HSP - we have a winner!
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:39 pm
Just wanted to give an update while I can on my 9 yo daughter's Henloch-Schonlein Purpura (HSP).
After our intial success with the Naphthalinum, things progressed significantly worse the day before yesterday and Delainey's bleeding of her kidneys and intestines continued to worsen. The paralysis continued. She also developed jaundice, and then calf pain, so we had to rule out thrombosis. I had brought the handmade Naphthalinum up to 30c, given to her in water 2 days ago. After initial improvement, a repeat of the 30c in water after 12 hours (2 days ago) had no effect. I was not sure if the 30c was just not strong enough or the wrong remedy. While she continued to worsen, I did not think it was an aggravation as her mental/emotional did not improve at all and it followed the natural progression of HSP. The night before last we spent all night in the hospital with an IV with no change in condition. I held off on any other remedies to wait for clues.
I recalled seeing Naphthalinum (mothballs) in Morrison's Organic Carbon text. The proving included Hematuria, renal failure, jaundice, watery stool, ataxia of the lower limbs, allergy, and nephritis. Since it did match the picture, and appeared to be the etiology, I decided to continue with a stronger potency. When the 200c arrived in the mail yesterday a.m., I gave her one dose in water which brought the purpura back out to its worst. I was actually happy to see the purpura come back as this meant it was moving back toward the surface, away from the internal organs. Further waiting throughout the day, she did not improve but worsened, both mentally and physically. Her stomach pain worsened significantly. We feared intussusception.
While I believe it was the etiology (exciting cause), it was not the similimum. She had no amelioration of emotional symptoms. Her physical symptoms continued to worsen. Since the first dose of Naphthalinum cleared much of her rash but her internal symptoms worsened, I decided this was not the right remedy and was not curing but suppressing (moving from outside to the inside).
I watched all day yesterday to see what was developing. The physical/general symptoms matched over 12 remedies. You may recall I was leaning toward Pulsatilla or Silicea. I finally figured out while she was whining and weepy - she wasn't really looking for sympathy but was complaining and being critical of everything everyone was doing for her. This steered me away from Pulsatilla and gave me the clue I needed. After reviewing Farokh Master's Children's MM, I saw ARSENICUM ALBUM did indeed fit perfectly, even including intussusception. I gave one dose of 200c in water with one 24 oz. dilution glass. Within a half hour, she could move both arms and both legs. She had significantly reduced pain. She sat up by herself. Her swelling subsided a bit. Mentally, she was improved and alert, she stopped crying, and she sat up for a few minutes and took a quick visit from a friend.
Unfortunately, the 200c proved to be too strong, her stomach symptoms worsened and she began vomiting bile and having severe watery diarrhea. So while she was improving, she was aggravating. I took a 30c and diluted it in water, then used 3 dilution glasses and gave her a tiny sip. Within a few minutes, stomach symptoms subsided, she vomited once more, felt much better, and went to sleep. She changed positions by herself (after sleeping in the same position for 10 days). She slept through the entire night and awoke this morning significantly improved! This morning - ZERO blood and ZERO protein in her urine! No visible blood in her stool. Swelling improved.
Her stomach pain began acting up though after waking and she was talking very quickly and very critical and irritable. I gave a dose of the 30c in water after 3 dilution glasses with 2 succussions. Her mood improved slightly but stomach pain worsened significantly so it was still too strong. I put it in 2 more dilution glasses and gave one small sip. Stomach pain immediately disappeared and her mood/emotion improved dramatically. Happy! After being mostly paralyzed for 10 days, she stood up and hobbled to the bathroom by herself! Walked back and asked to play on the computer!
So even the 30c highly diluted is still too strong. Normally, I would never start with a 200c but she was so compromised and the MM said low potency will have no effect and a 10M is necessary. But I now realize this meant dry. Thank goodness I did not have higher than a 200c! I will pick up a 6c today which just shows with water dosing, even the lowest potency can do amazing things.
We will wait and watch today and see what happens. It has been over 3 hours since her dose and she continues to improve. She is smiling and talking, sitting up, moving around, even walking around. Since the HSP waxes and wanes, it naturally will get better and worse, but her condition had become so grave and is now so improved, we can't help but be optimistic.
I was able to do a DD using some keynotes to rule out Crotalus Horridus, Lathyrus, and others. The physical symptoms and even the generals fit so many remedies but it was finally the mental/emotional clue that helped me choose. There are over 65 rubrics that fit (this may well be her constitutional remedy after all) but these are the guiding symptoms I used to make my final choice:
- Top choice for poisoning (mothballs) (personal kudos to Rosemary, Tricia, and kind member at newhopetherapy).
- Extremely critical: "Why did you do that? You're hurting me. You're touching me too hard" when we were trying to help her.
- Gets angry at trifles especially when forced to eat. Capriciousness.
- Easily frightened and scared (about everything).
- Worse at night and from noise.
- Extremely chilly wanting ample covering but great thirst for cold water without inclination to drink.
- No desire to eat, but unquenchable thirst for water.
- Intussusception in children.
- Dropsical swelling of the lower limbs in children suffering from nephritis.
- Cannot sleep on the left side.
- Ailments from suppressed allergy, urticaria.
- Paralytic ileus.
- Petechiae.
Thank you all for the amazing help! My husband commented it was truly spectacular that a remedy we use from time to time for acutes could be the right one all along. What an amazing polychrest!
There's so much to learn from this I hope to put together a clear recap when things calm down. I made some mistakes along the way for sure but I'm happy with the results so far! And so is she!
Truly,
Erica
After our intial success with the Naphthalinum, things progressed significantly worse the day before yesterday and Delainey's bleeding of her kidneys and intestines continued to worsen. The paralysis continued. She also developed jaundice, and then calf pain, so we had to rule out thrombosis. I had brought the handmade Naphthalinum up to 30c, given to her in water 2 days ago. After initial improvement, a repeat of the 30c in water after 12 hours (2 days ago) had no effect. I was not sure if the 30c was just not strong enough or the wrong remedy. While she continued to worsen, I did not think it was an aggravation as her mental/emotional did not improve at all and it followed the natural progression of HSP. The night before last we spent all night in the hospital with an IV with no change in condition. I held off on any other remedies to wait for clues.
I recalled seeing Naphthalinum (mothballs) in Morrison's Organic Carbon text. The proving included Hematuria, renal failure, jaundice, watery stool, ataxia of the lower limbs, allergy, and nephritis. Since it did match the picture, and appeared to be the etiology, I decided to continue with a stronger potency. When the 200c arrived in the mail yesterday a.m., I gave her one dose in water which brought the purpura back out to its worst. I was actually happy to see the purpura come back as this meant it was moving back toward the surface, away from the internal organs. Further waiting throughout the day, she did not improve but worsened, both mentally and physically. Her stomach pain worsened significantly. We feared intussusception.
While I believe it was the etiology (exciting cause), it was not the similimum. She had no amelioration of emotional symptoms. Her physical symptoms continued to worsen. Since the first dose of Naphthalinum cleared much of her rash but her internal symptoms worsened, I decided this was not the right remedy and was not curing but suppressing (moving from outside to the inside).
I watched all day yesterday to see what was developing. The physical/general symptoms matched over 12 remedies. You may recall I was leaning toward Pulsatilla or Silicea. I finally figured out while she was whining and weepy - she wasn't really looking for sympathy but was complaining and being critical of everything everyone was doing for her. This steered me away from Pulsatilla and gave me the clue I needed. After reviewing Farokh Master's Children's MM, I saw ARSENICUM ALBUM did indeed fit perfectly, even including intussusception. I gave one dose of 200c in water with one 24 oz. dilution glass. Within a half hour, she could move both arms and both legs. She had significantly reduced pain. She sat up by herself. Her swelling subsided a bit. Mentally, she was improved and alert, she stopped crying, and she sat up for a few minutes and took a quick visit from a friend.
Unfortunately, the 200c proved to be too strong, her stomach symptoms worsened and she began vomiting bile and having severe watery diarrhea. So while she was improving, she was aggravating. I took a 30c and diluted it in water, then used 3 dilution glasses and gave her a tiny sip. Within a few minutes, stomach symptoms subsided, she vomited once more, felt much better, and went to sleep. She changed positions by herself (after sleeping in the same position for 10 days). She slept through the entire night and awoke this morning significantly improved! This morning - ZERO blood and ZERO protein in her urine! No visible blood in her stool. Swelling improved.
Her stomach pain began acting up though after waking and she was talking very quickly and very critical and irritable. I gave a dose of the 30c in water after 3 dilution glasses with 2 succussions. Her mood improved slightly but stomach pain worsened significantly so it was still too strong. I put it in 2 more dilution glasses and gave one small sip. Stomach pain immediately disappeared and her mood/emotion improved dramatically. Happy! After being mostly paralyzed for 10 days, she stood up and hobbled to the bathroom by herself! Walked back and asked to play on the computer!
So even the 30c highly diluted is still too strong. Normally, I would never start with a 200c but she was so compromised and the MM said low potency will have no effect and a 10M is necessary. But I now realize this meant dry. Thank goodness I did not have higher than a 200c! I will pick up a 6c today which just shows with water dosing, even the lowest potency can do amazing things.
We will wait and watch today and see what happens. It has been over 3 hours since her dose and she continues to improve. She is smiling and talking, sitting up, moving around, even walking around. Since the HSP waxes and wanes, it naturally will get better and worse, but her condition had become so grave and is now so improved, we can't help but be optimistic.
I was able to do a DD using some keynotes to rule out Crotalus Horridus, Lathyrus, and others. The physical symptoms and even the generals fit so many remedies but it was finally the mental/emotional clue that helped me choose. There are over 65 rubrics that fit (this may well be her constitutional remedy after all) but these are the guiding symptoms I used to make my final choice:
- Top choice for poisoning (mothballs) (personal kudos to Rosemary, Tricia, and kind member at newhopetherapy).
- Extremely critical: "Why did you do that? You're hurting me. You're touching me too hard" when we were trying to help her.
- Gets angry at trifles especially when forced to eat. Capriciousness.
- Easily frightened and scared (about everything).
- Worse at night and from noise.
- Extremely chilly wanting ample covering but great thirst for cold water without inclination to drink.
- No desire to eat, but unquenchable thirst for water.
- Intussusception in children.
- Dropsical swelling of the lower limbs in children suffering from nephritis.
- Cannot sleep on the left side.
- Ailments from suppressed allergy, urticaria.
- Paralytic ileus.
- Petechiae.
Thank you all for the amazing help! My husband commented it was truly spectacular that a remedy we use from time to time for acutes could be the right one all along. What an amazing polychrest!
There's so much to learn from this I hope to put together a clear recap when things calm down. I made some mistakes along the way for sure but I'm happy with the results so far! And so is she!
Truly,
Erica