In The Beginning, There Was Pain…
For years I had been suffering leg cramps during the night, leading to long, sleepy, restless, and sometimes grouchy days. I was an elementary school teacher and could not afford to spend my days this way. Each day after work I rushed home to make dinner, do homework, do laundry, and prepare lunches for the next day for my five children. And, of course, staying up late each evening to get my own schoolwork ready for the next day’s lessons.
I had read somewhere that Quinine water (tonic water) was the “drug” of choice for leg cramps, even though the laws had changed, requiring the water to contain much less Quinine. Nevertheless, about 4 ounces of Quinine water each night did a fairly good job for me.
The Call That Changed It All
When I got the call that my sister was in the hospital with liver, kidney, and heart failure, I caught the next plane from Seattle to Las Vegas to be with her. I spent endless days and nights in the hospital, each day feeling more exhausted than the previous. I wished I had time and energy to care for myself or even to stop at a store and buy some tonic water (and, perhaps, a bit of food!), but I did not.
The leg cramps had extended to my arches and toes. But, as is my nature, I stuck with the program, rejoicing the day she started to awaken- see, hear, know, and eventually talk to me. After 5 weeks she was moved from ICU to a physical rehab near her home. Ahhhhh- the sweet pleasures of sleeping in a real bed! Oops, those darn leg cramps were still plaguing me.
Now I was walking each day from her home to spend the day with her at the rehab center. Frankly, simply using my calf muscles certainly helped some, but something was still wrong. Being from Seattle, I thought some of this problem might be related to the change in climate and the need for better hydration here in the desert. I drank tons of water all day long (not realizing I was depleting my electrolytes), along with my, now procured, tonic water at night. Things were mediocre.
The Shift
One day, after leaving the rehab center and heading, on foot, up the long hot hill toward my sister’s house, I realized I was out of tonic water, and no grocery in sight. A slight sense of anxiety set in, knowing the only place between here and there was a Walgreens drugstore which I highly doubted would carry tonic water. But worth the try, so I stopped in. Nope! I asked a kind employee for suggestions.
She told me the long story of her brother returning home from Viet Nam with multiple issues, including debilitating leg cramps. She told me the store sold a Leg Cramp homeopathic medicine. She had no idea why it worked, but her brother described it as nothing short of miraculous. So, I tried a homeopathic product for leg cramps and that first night (and ever since) I slept like a baby! Immense relief. Bingo!
A Renewed Sense of Well-Being
All I could think about as I basked in my new sense of well-being from sleeping well, was what my girlfriend, Christel, would say. She is my Homeopath freak friend, who over a period of 20 years or so had tried to sway me toward her precious homeopathic remedies. She said, “I told you so!”
One day, about a year later, I was extremely sick with food poisoning or flu or something. She came by with some oddly named pills- Nux Vomica. This time I wasn’t as quick to poo-poo her “remedy” and went ahead and gave it a try. Four hours or so later, the nausea lifted and within a day I was feeling normal.
By Nancy Osborne