Tag Archives: autoimmune

Green Tea Foot Soak to Reduce Swelling & Edema

As an experiment for my DIY home spa, I wanted to shake things up a bit for my foot soaks. A few of you know I have edema and swelling in my legs and feet. Green tea is anti-inflammatory, and I wondered that if I soaked my feet in a giant Tupperware of green tea, my swelling would go down.

Step 1: Giant Tupperware

Simply find a bucket or Tupperware, something easy to clean and big enough for both of your feet to comfortably rest in. I do not recommend anything that is glass.

Step 2: Kettle of boiling water

Boil 1 kettle of water. Just one.

Step 3: Steep 4 bags of green tea in the boiling water.

Steep the tea bags for 3 minutes. Set a timer and locate some peppermint essential oil or some peppermint leaves. Add the peppermint to the mixture to scent preference.

Step 4: Pour 2 cups of room temperature water to the mixture.

This will cool off the hot water so you don’t burn your feet.

Step 5: Soak your feet for 20 minutes.

Set a timer and enjoy yourself. Bring a towel so you can dry your feet off and some lotion. At the end of the 20 minutes, towel your feet off and lotion your feet up. I found after doing this, my feet were much smaller in size and were in much less pain.

For those of you suffering from swelling, I hope you find this useful. I will try a variant of this on my hands tonight as they also swell, and report back later.

Dinky little word castle

There are days when I feel things more than most. When everything seems more pronounced. Sometimes, I can’t pinpoint the reason. Today the reason was obvious: either this new steroid pack works on my mysterious “autoimmune problem that [I] have” or I get an injection with a 20mm needle into my right hand.

This was daunting for several reasons. One of them was that many parts of my body are ridiculously swollen, and a giant needle going into each of them seemed insane. Another was, “What is my autoimmune problem exactly?” Then there was, “I’m only 27. This can’t be Rheumatoid Arthritis. That’s what my 61 year old mother has. Even if I have something like lupus that younger people tend to have, that’s still terrible!”

So, today I am feeling everything, from my eyes catching pollen to my fingers aching as I type this. My toes ache in my shoes from their own swelling. My brain aches from tender thoughts, hurtful thoughts, mournful thoughts.

But then there is this recurring thought that is oddly grateful for the suffering I have endured.

If my mind wasn’t set on fire from the medical catastrophes I endured over the past 3 years, I would not have any of the material to write from that allowed me to become a published writer on the Mighty, and soon to be on Offbeat Bride.

These stones thrown at me by life have allowed me to build a dinky little weird word castle and enabled me to culture a strange confidence.

I may have been forced to take medical leave on my master’s program, but I am going to dedicate time to writing. I will continue to publish, and I will dedicate headspace to my memoir.

Now is the time to read all those books on my shelf, live at the library, and try to heal through the written word.

I can do it because I’ve been doing it.