----- Original Message -----
From: <blissgogo-hpthy@yahoo.com>
To: <homeopathy@homeolist.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 9:41 PM
Subject: [H] Spinal Cord Injuries


> A neighbor's 21 year-old son had a car accident about two years ago and
was left paralyzed. I'm not sure whether he has bladder or sphincter control
but I have noticed empty boxes of hospital grade Depends, which are adult
diapers, put out for recycling. He might also be sexually impaired. From
what I can observe, the boy has some upper body movement. He now uses an
electric wheelchair with a special headrest which seems to keep his neck
aligned straight. Recently, he started driving a modified minivan where the
driver's seat was removed so he can sit in the wheelchair and drive the van,
I guess by pushing buttons.
>
> My brief read about spinal cord injuries says that there are lesions
that have grown on the spinal cord areas affected causing the nerve damage
and paralysis. There seems to be hope that stem cell transplants might help
regenerate nerve cells. Some patients require a drug to reduce spasticity
which can develop.
>
> While I may be denied the opportunity to try because this is an
old-fashioned wary family from Russia, I thought to offer the family
Hypericum to give the boy. The materia medica does mention spinal cord.
>
> Does anyone think this could help??? If so, what potency and how often?
Given the severity of injury I was thinking 1M or 10M or 50M to start and
see if there was a response. Likely this would require lots of repetition.
Any other remedies?
>
> I would not want to offer this family a ray of hope and then find I
misled them but it's a shame to see someone have to grow up this way when
***maybe*** homeopathy can help, if not fully possibly partially. Also, if
there were homeopathic "problems", I may not be equipped to handle them and
there are no local homeopaths available.
>
> Regards,
>
> Susan

Hello Susan,

As far as I know, the reality is, that after a period of 2 years it is
highly unlikely that any natural repair and recuperation is possible to
spinal cord severance. This may be possible in the future with some form of
radical surgical stem cell replacement therapy, but not now. The degree of
paralysis is in relation to the level of spinal cord damage. Cervical damage
results in quadriplegia, below that results in paraplegia.

Certainly, if Hypericum could possibly effect a change, then one would want
to know the potential, and the immediate effects to spinal trauma are
certainly recorded in our homoeopathic Materia Medica. On the other hand,
there are spinal injury patients who have in the first days after trauma
successfully regained limited mobility only to be faced with lifelong,
indescribable neuralgic pain even after minimal movement. Some of these
patients have voluntarily ended their lives in suicide.

This is the predicament we find ourselves in, desperately wanting to help,
but first we need to explore what actually is the case before us. No
able-bodied person easily reconciles such mobility-dependence, 'nappies',
loss of sexual function etc and we can only imagine how it is for the
suddenly dis-abled person who finds themselves in this irreversible
situation. Yet, when we able-bodied people speak to dis-abled people who
live the experience every day it can be quite a different situation. I have
a friend who became quadriplegic after a motor accident during a holiday to
Australia when she was only in her 20's. The *movement* she has encompassed
in her own life since then is far reaching, from a German citizen to legal
Australian resident, from a divorce to a new relationship, from limited
English to a university degree in counselling....On a personal level, well
it's actually hard to describe without sounding euphemistic or patronizing.
In fact it is not just her, it is her family and friends who are also
encompassed in her journey and who have been deeply affected by the overall
experience. All her friends and family have struggled to push her wheelchair
up the steps of public buildings that still deny her wheelchair access at
the end of 2005 - when we can alternately find public funds to land rockets
on the moon and mars!!! Still, I would say, I can't imagine life without the
benefit of knowing that 'secondhand' experience and only she could voice the
intimate experience of living with quadriplegia every day. I would say she
is the *least* disabled person I have ever met in my life and of course,
that has precious little to do with walking. Since my friend has been on
homoeopathic treatment she has not regained the ability to walk, but she
experiences less bladder and pulmonary infections than people in similar
circumstances to her, and she has led a full if not fuller life than the
average able-bodied person in accordance with her abilities and soul
purpose.
This, Susan, is the key, in order to prescribe effective homoeopathic
medicines you need to understand the person in all their capacities, in
front of you, to the best of your own abilities.

Best,
Chris