic is my doctor spraying one hand with peppermint and the other hand with ginger and telling me to inhale without touching my face.
- While I don’t know exactly what oils where used during surgery I do know from some lectures and research this doctor has published that he uses some oils with clove, cinnamon, orange, and a few other things combined with antibiotics and other drugs to help reduce the odds of an infection during surgery.
- After the surgery when I woke up, he gave me two essential oil soft gels. One had lemon, lavender and peppermint designed to help open up the sinuses and the other had peppermint, ginger, anise and fennel designed to help with nausea and digestion.
What did I notice differently from previous surgeries?
The biggest thing I noticed is that from the moment I first woke up and for the rest of my surgery recovery: I never had any nausea and I wasn’t dizzy, nor did I feel groggy. You’ve probably seen videos of people waking up from surgery and they are acting weird, saying funny things etc. That didn’t happen to me and I know it did happen with previous surgeries. I was also able to get up and leave the hospital within 2 hours. This is much quicker than what I remember in the past.
What did I do when I got home?
Any kind of surgery is tough on anyone and knee surgery is no exception. I was very tired and sore and still had to use a lot of ice, electronic leg wraps to help with compression, crutches and ibuprofen for about 2 weeks. I also used a variety of essential oils to help reduce inflammation and discomfort such as frankincense, clove, turmeric, marjoram, and a cream and stick that also has copiaba and other essential oils. I used a combination of oils on my feet, my legs and internally in a capsule. Since I had pretty thick bandages wrapped around my knees for the first 10 days I obviously couldn’t put any oils directly on my knees. Although I do apply them to my knees 3-5 times per day now. I also took a turmeric supplement and a supplement with boswellia, ginger, pomegranate, grape, resveratrol and a few other things designed to help reduce inflammation which is one of the causes of discomfort and pain.
I also watched my diet very carefully. I tried to avoid sugar and processed foods as much as possible. I had prepared some chopped vegetables and other meal prepping ahead of time. I had bought some prepared healthy meals and I had some help from my sister who lives with me with cooking.
The end result is that I was able to avoid taking any other drugs other than ibuprofen after surgery for the first time in my life. Yes I was tempted a few times to use something harder but I was committed to not doing this. I also never even filled the prescriptions for them and used meditation and mindset work when I was tempted to avoid using them. If you ask me this is huge given that other harder drugs can cause a lot of side effects and complications and addiction can be a big problem. If you have an upcoming surgery and would like to talk with me about what I did and how you can do it too, please get in touch. I would love to help. You can also check out my products I used after my surgery. Although the best protocol can vary from person to person so if you have questions, let’s chat.
You can also check out my drug free recovery surgery online course.
Did this help you? If so, I would greatly appreciate a share on Facebook, twitter, linkedin, or pinterest.
My Favorite Products (Affiliate links- if you make a purchase I may earn a small commission)
Thrive Market - healthy gluten free, sugar free and speciality online food and household products
Silk and Sonder Monthly Journals and Planners
My Portable Infrared Sauna
Self Care Journal
Martie discounted food
Olipop - healthy soda with probiotics and prebiotics
Digestion Kit
Stress Oils
