My poor wife

[cow pollinater]

My poor wife has both neuropathy and a herniated disk in her back(both my fault I'm sure). Modern medicine is pretty well stumped and we are willing to try just about anything. What information I have seen says that stings will help with both conditions. What I haven't seen is any information as to how many stings, how often, what location etc.
Anyone have even a basic idea of where to begin? Any and all advice is greatly appriciated. Thanks in advance.

I also saw that stings may help with PMS... I don't know about her, but I'd feel alot better if I could throw some P.O.'d bees at her.

[indypartridge]

Where to begin? Try here:
http://www.apitherapy.org/

[acb's]

Here's a few more links that I hope will help.

http://www.dancingbeeacres.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi
(Check out the "Videos and Books" link on the left side of the page in particular. If you can get copies of the three part video " Art of the Sting", I would highly recommend it!)

http://www.beelief.com/default.asp

http://www.apitherapy.com/index.php

http://web.archive.org/web/200503040.../bee/index.htm

It seems that 'bee venom therapy' is more successful in the more holistic approach of 'apitherapy'. I stung a man I work with last summer for a few months up to 15 times 2 times a week for his severe rheumatoid arthritis. It benefited him quite a bit by decreasing the swelling and reduced some of the pain. But, he wouldn't make any other changes in his lifestyle. He still continued his smoking and his heavy caffeine intake. He didn't change his diet or use any other hive products. Winter came so the therapy ended. I wish he would have been a little more thorough in his effort.

Again, I hope these links will help get you started in the right direction and you receive the benefits you're looking for.

Arvin

[Gregory and Susan Fariss]

My poor wife has both neuropathy and a herniated disk in her back(both my fault I'm sure). ....
Anyone have even a basic idea of where to begin? Any and all advice is greatly appriciated. Thanks in advance.

I also saw that stings may help with PMS... I don't know about her, but I'd feel alot better if I could throw some P.O.'d bees at her.

Arvin,
Which disc/discs are herniated? And where is her pain and numbness?
Susan

[nmallardi]

you might also consider acupuncture

[George Fergusson]

Sounds rough CP. This may sound off the wall, but how is her thyroid working? I ask because a few years ago I developed what appeared to be neuropathy but which turned out to be extremely low thyroid output. I've been on Synthroid (synthetic thyroid hormone) ever since and the neuropathy symptoms have cleared up. It took my doctor quite a while to figure out what the problem was but a simple blood test for TSH was all it took.

[cow pollinater]

Thanks all, Her disc is the L5 I think ??? She has been getting cortisone injections every six months for three years now. Something about the medicine doesn't agree with her and every time she gets shots, she spends three days curled up in sheer agony and we haven't found a drug strong enough to cope with the pain.
The neuropathy seems to come and go but is mainly in her feet and at its worst affects her hands. It is a rare form and seems to affect nerves in an odd pattern where one is fine while the one right next door is dead so we were told acupuncture probably wouldn't help. The doctors at Stanford told us to go home and enjoy what we have because it's all down hill from here and the only question is how fast.
She has changed her lifestyle significantly(not that we are druggies ar drunks or anything) for the better but it really hasn't helped much.
She is not to keen on letting me sting her but I'm taking the lead by stinging myself for tendinitis in my shoulder. I get stung all the time but her seeing me do it on purpose seems to help her open her mind a little.
Thanks again all, I glanced at all the links given and will look at them in depth this week as I have time available.

[Gregory and Susan Fariss]

The suggestion for acupuncture can actually be blended with apitherapy. Some who practice apitherapy use honeybees to sting the acupuncture sites. I have had success by having my husband sting the sites recommended by Frederique Keller, an acupuncturist and an apitherapist.

Here is something Albert had posted some time ago to help find Acupuncture sites:

http://www.acufinder.com/Acupuncture+Points

Let us know if your wife goes ahead with sting therapy and how it goes. Incidentally, Reyah Carlson will be doing an apitherapy workshop at EAS in Kentucky this August.

Susan

[beemanlee]

cow pollinater,
Do those bee stings that you did on yourself help with your pain issues?
By your own words of testimony of the sting helping should help even the skeptic!
I have been stining my hands each time I've worked the bees. I know the pain is momentary and the results come over time...
Lee...

[cow pollinater]

Oh yeah! They helped a bunch. I'm getting stung less this year than I have in years past but I'm breeding more cows than in years past and it's starting to tear me up. I stung myself for the first time (on purpose anyway)in the afternoon after breeding one-hundred plus cows that morning and feeling every one of them. The difference the following morning was un-deniable and I've been doing it every since. This is my busy season and my shoulder feels great.
The only thing holding me back is that I bought my queens from Koenens this year... It takes some doing to get them to sting! I've got Texas queens coming this week. My plan is to introduce my wife to the Cordovans first before she finds out that some bees WANT to sting you regardless of wheather or not you need it.

[Angi_H]

Cow Pollinator, I am kinda in the same boat. But I am on a ton of pain meds and would like to get off of some of them. I am a Chronic Pain Patient, And am on Duragesic patches and break through meds of Norco and Muscle relaxers of Soma. I have degenerative discs in my thoracic spine and get some numbness in my fingers off and on. And lately all of my joints are hurting. My ankles, hands, wrists, knees, elbows etc. I also have fibromyalgia, and TMJ with a failed bilateral surgery 2 years ago. In the mornings I feel so still and sore like I am 80 I can hardly get out of bed in the mornings. And lately with every single joint hurting even my toe joints and finger joints are hurting. I got into bees to try to help out my pain and to help lower my meds. Because about every 6 months we go up a dose on my pain patch. We are about to move up to the 100mcg patches and I really dont want to do that. I dont want pain meds running my life. It has already made it so I can not get a job in my passion which is a VET TECH. They say I am a libality due to the meds in the office like I would steal meds. I am not a junky. What ever. But Working out with the bees I pay for it for a few days after. Especailly the ones on the pallets. To low to the ground and to much bending over. I feel your wifes pain because I know what the feels like and it is in no way fun. It takes away from the fun with the kids and what you love.

Angi
who dont live to far from you.

[Paul Wirth]

Your wife might want to look into Rolfing Structural Integration (try www.rolf.org to learn more and/or find a practitioner). (disclaimer: I'm a Rolfer in Salt Lake city). It deals with repatterning how weight, force and movement are carried through the body-- and often a herniated disc shows that there was a structural problem that focused too much pressure and strain in that area and in the wrong direction. It won't "unherniate" the disc, but it can help resolve the problems that caused it and alleviate the continued pressure there, often with far more long term effectiveness than other common treatments. if the neuropathy is a result of the herniation, it could potentially help with that as well. Beestings are great too--- I've used them for ankle osteoarthritis.

[hankdog1]

cow pollinator something to think about i went to the chyropractor before i got into bees a few times a month over a neck problem. They may be able to help along with the other things you are trying. Just make sure you find a good one mines name is Doc Willis you know thier good when it goes from Dr. to Doc. Hope you do find a way to help your wife though it's really hard to see loved ones in so much pain and not being able to help them.

[Brent Bean]

I just started BVT on my poor old broken knees, I got the book “Health and the Honeybee” by Charles Marz. The book is easy to understand and is a biography on his 60 years of experience on the subject.
I made a capture box with a sliding Plexiglas cover it has a small compartment for honey and water I can keep the bees very frisky for over a week. I have only been applying stings to the knees for about a week and a half. The right knee is showing improvement the left was injured worse so it is lagging behind. But all in all I am optimistic.

Also I did an inquiry at www.apitherpy.org and a certified apitherpist form Grand Rapids contacted me and helped me get started.

[knadai]

www.myofascialrelease.com

I was a massage therapist in another life and I practiced MFR as well as cranialsacral therapy. I saw some amazing results in patients with chronic pain after doctors had given up on them.

Amen on the Rolfing, too.

[RayMarler]

If she will agree, sting your wife right on the L5 disc (the disc is between the vertabrae bone, not on the bone). Just try one sting and see what happens. From that, you should both be able to figure out how many and how often.

The pains in wrists and ankles are from the nerve damages in the spine I bet, I know mine are. When I get my spine all lined up and feeling better, then is when my knuckles, wrists, elbows, knees, ankles and toes flare up. Beestings help me better than all the meds and injections the doctors ever gave me. I sting myself in ankles, arches of feet, knuckles on hands, elbows, base of neck, tailbone, lumbar discs. I sting wherever it is hurting from. Disc pains can cause pain to shoot or streak. L5 will cause streaks in legs, sting the disc, not the streaks.

Best of luck, I know she's having a terrible time now. Hopefully she's not terribly allergic to beestings!

[cow pollinater]

Thanks Ray, that's all good to know.
She has two separate conditions, the back problem and neuropathy. We almost always sting her back and it will fix any problem that stems from the disc right away. But the neuropathy seems to be a whole other ball game.
On her back, the more we sting the better she feels. Not so with the nueropathy.
The nueropathy is finnicky. Sometimes one sting will take away the pain but leave the area week, sometimes it takes away the weekness but not the pain. It always helps, but in different ways and different amounts.
Of course, fixing the back problem makes everything she has to deal with a little more tollerable.

[seamuswildhoney]

are your queens from bee weaver? I have a hive with one of thier queens and they are the only hive that I work with no protection.

[cow pollinater]

No, I use the Cordovans from Koehnens. I have some from B. Weaver as well. Mine like to donate their therapy services so much that I can't get close enough to them to guide them through the process but I'm glad to hear that yours are a little more manageable.

[Gregory and Susan Fariss]

No, I use the Cordovans from Koehnens. I have some from B. Weaver as well. Mine like to donate their therapy services so much that I can't get close enough to them to guide them through the process but I'm glad to hear that yours are a little more manageable.

Hi CP,
You may have heard this before, but if you keep some bees in a jar in the house for apitherapy you may have more control. Here is what I was advised to do and it works well for me: Have a plastic jar with holes in it and use a lid that has holes in it or cut the center out of the lid and put screen in it. Put a cardboard tube (like a toilet paper tube or a paper towel tube that has been cut down) in it along with a few drops of honey. Water can be added by spraying a cotton ball and placing it inside. Each day you will need to spray some water into the jar and squeeze some honey in. (Easier to do if you have chosen a screened lid) When you need the bees for apitherapy, spray them with water to slow them down, then open the jar and take bees out one at a time with a pair of long tweezers. This way, you can handle them and deliver the sting where it is needed instead of when the bees are so inclined.
Susan