My fight against Tetanus

This is the story of my struggle with tetanus. Some of it is tedious and perhaps too much detail. Some you may not understand my reasoning or practices. I only post this because I found so little on the internet of people who fought and survived tetanus without having to rely on the modern, enormously expensive and egotistical medical empire.

Tuesday, Jan. 6th

Early afternoon. Today I stepped on a dirty, rusty nail which punctured about ¾ inch into my left foot, between the little toe and the one next to it (would that be my ring toe?). Immediately I felt the blood gushing into my shoe, which surprised me since I usually don’t bleed very fast when I do get cut. I took off the shoe and sock and let it bleed for a few minutes before I found a tissue to stop the blood. I put the sock and shoe back on and finished the project. At least an hour later, I made it home and rinsed the wound with peroxide, but not deeply.

Evening. I noticed an odd feeling in my left foot. The area on top of the foot was red, but not like a hot infection, more like it was agitated and bruised. I also noticed activity in my lymphatic system (especially on left side). I prayed against any form of disease at prayer meeting tonight. I felt confident everything would be all right.

Wednesday

Felt fluky all day. Tried studying for my lesson at church, but couldn’t concentrate. I got up and did some physical labor on the boys’ bedroom, hoping to stimulate my brain. I became nauseous this afternoon and threw up all the water on my stomach. Felt better by time for church.

Evening. A couple people at church got on my case about not getting a tetanus shot. I assured them that it had bled really well and that I’d never had a problem with nail wounds before (I’d received several back when I did roofing for a living).

Thursday

Afternoon. Another person asked if I had gotten a tetanus shot. Frowned curiously when I said no. I thought more about whether I should get one, but shrugged it off not knowing where to go.

Friday

Evening. Another friend asked if I had gotten a shot. Said he understood if I wanted to live by faith. I noticed pulsations in my hand while we were talking tonight. After our visit, I went to finish mudding the drywall in the boys’ room. While I worked, everyone’s concern about tetanus began to work on me. I felt strange. My heart was beginning to race and my shoulder muscles began to ache.

Overnight. When I finished mudding the sheetrock at two in the morning, I went online to read about tetanus. I found that it was a deadly, ugly disease where people die in convulsions and seizures. By now my heart was already going at high speed and I knew this was one of early the signs of this fatal disease. But I’d also had a lot of caffeine. I felt little pingings in my muscles. I got chilled easily and couldn’t get warm. I decided to stay up and pray until four in the morning. I finally went to bed at four, but kept getting back up to drain my bladder. My bowels also cleansed out the meal I had just eaten that evening.

Saturday

Morning. I didn’t sleep more than a half hour at a time. Finally, by seven o’clock I got up. I called our midwife and asked what she thought. She said I needed to go to a walk-in urgent care clinic. She said the disease was nothing to mess with and my kids and church needed me. I called one of the local express care clinics and asked about getting the shot. The nurse told me it was only effective within 72 hours of getting the wound (we were now over four days). I told her my tetanus shot was 20 years old. I described my high pulse, which my wife and I calculated at 120 or more beats per second. She said I should be looked at, but she didn’t think that was tetanus.

Rather than complicate things for everyone by going to a clinic, I decided to not mess up the kids’ church class trip to Tulsa. Before we left, Leanne and I prayed fervently and took authority over the spirit of fear and any form of disease. I felt peace to go ahead with the trip. I figured if I collapsed with muscle spasms, Tulsa probably had better doctors than I’d find in a local hospital. Walking around seemed to do me good, and my pulse calmed down to what felt normal.

When we got home, I took our midwife’s suggestion to pick open the scab on the wound. I found a gob of stuff I could clean out from the wound. It may have just been the blood clot. No puss, no pain. But the peroxide did foam a lot inside there. Kept the wound open as much as possible so it would heal from the inside out. It had never become hot and infected.

Sunday

Morning. I slept in two four-hour blocks. I awoke expecting the worst, but didn’t have any dramatic symptoms. Felt physically depressed. It is so strange to know that something else is living in my body.

Afternoon. My colon cleansed itself of the big meal right away. I noticed my body was dumping out green bile. I ate nothing else today. I began looking at everything as if it were my last experience.

Monday

Morning. Planned to go to ER if I had not improved today. I had another restless night. When I woke up I felt my calf muscle tense up on its own, like a Charlie horse. I flexed my leg and the cramp went away. Overall I was not much worse. Still high pulse, occasionally.

Later in the morning I felt a cramp coming on (I felt like I had been fighting these off all weekend), so I let it come. It was in the arch of the foot that sustained the injury. Sure enough, it cramped up like a Charlie horse in my foot, but as soon as I flexed, it went away.

I began feeling more twinges in my face and eyelids. Thought I would lock up any minute. I headed for Joplin to pick up some natural remedies. On the way I called a friend who prayed for me powerfully on the phone. Again I felt the peace of God. I picked up the homeopathic remedy Aconite and took half a dozen or more every fifteen minutes until my pulse slowed down and my jaw muscles stopped twitching so much.

I tried contacting several natural health practitioners today, but got dismal responses. No one has dealt with this problem. Only fifty people per year ever get the real thing. Most get the dT shot.

Went to do jail ministry tonight. Noticed overall weakness when loading the horse trough (for the baptismal) and I declined to do any of the baptisms myself for fear I couldn’t lift the men back out of the water. When we were cleaning up, I couldn’t undo the hose connection that the guard had put together. That was embarrassing.

Tuesday.

Morning. I woke up at midnight to find my index and middle fingers on my right hand had gone numb and hurt to move. I jumped out of bed, my heart pounding from fear. In the bathroom, I examined my throbbing fingers which were coming back to life. They were deeply creased with wrinkles from the bed sheet. I must have twisted them up and cut off the circulation. I did a skeletal muscle role call. Everyone present. Nothing had locked up. I went back to bed telling myself to stop overdramatizing all this.

At five in the morning, I awoke to pain and stiffness in my neck and shoulders. I could hardly move my head and when I did it ached badly. I knew this was the end. I figured when I got to this point, I would rush to ER. But now that the worst had manifested itself I relaxed. Now I knew I had tetanus.

We placed more calls and online contacts to traditional and alternative medical communities. One alternative health forum all responded (about half a dozen people) very adamantly that I better go to ER and immediately. The sooner the better, if I wanted to live.

All I could see was a two week stay at some hospital eating nasty food and wearing some tacky gown. There had to be a better way. I knelt by my bed and began to thank God that I was still alive. I began worshipping Him because now at the worst point I had a glimmer of hope that He would bring me through this. As I wept and worshipped my Creator, my cell phone rang. I answered this call which was from a Dr. Phil in Hot Springs whom I had emailed and left a voice message with the day before. He said, “Get some good colloidal silver and take a tablespoon three times a day. And get the NOW brand Beta Glucan, and take two capsules twice a day.” I tried to explain to him what I was taking and he said, “I don’t care. A tablespoon of the best colloidal silver you can find, three times a day, and two caps of Beta Glucan, only from NOW.”

I jumped in the buggy and ran back to Joplin to fill the prescription. I had begun taking colloidal and ionic silver the day before (a teaspoon every two hours). I went to the whole food store for the Beta Glucan, and the workers whispered to each other when they saw me walk in (I figure they expected me to be hospitalized after I had told them about my condition the day before).

Even though I hadn’t been eating, my bowels kept passing green liquid every couple hours. After I took milk thistle to cleanse my liver this bowel process slowly returned to its more natural state.

I’m taking supplements about every two hours. I take two teaspoons of acidophilus powder mixed in juice every four hours, alternated with a tablespoon or teaspoon of SilverSeal (more during the acute stage). I take the Beta Glucan four times a day. Regular supplements include 1000-2000 mg of vitamin C (as Ester-C and Emergen-C) because studies have shown that C prevents mortality from tetanus, 1-5 capsules of odorless garlic to fight infection, 1-2 capsules of olive leaf extract, 1 capsule of liquid milk thistle to cleanse the liver, a Lymphatic Drainage product from Nature’s Sunshine, bromelain and calcium occasionally for muscle pain, 1-2 caps of fish oil because it helps the heart (although I believe this is more of a long term product, not remedial), glucosamine sulfate with MSM, a teaspoon of colostrum, a capsule of grapefruit seed extract, and a sinus and respiratory relief product containing oregano, Echinacea, and several other cleansing agents.

Tonight I asked Leanne to massage my neck and shoulders where the stiffness had settled. She gave a thorough massage with lavender in olive oil.

Wednesday.

Today I woke up and the stiffness in my neck and shoulders was much less, but now my middle back had tightened up. When Leanne looked at it to massage it, she saw two red lines arching away from the spine. I also noticed that the muscles which had been locking up seemed puffy or swollen. I ate half of a grapefruit. I had also been taking most of my supplements with grape juice.

Tonight I asked her to massage my back and the back of my legs to beat any cramping in my legs that may try to come on overnight.

Thursday.

I woke up to slight constriction in the lower, right part of my back.

Today a new shipment came with acidophilus, olive leaf extract, and odorless garlic, all from NOW. I ate a spelt muffin in the morning and passed it right away. So, I ate more grapefruit. In the afternoon I ate another spelt muffin. It stayed. I ate more grapefruit and a salad. I’m now taking supplements every four hours.

Friday.

Felt constriction in the lower left of my back and in my upper legs this morning. My high pulse returned. I described it to my wife as a mushy, uncomfortable heart. Probably high blood pressure, too, but have no way to check. Still taking aconite to offset symptoms. Taking hypericum, too, but doesn’t seem to help.

Saturday.

Heart issues continued this morning. My heart even hurt for a few minutes. At noon I felt I needed to eat. I hadn’t felt hungry since Thursday. I ate half a grapefruit. A few hours later I ate another half grapefruit. We went to a party at the neighbors and while talking and visiting I forgot about my symptoms. I ate another half grapefruit tonight.

Sunday.

My heart feels normal today, my pulse back to around 70. The only lingering effect seems to be a lack of good circulation to my extremities. If I sit or lie down wrong, a foot, hand, or arm might go to sleep easily. I keep moving and stretching to promote blood flow. I have felt pain in my abdomen that felt like my kidneys. If anything, this disease has done a complete role call of all my body's organs and functions.

Monday.

Felt an ache in my shoulder after working drywall mud. Leanne massaged it and the pain left. Heart raced for a few moments with working, but that is probably normal aerobic activity.

Tuesday.

Today I stopped carrying the homeopathic stuff with me. Only taking supplements twice a day now.

Wednesday.

Woke up with stiff neck and back. Felt mini spasms all day in each muscle group: neck, then shoulders, middle back, buttocks, thighs, calves, abdomen. Probably no more than an hour each area.

As I write this, it has been two weeks since I had any real symptoms of tetanus. Perhaps some people will learn from my story that you should run in and get a tetanus shot right away. I haven’t taken that as a lesson. In fact, I am now less afraid of the disease (and any other) than I was before. If I had it to do over again, I would do things differently, but not go to the doctor. The majority of tetanus cases come to people who have been immunized. The best defense is good wound hygiene. This much I have learned.

In fact, just a few days ago I received an awful cat bite on my right thumb, ripping through the skin, even puncturing the thumb nail. Immediately I ran it under hot water, scrubbed it with hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, povodine iodine, triple antibiotic ointment, and then began soaking it twice a day in hot water with a tablespoon of boric acid. No, I still did not get a shot.

I don’t know your background, but I’m sure some may wonder what I mean when I say “we prayed fervently.” I am an Apostolic-Pentecostal minister who grew up knowing the miraculous power of the Mighty God in Christ. Fervent prayer is Spirit-led prayer, where God makes impossible things happen.

More than any health product or practitioner, I have complete faith in God. I have seen Him heal my children and others. I felt His healing, calming touch throughout my fight against both tetanus and fear. I began taking the right products too late to make such an incredible difference in my case, and I’m confident I wouldn’t have made it at all with without God’s miracle power.

If you are not baptized in Jesus’ Name and filled with His Spirit, then I encourage you to pursue that relationship with Him today. I don’t care what your past experience with religion is, or even if you go to church. You shouldn’t live another day outside the Covenant of Abraham; it comes through baptism in the all-powerful name of Jesus Christ. And don’t stop there. Ask the Lord Jesus to seal you with His promised Holy Spirit, and you will have the guarantee of His power now and forever.

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