What You Can do About An Eye Infection

Several issues ago, I began a series of home remedies for common ailments. To carry on with that series, here’s what I’m doing for an eye infection: It’s another application for my Magic Potion. I call it that because it works fast in most cases and can help for many health problems.

The recipe has appeared a couple of times in this column. Probably several of you readers have clippings of them and are already curing sore throats with this as a gargle, and sipping it as a spice tea that wards off the flu or makes it less severe and lessens its duration. It can be used topically, too, full strength as a remedy for infections.  

For the past few days, my versatile Magic Potion has been helping me defeat an eye infection. It stings when you first put a drop in each eye. Then the cloves in the solution kick in with their anesthetic effect. Both the cloves and the cinnamon can defeat both bacterial and viral infections. In that they cleanse the eyes, they may help allergic reactions, too. Dr. Kappelman did not think I had an allergy problem. If I had an allergy reaction, he said, both eyes would have been equally unhappy.

My left eye was the worst, constantly weeping and hurting. My right eye merely itched. He believed I had a viral infection, for which he had no prescription. But it might be a bacterial infection. He’d take a sample of the tears my left eye continually wept, he told me, and have the lab people culture it so they’d gave plenty of germs to experiment with and try out different antibiotics on. They could tell him which one killed the bacteria. Drawbacks: The cost of that testing, and that it would take several days to get a result. And it might be a virus that caused my problem, so no antibiotic would do any good.

Because during the two days I’d already been treating my eyes with my homemade solution I had noticing a little improvement, he said, “Just go home and do what you’ve been doing.” He asked for my “formula”, and wrote it into his computer. Perhaps it will help someone else. I hope so. Here’s the recipe:

Magic Potion: In a small saucepan, place 1 Tablespoon whole cloves and 1 stick cinnamon. Add 1 ½ to 2 cups water. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook until the water turns dark brown. Store in a glass jar that has a cover; no refrigeration required. The cinnamon is anti-bacterial and anti-viral; the cloves are that plus they are anesthetic. This is your master solution to a bacterial or viral infection of any kind. Add a few tablespoonfuls to a cup of tea of your choice for a tasty drink that wards off colds, sore throats, flu, etc.

On the doctor’s suggestion, I’ve put some into a small bottle from Minglement that has a dropper stopper, first boiling the bottle and sterilizing the dropper. Thus I don’t contaminate my jar of magic potion, lessening its potency. (By the way, “magic” is merely an old, old word for “scientific”)

To fight off an eye infection, put a drop into each eye every two or three hours. If you wake up in the night, cleanse the eye and give it the treatment. In three or four days, you should be seeing much better. Continue the treatment for a few days even after you think your eyes are all well just in case some germs linger and might restart the infection.

As I write, it’s late afternoon of the fourth day of this affliction, and I am able to see clearly now. My eyes look healthy; the red is all gone, and the left eye no longer weeps. I’ll continue using my clove and cinnamon home remedy every three hours for a few more days to make sure all the germs are gone, and the infection will not come back. I’ll stay home for a few more days, too, in case I’m still contagious, and to build back some energy.