Help with possible epilepsy case?

[Celia M. Malm]

It's been awhile since I pored over my Kent and Boericke, but I've been back
in them this week. My seven-year-old daughter has had three seizures in the
past two months, and the idea of allopathic epilepsy medications is scaring
me to death. The problem I'm running into is that, even though the symptoms
are very clear and definite, I'm not finding anything that definitely fits
them!

On all three occasions, she's had the seizure as she was falling asleep
after having stayed up too late. It's been grand mal all three times: crying
out, rigidity, shaking, staring eyes with pupils dialated, and as the
seizure wears on, lots of drooling, with gagging noises. The first time, she
came out of it afterward fairly rapidly, but the second and third times, it
was very difficult to wake her up afterward. On the first occasion, she
reported that immediately before she lost consciousness, she suddenly
couldn't move her legs (or, as she put it, they "went to sleep"). This
apparently also happened the second time. Don't know about the third, as it
seemed better to just let her sleep it off instead of forcing her awake
again (the last two were on the same night--the third occurred after
returning home from the hospital, by which time it was very, very late).

Kent only gives one remedy for CONVULSIONS, sleep, after loss of: Cocc.
Cocc. would not be as bad match for her personality as many of the other
options. When I repertorized the first time, I wasn't seeing Cocc., mainly
because I was looking for specific features rather than the more generalized
rubrics. But as I look again, it is showing up in the more generalized
rubrics for her symptoms. So now I'm leaning that way.

Other than Cocc., the most obvious remedy seems to be Cupr. But her seizures
lack the intense contraction of the limbs and the rolling eyes, and the
remedy picture overall does not fit her.

Oena is a possible option: the fixed, dialated eyes, the foaming at the
mouth, and she certainly does have the tendency to cry over little things.
But Boericke doesn't have much information on it, and that's all I have
access to at the moment.

I tried repertorizing with an online repertory program, and it suggested
Nit. Ac., which doesn't have anything suggestive of a match in Boericke's
MM.

In short, I feel confused and frustrated. She's always been a very healthy
little girl (apart from a heart murmur at birth which resolved in her first
year). My oldest son's ADHD was about 90% resolved with homeopathy, and it's
proved helpful in acute situations with my family, so I know that this is by
far the way I'd rather go for her. But I'm a little afraid (okay, a lot
afraid) of aggravating the situation if I get the wrong remedy. At this
point, I can't help wondering if just assiduously avoiding the circumstance
that's triggered these seizures (staying up too late) would be a better
first alternative than giving her anything, allo or homeo.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Reassurances?

Thanks,

Cee

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

Dear Celia

You have my sympathies.

It is well known that sleep deprivation and tiredness does trigger off
seizures. So best avoided. Include afternoon naps in her routine.As a first
step, let us firstly be sure that there is not a maintaining cause such as
ASPARTAME.

As you know this sweetener is in a lot of foods and drinks - sometimes shown
properly and some times not.
It is in almost anything DIET, SUGAR FREE or REDUCED SUGAR.

In the studies, of the 7 primates tested, one died and 5 developed seizures
but Searle the manufactures did not declare this results to FDA.
see www.dorway.org

In terms of treating your daughter, I would respectfully recommend that she
is seen by a professional homoeopath who can look at the totality of the
case and take the other aspects of your daughters symptoms.

I hope she becomes seizure free soon.
Rgds
Soroush

[Sarvadaman Oberoi]

Dear Celia,

Would need a more detailed case taking eg pencillin reactions in childhood (
pencillin seizure), vaccine history and reactions .......

Regards.

Sarvadaman Oberoi
New Delhi, India
Mobile: +919818768349
+911244076374
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/homeopathy249/
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[Joy Lucas]

Maybe you need to extend the rubric regarding sleep and the convulsions
- maybe use 'convulsions on falling to sleep' rather than from 'loss of
sleep'. Maybe even the rubric 'convulsions with or after sleeplessness'
could also be used. These rubrics open up more rx for you. If the loss
of sensation in the lower limbs becomes a feature of the case then
apply the rubric 'convulsions with paralysis' + the sub rubrics of this
as well. Causticum could be a rx to study as it has paralysis with
convulsions and the modality <<< night watching (so called) but a
fuller case is essential and if you feel too close then maybe have a
colleague homeopath treat your daughter instead - more objectivity -
but you get to share the case intimately as well and learn through
that. Best wishes, Joy

http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.blogspot.com
http://homepage.mac.com/joylucas/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/provings

[H.T. Cotter]

Dear Cee,
It's so unlikely that you'll trigger an aggravation of a grand mal with any of the remedies you mentioned. The joy of homeopathy is that if you give the wrong remedy, nothing happens.
I treat a lady out of state who is in her early sixties and who was having a dozen seizures a night. Each one woke her and left her breathless (literally). She would simply have to wait for her neuro-net to re-sync and start breathing again. She never had any assurances that she would resume breathing. These were the petit mals, with an occasional grand mal, and sometimes something that must have been a shopping mall!
Following treatment she has a small episode each morning on awakening, but its not even an anxious moment and it passes. In her case I balanced her neurotransmitters with the appropriate sarcodes.
Have you ruled out discernable organic issues? Tumors, trauma, etc.? More than 2 out of 3 cases of epilepsy have no known cause. Even so, it's best to reduce the discernable first.
To continue searching for the similium, try this website for some good rubrics that are automatically graded: http://www.abchomeopathy.com/c.php/61
In case the HTML doesn't survive, it's the abchomeopathy website and search for epilepsy first. Then fill out the rubrics and see if what you get marches up in the materia medica.
However, don't be shy. Probably any of the remedies you've deduced so far will help. So start helping her even if you don't get the exacticum immediately.
Where do you live? Might be good to consult a homeopath close to you.
best wishes,
Dr. H. Thomas Cotter

[Shannon Nelson]

Tom (and all), I would love thoughts on this...
I have been off-and-on for some years treating an epileptic friend,
with some exhilarating times of progress, but also some really
difficult episodes. The most recent was one of the latter... Based on
her totality of symptoms (which included both seizure symptoms and M/Es
and generals, and also sxs of a months-past severe injury) I was
feeling really good about moving her to rhus tox. (I would have to dig
back to find the specific reasons, but was surprised at how broadly the
remedy seemed to cover her situation and symptoms.)
e-mail, saying that she'd taken it, and it felt *great*--relief of
depression plus several other things. I'm not sure whether she took
more than that single dose, but it could not have been more than two,
and even that I doubt. Then several days later she phoned to let me
know that the night after taking the remedy she had had another very
severe seizure, the first in some months. Since then we are (both)
afraid to try any more rhus-t, or for that matter anything else just
now.
already helped her hugely in the previous year, and we had decided to
try another dose or few--but the following night she had another bad
seizure.

Her situation is not "typical" of epilepsy or anything--she has so many
things going on, so many factors and complications... But I would love
to have thoughts about why this might have happened, and how to
proceed. We did make a couple of brief stabs at olfaction (no
particular response) and having her just hold the rhus-t (no particular
response). In the past she has responded well to remedies; I don't
know why this would be coming up now...
Thanks!
Shannon
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[Joy Lucas]

If this has just occurred with one rx you would be thinking possible
aggravation but also possible simillimum for a complicated case but
that it has happened with more than one rx might suggest something
else entirely and a chance to investigate further - i am saying this
because I have seen this happen when the well indicated rx, although
it became obvious was not the simillimum, has brought about strange
reactions, beyond those you might think orthodox within the
homeopathic parameters and it turned out that the client was so full
of hope regarding the rx but also a fear of getting well, i.e. losing
the crutch of a complex disease, thus the rx (whether the simillimum
or not) became a barrier - i.e. do not heal me yet, I am not ready for
this and this is what was worth investigating further when I have seen
this. Just a thought. Best wishes, Joy
--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, Robert & Shannon Nelson
wrote:
on
M/Es
dig
the
many
love
particular
that
mals,
etc.?
and
deduced so
seizures
definitely
times:
This
third,
generalized
her

[Shannon Nelson]

Thanks Joy,
I understand sort of vaguely what you're saying (or maybe it's the
"what to do about it" that I'm struggling with...)... It's definitely
a "complicated case", for a number of reasons. With the nat-m, she got
quite a lot of progress from it, over a period of nearly a year, before
things sort of "went sideways" from a dental emergency (that was quite
possibly rooted in the chronic case as well), and I haven't found my
footing since that point. It was after that, when the dental stuff was
handled and the picture seemed to have shifted back into nat-m, that
she had seizure after the dose. The rhus-t episode was a good
half-year after that, and completely took us both by surprise.

"Full of hope ... but also fear or getting well" is possible. I just
don't know. How would you investigate that? Other than directly
asking, of course? Can you recall any more details about when you've
seen this, and how it worked out--what helped?
Thanks,
Shannon
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[Joy Lucas]

Another option in such a 'complicated' case is that it is simply her
vital force saying this is not the right rx even though both Nat mur
and Rhus tox have helped enormously - possibly too deep too soon? and
you might find you go back to one of these rx as the ultimate
simillimum at some point in time.

the 2 cases I have had that stand out in similar ways to yours - one
needed lots of placebo (placebo being the simillimum if you like) and
very careful and unimposing questioning but also a kind of questioning
that does actually dig much deeper, really deep - this takes time and a
lot of rapport or at least a willingness of the client to stick with it
(not always easy). All the time the case is being taken and re-taken.
Finally the rx that had caused so much aggravation but didn't bring
about cure worked in exactly the same potency. The other case, which
was one of deep depression and I prescribed so many rx, plenty of them
having some kind of good result but never that promising and lots of
'wow' as well but it was a wild goose chase but it was when i suggested
to the client that I couldn't help her anymore, that I wasn't good
enough to locate her simillimum and that she should go elsewhere etc
that things changed. We started discussing all the rx she'd had, she
confessed to not actually taking some of them but after even much
more time told me that she wanted to try one of the rx she'd had
previous (months and months previous) and the case flowed beautifully
after that. It was basically all about control and timing, mind over
matter, which is perfectly feasible and she wasn't ready early on to
let go of the depression. One might argue that the power of the
simillimum can overcome that but I am not so sure.

As I said there are so many orthodox reasons in the realm of homeopathy
and case management why what you describe could happen but if you have
to look outside of that almost anything goes. Best, Joy

http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.blogspot.com
http://homepage.mac.com/joylucas/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/provings

[Shannon Nelson]

Thanks Joy, I will chew over all this.
So you are saying that in the one case, at one point the remedy
aggravated without curing, yet later, after more digging and
casetaking, the same remedy and potency was given again, but this time
it worked? The only difference being her readiness to heal, is that
what you're saying? I'm taking some "time off" of this one now, but
will be working over all the insights and ideas and etc. that I can
muster--thanks much!
Shannon
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