Things in Erin’s Head

Last week I had a PRP (platelet rich plasma) treatment on my foot and the whole thing did not go quite as planned. In the way that a practitioner says, “Huh. Yeahhhhh. I’ve never seen anything quite like this…”

And if you’ve been following me for a bit you’ll know: that’s how I roll.

So why was I surprised?

Possibly because it was my own cells that my body was reacting so strongly to (with PRP your own platelets are spun from your freshly drawn blood and injected back into the problem areas to boost healing and tissue regeneration). But it turns out that my platelets are… OVER-ACHIEVING.

Are you surprised, dear Reader?

To enhance the healing, I received a few acupuncture treatments and the practitioner (who also administered the PRP) also applied a balm to my very painful, swollen, newly formed kancle. Three days later I returned for a second acupuncture treatment and while she was preparing me for the acupuncture needles we were chatting about the unusual circumstances and I declared that I really need to just surrender and receive. Surrender and receive. Surrender and receive.

“Do you smell maple syrup?” she asked, having stopped everything as the smell filled the room.

“YES! I do!” and our conversation swiftly turned to syrup. She had nothing in her space that smelled like maple. No food, tinctures, lotions, potions, nothing. After my shower I had applied a guava lotion that smelled “pink” according to Jerry, and definitely not like maple ANYTHING.

So we determined that a spirit had come to hang with me.

This may feel like a leap, but when everything “practical” is eliminated, we are no doubt left with the spirit realm, am I right?

I will also admit that I am a lover of the supernatural, magic, and hidden messages.

When I worked as a massage therapist at the Alamo adjacent Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio, you’d better believe I was in haunted rooms. The spirits would play little tricks like turning on the jacuzzi tub when there was no water in it (and everyone in the room was either massaging or getting massaged). The clients tended to be a little unnerved, but we massage therapists knew…

The maple syrup smell stayed. And it stayed strong. I tend to go olfactory blind pretty quickly (I blame working with essential oils all day), but the maple stayed strong for the full hour I was there.

When I got home, I received a text, “Just walked into the room and the smell is GONE.”

But it was still with ME.

Whomever / whatever it was didn’t make themselves known aside from the smell. I asked for other messages or signs of clarity, but I got nothin’. I didn’t have grandmas that made me pancakes, I don’t think I personally know any Canadians on the other side (it was GOOD syrup – not American sugar syrup), and I wasn’t craving maple syrup (I have yet to eat a stack of pancakes).

I hit Google and deduced that I do not have Maple Syrup Urine Disease (because my pee doesn’t smell like maple), and I learned that in the world of psychics, smelling maple can mean rejuvenation and abundance. Still not 100% convinced, I kept web surfing and I found a blog in The Atlantic, written by a gal whose sweat smelled like it was tapped directly from a Vermont maple tree. Scarlett had eaten fenugreek, which once processed by the body, can emit sugary sweet smells akin to waffles and maple syrup. My mind flashed back to…

THE BALM.

I contorted my body (Jerry was very impressed) and smelled my swollen ankle. Yep. There was the maple syrup, emanating right off my log-foot. Later that day, back for another acupuncture treatment, I shared my findings. However, there was no fenugreek in the balm, “Erin, in all the years I’ve been using that balm, it has NEVER presented as maple syrup sweet on anybody. Ever.”

So what was it? A message for me to calm down because my body is doing exactly what it’s meant to? Maybe it was the balm, and I’m just… special. Perhaps it was little fairies that live in maple trees, diligently working on my pain. Who knows. Contrary to the evidence I just provided, I’m trying not to obsess about it and just…

SURRENDER AND RECEIVE.

Because it’s all about love…

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