Previous Page >> The Rattlesnake Bite, Day One
"At 6:00 a.m. on Thursday,a lady from the Poison Control Center in Phoenix called. She asked me a lot of questions. She said that two of my church friends were coming by to pick me up to take me up to the hospital35 miles north in Prescott.
We arrived at the hospital, and got checked into the Emergency Room by around 8:00 a.m. The nurses and two doctors there scolded me, and said I should have come to the hospital immediately.One doctor said that snake anti-venom (which is what I came there for) was supposed to be administered within six hours. He said that if the venom began to progress up my leg, they might give it thefollowing morning. He put a small black felt pen mark on my foot, just above the topmost swelling location. I was told that even though it was a very large hospital, there were only one or two doses of anti-venom in stock. Apparently they get very, very few snakebite patients.
After several hours had passed, the swelling did notchange and it did not migrate up my leg. The doctor commented that the venom remained stationary,probably because of the previous ice bath.
After several hours in the hospital (during which time I answered many questions but received little treatment)I let the nurses know that I wanted to begin taking mega doses of vitamin C. I was advised that both the doctor and the hospital pharmacy would only allow me to take two 500 mg vitamin C pills per 24 hours. After nine hours at the hospital I asked for my valuables to be returned to me, and requested that I be released. They advised against it, although they were not offering any treatment. I was released "AMA" (against medical advice).
Anthony picked me up. We went to the health store and I bought a large bottle of powdered vitamin C(calcium ascorbate powder). Then he drove me home to Yarnell. Bless his heart!
After arriving home around 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Anthony prepared a castor oil pack for my foot, combined with echinacea and slippery elm powdered herbs. I then immediately began taking huge amounts of powdered vitamin C, and large amounts of Yarnell mountain water. I had been fasting since vomiting some ten times the previous evening. I continued to fast for the next two days.
By Friday, the venom had migrated up into my lower leg, and it was quite swollen, hot and sensitive to the touch.I continued the water fast, mega vitamin C, and lots of water. My kidneys were carrying very, very large amounts of toxic liquid out of my body.
On Saturday, I had some chicken broth. The lower leg swelling went down and returned to normal.On Sunday, my neighbor, Wayne, bought about 10 pounds of fresh red grapes for me. Betty Clark brought up two huge aloe vera plants, from 10 miles south of Yarnell in Congress, and she told me about using bromelain to neutralize snake venom. She also brought me a quart of aloe vera concentrate and some bromelain (a grocery product, in the form of "meat tenderizer"). Then Anthony and I searched the Internet, and found dozens and dozens of medical directions and testimonials about the use of bromelain to neutralize snake venom.
Sunday afternoon, Anthony drove me to a large health store. I bought about $70 worth of natural medicines: bromelain, echinacea extract, milk thistle extract,Chinese snakebite capsules.The health store employee said she was very surprised that the whites of my eyes were still perfectly white, and not at all red, even though my body is currently throwing off oodles of extremely toxic rattlesnake venom. Anthony told her I was tough!
Every day I consumed about one pound of fresh red grapes, one pint of chicken broth, two quarts of water,six 1000 mg mega doses of vitamin C, a handful of bromelain capsules,a handful of echinacea capsules, and echinacea liquid and milk thistle liquid, along with multivitamins and multiminerals."
