Manuka Honey saved my skin!

Guys!!! Yes there is still a scar but I was terrified that I would have a keloid (dark and raised scar) instead of a flat and silvery scar. I was so upset about it... I know I know beauty is deeper than surface level but it still made me upset that I caused this to myself. The story of this scar was that I was trying to scoot my pizza over in the oven a little bit (how lame of a story) I wish I had this amazing chef story of some epic fail but instead it was just a simple burn that hurt like you know what.

I have a tight knit group of awesome people that get together weekly and that night I went to go hang out with them when I showed them my epic fail and one of my friends introduced me to Manuka Honey (First Honey). Wendy (my friend) works for them and gave me a sample to try. I was skeptical because I come from the land of drugs drugs drugs in the hospital life and kind of shy away from the more natural products, but I was willing to give anything a try. I put it on the same night that I gave myself my nice new look. She gave me a little tube of Manuka Honey as well as bandaids that have Manuka Honey saturated in them.

So I gained my new look on October 29th of 2018. Just ignore my messy house. Being in nursing school doesn't give me a whole lot of time for being the best house cleaner.

And this was later that night! This is when I thought my skin was actually going to become necrotic! In other words I thought I was going to have this big black area on my arm from where it was dying... you could say I was being a bit dramatic.

Anyway, that night I started to put on the Manuka Honey and I researched and researched! For people who know me know that I love to research things and dive deep into the depths of the internet and surf among the many youtube videos of things that interest me. I can actually be a bit obsessive about things. I found that this Manuka Honey is like a cure all!! I couldn't believe that I hadn't heard of it before.

From the research I gathered it is a natural antibiotic, hydrates while not suffocating the wound, it pulls out the toxins while also causing skin regrowth! This is from one of the articles I studied: "In general, honey improves wound healing by abating the oedema, inflammation, and exudation that commonly occur in all types of wounds. Honey stimulates the growth of epithelial cells and fibroblasts" (Ahmed & Othman, 2013) In nursing school we are taught how to research and what are the best types of sources to look into and I only went to the sources that were reputable... that means no .com! Manuka Honey can even fight off common strains of strep and even H. pylori! Guys! Where has this stuff been hiding?!

This picture above is about 10 days after the initial burn. I legit started to heal! Way better than I could have imagined. Remember, I was still thinking my skin was going to be raised, dark, and noticeable. SO when it started to scab over and I could see that it was healing properly, I was ecstatic!

This is what it looks like today! There is a white scar but I have actually started to notice it starting to dim in whiteness if that even makes sense. First honey is where my Manuka Honey came from and while this is a bit more expensive than some Neosporin its totally worth all the benefits. I will 100% be using this as a staple household item.

(This is the brand I used)

https://www.firsthoney.com

Ahmed, S., & Othman, N. H. (2013). Review of the medicinal effects of tualang honey and a comparison with manuka honey. The Malaysian journal of medical sciences : MJMS, 20(3), 6-13.