raw taro case

[Shannon Nelson]

Dear all,

Here's the information I have so far on the taro leaf poisoning, and my
thoughts so far, which I would *love* feedback and further thoughts on.

Thursday night (4 nights ago) she took a tiny nibble of raw taro leaf, and
within seconds felt (from memory, I don't have this part written down) sharp
pain in throat and mouth, and then tongue and throat began to swell. Friend
called ambulance. I talked to her some hours later, when she was back home
(after getting various meds at the ER, which I don't remember) with
instructions that if the breathing and pain weren't better by morning, to
call her own doctor. It wasn't, and she did. They started her on cortisone
(that would have been Friday, I think?), and here's where the story picks up
this evening:

continuing respiratory distress.
chest feels raw, like there's pressure, some burning sensations, tickles
when I breathe.
out of breath easily, esp. when lying down.
hurts when she breathes, both on out and in
asthmatic cough when inhaling deepy or when lying down.
feels like what happened when I had pneumonia

also been in kind of emotional shock.
Took me until middle of night yesterday to figure out what I was really kind
of out of it; sobbing in the middle of the night [sobbing in shock, I think;
both the first night and this evening she repeats several times, "I almost
died".]
I've been not wanting to go out of the house, feeling kind of reclusive.
"The most agoraphobic I've ever been. I want the shades down, don't want to
go outside, don't want to call people on the phone. Been kind of bumping
into things, just not entirely in my body.

Why not going out? Scared, panicky when I try.
Scared of? Don't know, doesn't even feel like that, just want to stay in,
want to burrow. And when I go out, I feel ugh, I don't want to be here,
want to go in.

Went out to do ceramics today (a friend got her out), and when I got home,
just felt Oh my god, jmust want to get under the covers, not interact with
anybody.

How are you sleeping? Well, I'm not. First night I was too freaked out,
and since then, I'm on cortisone (which wires her). Hours per night? maybe
4 one night, then 6 or 7 today?... Very hard to get to sleep. Once I get
to sleep I can stay asleep, but it's hard to get to sleep. I'm kind of
wired and I feel anxious. (Not sure how much of that is about shock -- I
almost died! And how much of that is cortisone.)

Haw the cortisone helped? First day on a full dose cortisone it eased the
lung stuff fairly well, but by late that night it wasn't working any more.
The morning dose eased it for half an hour or so, then didn't do much.
Rapidly decreasing effectiveness. Actually feels like the respiratory stuff
has gotten worse, not better. More pain, more difficulty breathing.

The cough is worse on first lying down, but does not wake her and does not
especially happen at night, but also worse lying on her left side.

Any info re expected course of this? No, Nobody around here knows anything,
except someone found something that said never eat any part of the taro raw,
it's extremely toxic. No other information.

Later, she added a bit more, said that the usual reaction to taro is pain
and burning in the mouth and throat(??? argh, she gave me more info, and my
daughter promptly erased it for me...), but a syndrome of swelling such as
she had is mentioned as an occasional reaction -- and sometimes fatal. The
asthma that she's experiencing now, and the cough, apparently are unusual
reactions, so maybe more guiding for my remedy search?

**************

I have used these rubrics:

CHEST; PAIN; burning
CHEST; PAIN; rawness
CHEST; TICKLING
RESPIRATION; PAINFUL
RESPIRATION; PAINFUL; lying down
RESPIRATION; ASTHMATIC; lying; agg.
COUGH; ASTHMATIC
COUGH; LYING; agg.

ral, Phos, Iod(?), Dig(?), Ars, Arn...

For her mental state I'm looking at:
MIND; FEAR; general; out of doors, to go or "of public places"
[tho I'm not sure this is quite right? Maybe it's "desires to go home",
or "desires to be quiet", or ?]
MIND; AWKWARDNESS
MIND; AWKWARDNESS; knocks, strikes against things: caps., germ., hydrog.,
hyos., ip., nat-m., nux-v., op.
MIND; AILMENTS from; shock
MIND; COMPANY; aversion to, agg.
MIND; HOME; desires to; go [actually, to "stay"]

I'd welcome all thoughts, esp. as I'm feeling a little unnerved by it all!

Thanks!
Shannon