Hello,
Thanks so much to all of you for your input;it is really appreciated.
Drleela, I read with interest your thoughts on the Arg Nit remedy. He did seem to react right away to this remedy in the 1LM potency, and the negative reaction continued for about 10-14 days (I have not been keeping a journal of any of this, and sometimes the details just run together for me)
The main neg reaction that I recall to this remedy was a heightened sensitivity to food (meaning he would be more likely to react to foods than otherwise and his reactions would be more severe and painful) and a strong emotional reaction. He would not tolerate being left alone in a room, he insisted I remain by him in the same room at all times. He would ask every few minutes for me to "give him love" meaning to give him a cuddle. After a few days he began to interupt his meals and insist on getting cuddles between bites of food, saying that he felt as if he would throw up if not cuddled. (btw, he had never talked exactly like this-word choice- or really acted like this before...or since the Phos was given at the end of these 10-14 days on arg nit)The cuddles turned into him wanting to sit on or lay on me (or dh) then progressed into wanting both of us present and cuddling him. He would weep and say he was sick etc if denied. The first few days we indulged him...we thought it would pass, and it seemed not to be such a big deal. But after almost 2 weeks of this, where it only built up and got more crazy...I mean, he seemed to want me to do nothing all day but hold him, we finally began to get irritated with him, and then called the homeopath. She felt that he should have turned a corner before then, and that were the remedy the correct fit, the aggrevation should not last so long.
Is that statement her subjective view of aggrevations or do you all share her opinion to some degree? (that in general or in his case 10 days is too long for it to be an aggrevation caused by the correct remedy?)
What does one do in this situation? redose? give a lower potency? (in this case he took 4 or 5 doses of 1LM) give a higher or different potency?
Her decision was to give the Phos, possibly as an antidote (I think someone else, bwv111? mentioned that too). I believe she then looked away from arg nit and toward something else, using his reaction to Phos as her platform.
I think at this point I gave her more info about him that made her look for remedies that had 'illness from jealousy' as a point. I told her that Joshua had a profile of his brain waves done by a naturopath that indicated to her " a bent toward ADD, Obsessive Compulsive and with the latter, intense jealousy. It was this naturopath that first highlighted the idea that perhaps it wasnnt the details surrounding the birth and first few weeks that pushed him over the edge, but the very prescence of the baby itself, the rival for his center of attention that had been the catalyst. As I said, at this point my homeopath began to examen Phos and a few others (Hyo, Nux vom,Ignacia) .
Snoopy, thank you for your thoughts...I read with interest your quote dealing with the importance of getting the potency right. I wish that it was more clear not only what remedy he needs, but also which potency. I only was able to get back online late tonight...had I read what was written in response to my OP perhaps I would have altered something...in the end I gave Joshua one dose of Phos 30x. I have been unable to reach his homeopath all week. So I dont have the benefit of her input on what to make of the Pulsatilla.
Thanks happitt415 for your response. Yes, he did seem to have some type of response to Puls.
His thirst did come back for a day or two , and he did seem to aggrevate that night. However I cant say that I noticed much of anything the rest of this week. He is still eating poorly and not gaining weight, reacting to most of what he eats with pain and discomfort,ghostly pale and basically breaking my heart with how things just dont seem better that they were 8 months ago (different, but not really improved) His emotions are unchanged...variable, changeable, still fairly dour and pessamistic, timid in some ways...actually as if he were strained or winced in pain. I'm speaking of his personality here, like his whole character has been winced and drawn thin from suffering, so here and there a bubble of life emerges through, a smile or silly joke or a whoop of exitement. But then that emotion flickers away and he is back to his sort of 'weight of the world' projection.
So to answer your question more directly happitt415, his homeopath and I have been playing phone tag (she was on vacation) so I dont know what her reaction to the Puls would be.
Tonight I gave him the Phos because his apetite is so minimal and he got sick from everthing he ate today. My thought was, maybe he'll do great right afterwards like last time
I found your comments, bwv111, very interesting to read and ponder. Your thoughts on his inherent weaknesses being masked by some stronger aspects of his spirit were really perceptive I thought. It helps me see things from a different angle.
He had always been an intense child...intensely happy, almost giddy and unrestrained usually, but flashes of fury and infuriating behavior as well. It is easy to get caught up in how much he has changed for the worse, and forget that there were aspect of him before all this that would have benefited from some support or amelioration.
You raised some good questions about his food allergies and what he is fed, along with some excellent dietary recommendations.
His diet and allergy situation is so complex that it would take forever to lay it all out.
He basically had a really healthy diet his whole life...no candy,junk food, fast food, he was vegetarian for his first 2 years. He only began having dairy after the age of two, after NAET allergy treatments,and then only organic dairy most of the time.
During this year of him being sick, we have tried every dietary modification you can imagine,...strict anti candida diet, celiac diet etc...for the last few months he only eats organic, no sugar, and rarely any dairy (but he does eat lots of eggs)...nothing processed or packaged. I make all his food from scratch, including baking him wheat free bread or muffins each morning. When you ask why I would feed him something he is allergic to, well, at some point or another he has had his burning pain in the tummy and chest reaction to every single food, including pure water. Its just so unpredictable...some days he reacts to the food item in question, other days he doesnt. Some foods he reacts to so consistantly that I never bother (wheat, oats, rice.salmon..)other foods we cut out for a few months but at some point we have to give it a try. His diet is so restricted now that he refuses vegetables, doesnt care for meat, reacts to lots of friuts ....it doesnt leave much to work with . Add to this that I am suposed to be rotating his foods and not repeating anything for 4 days...aarrg! The fact that he lost so much weight and cant seem to gain it back worries me so much and prompts me to want to try feeding him things that he seems keen on.
I am intrigued by your advice to cut out eggs...anything specific or just that they can be such a strong allergen? He eats eggs almost daily.
Recently he has had cheese or yoghurt about 2x per week. He has been drinking distilled water for about 3 months now.
He has the strongest sweet tooth ever...he even wants stevia in his water. But his strongest craving is for chocolate. It rules him, It is the #1 love in his life, the driving force (can you blame him?LOL)
another oddity to mention...about 6 months ago a naturopath gave us a bottle of pure calcium made from crushed coral. This was to give him when he had an acid attack to neutralize the acid. Well he got addicted to the stuff like it was a drug, and not just for the neutralzing effect. It was the taste and smell (like dirt) he craved. All you had to do was put one grain in his mouth. He would beg and plead and even tantrum for this. We weaned him off the stuff earlier this summer, but as of about a month ago he is back on . He asks to smell his coral about 2-4 times and hour, if he gets a bad food reaction he wants some placed on his tongue. We cannot leave the house without the stuff. Since he thinks it smells like dirt, the other day he put some dirt in a baby food jar and carried that around , sniffing it and even tasting it (he said it was delicious). He says this makes him feel better.
I am very interested in your advice re: resuming the arg nit. Do you have any gut feeling or opinion on what potency you would lean towards? How long could an agravation last? Was some of the healing accomplished during the time he took it a few weeks ago? Do you think that it might take a short time (weeks) to achieve a cure with the correct remedy and potency/dosage or a long time (1-2 years)? I am curious to know your personal opinion (and others reading this as well) to this?
Please feel free to ask me anything else that could give you more info on this, I would be happy to answer any questions.
Thanks so much
Lisa