Balsam Fir and Frankincense for pain

The other day I hurt my neck installing some light panels at my office. When I got home I noticed the strain. As the evening went on, the pain became worse. I put some peppermint oil on my neck, and while the pain level did decrease, the results didn’t last as long as I had hoped. Later I took some aspirin but that didn’t help at all. The next morning the pain was still there. I took Aleve. Nothing. Now I know I could have used Healing Touch pain techniques, but the pain radiated down my back and shoulder and was hard to reach by myself so I was saving that as a last resort.
I am new to oils and am still learning so later in the day I looked up pain in the Essential Oil Desk Reference. I read that Balsam Fir and Frankincense were also good for muscle pain. This time I followed the directions and put it on the neck of the toes (the reflexology points on the feet for the neck). Nothing on my actual neck. I have not used this method before. Although I understand the concept behind this, I was, I must say, a little skeptical. One drop of Balsam Fir and one drop of Frankincense on each foot. Within minutes, and I mean MINUTES, the pain was completely gone. I was shocked. I was also expecting the pain to return. It never did. I was amazed.  For those of you who say it’s the placebo effect, then that would have worked with the peppermint (which HAS worked for me before) and not for the Balsam Fir and Frankincense on my feet of which I was skeptical. These oils are amazing and I am looking forward to the Clinical Aromatherapy course in San Francisco in later in September. The combination of oils and energy work is going to be fabulous.  I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, Balsam Fir has jumped into first place for my favorite oil.