One week after the January 24, 2010 mishap on a street here in Makati City, I was still lumbered by a swollen, bruised left foot. I admit I was getting worried,because I had trips lined up, places to see, pictures to take. My foot was stubbornly not progressing.
Mid-week, I went out to personally pay my electric bill in the Meralco main branch and also get a registered package from the Main post office. On the way back, I was lucky to flag down a taxi driver from that area - he promptly noticed my injured state and commented sympathetically on my fat foot.
He advised me that for "pi-ang" (our te
rm in Bisayan dialect for states like unsuitably wrenching your limbs and joints in unnatural ways), I could either -
a) get fresh ginger, crush it to make sure the juice gets out, spread some coco oil on it, then pass it through a flame to heat it up. This could then be placed on the affected area and then bandaged. The heat would spread and it would draw out the "panuhot" (in our vernacular, this refers to the "cold wind"/"cold air" which affects injuries like this);
b) look for tuba-tuba bark, smear coco oil on it, heat it and then apply it to the affected area and bind it.
Well, it looked like ginger was easier to acquire than any tuba-tuba, after all the latter is not something readily available in the grocery or in those 24-hour stores. The taxi driver told me there were a lot of tuba-tuba near the Makati City Hall, but honestly, I wasn't even sure if I could identify the plant! Argh!
I asked him to bring me to the nearest Rustan's grocery and there I bought a kilo of their nice big ginger to replenish my stock. Usually, I have ginger in my kitchen for either my "salabat", aka hot ginger tea or my ginger bath. I was pretty confident about the ginger, since Joey (Joeyfab4) had already described the poultice he used (ginger + cornstarch in his reply to my post) and which he recommended to me.
Although my foot felt marginally better after I tried remedy (a), there was still some inflammation. I didn't want to go back to back to the doctor only to be told to continue gulping Arcoxia capsules (n
ot only was it expensive but it had some undesirable side effects on my person).
I was wracking my brains as to where to get the tuba-tuba bark mentioned when I tried asking our security guards here in the building. One said he could get it if he was back in the province, while the OIC of the guards himself asked me if I was cooking some new-fangled recipe or was I injured? (eh? is that my rep here?).
Luck was on my side, since the following day, the OIC told me he was able to get a bunch from the driver of one of the unit owners here in where I live.
Sir Rolly, as I call our OIC here, came personally to apply the tuba-tuba leaves on my foot. (Hmm..it seems I may either have misheard "bark" for "leaf" or it could be either of these parts from the plant).
We first washed, dried, then applied some healing oil I found in my shelves on the shiny part of the leaf. (It was "Casmin" oil, a product of IPI, which my mom had left in one of my parents' visits). Then the oil-slicked leaf was passed to and fro near a candle to heat it up. Then Sir Rolly plonked it onto my left foot. Ohmygoodness!
Although the oil and leaf easily clung to my foot, he used my folded handkerchief to bandage the area. I also donned a thick sock from PAL (which they give to travelers to pad around the aircraft during international flights) to cover the whole contraption. As an extra service (am beginning to have a list of debts with his name on it), he also massaged part of the bruised violet-colored toes and upwards from my ankle as my left leg had also apparently swelled a little bit.
The process was repeated again after 4 hours, and due to tiredness from work and all that excitement, I promptly fell asleep with my foot costume on.
When I woke up the next day and undressed the injured foot, voila!
The swelling had all but disappeared and I was left staring at a pair of dried up tuba-tuba leaves. This time, I didn't put another batch of leaves as I had to go out again, and just rubbed the aforementioned oil over my foot then tightly wound a long bandage on it to give my ankle support sock a rest.
Well, all things have a way of working out better than I expected in the end. And I certainly am planning to plant (if I can) a tuba-tuba plant here in one of my pots (maybe make a bonsai tuba-tuba? haha!). Ginger is also a candidate as it has nice flowers.
As of now, I can only shake at my head at all the doctors I consulted. All the painkillers and anti-inflammatory meds in the world - felled by a simple plant. Tch!
The Tuba-tuba Plant (Jatropha curcas)
It is also known as Tubang Bakod in Tagalog, Physic Nut in English or interchangeably tuba-tuba or Jatropha. It seems to be the latest craze to hit the agri-business in the Philippines. It is cultivated primarily for its oil to produce biodiesel.
The Tuba-tuba has been planted in the Philippines for quite some time but it was used mainly as fencing since animals do not eat the leaves - even the insatiable goat snubs this plant!
The Tamaraw.
Mind you, I heard breakfast here is good and cheap too!
