Hi, My 8 year old daughter is on Calc Phos (taken on 24 Oct).

So far, she has made progress since taking the remedy.

Her apetite, which was huge before - has slowed to a more normal - although when she's bored, she does ask for food.... She doesn't seem to be sneaking sugars, etc., but she does still want candy (typical of children, I suppose). She's been quite reasonable about not being able to drink cokes, etc - although she does ask sometimes if she can have a Fanta Orange - knowing the answer is no. (we have occasionally let her, though - parties etc.)

No complaints of growing pains (this was really bad with her!) recently.

No greenish vaginal discharge SINCE Calc Phos.

Tempermentally, she has calmed down, although, her concentration is still poor in some areas. It is difficult to distinguish what is a symptom and what is pure boredom on her part, at times, with regard to doing homework and classwork (sitting her butt in a chair and MINDING her own business!!).

THE main problem is English. She is having the MOST DIFFICULT time reading words and spelling when doing creative writing..also with composing sentences - she gets all muddled and gives up. Now, here is the paradox. She can sit down and read beautifully! And, she almost always aces her spelling tests!! But if the teacher gives her an assignment - like write a story or a poem - she groans and says she can't do it.

This is where we notice several things:
-If she has composed a sentence in her head - she will start eliminating words (that are too difficult for her to sound out and spell) and then her sentence ends up not making ANY sense. She also writes incomplete sentences as well.

-As a result, her writing becomes very very sloppy, irregular, she presses the pencil too hard,etc...generally unreadable. While when simply practising writing her spelling words, the writing is heaps neater (not perfect, she tends to be a bit sloppy, anyway..but it is readable!).

-She tends to leave the endings off of words that she attempts to spell or simply spells phonetically. Or she leaves vowels out of the word. Examples:
what = whot or wht or wat or wut
some = som
have = hav
dimple = dmple or dmpel
that = tht or tha
they = thay or thy
just to name a few.
She is not consistently spelling them the same-wrong way, but it varies - refer to "WHAT" above. Most of these are words she has been reading since she was 4!! I ask her to look at the word she has written and she knows it is wrong - but says she doesn't know how to spell it! But, again -if she practises for a spelling test - she gets them all right!! frustration city for her.

She is not stupid, or slow, - her maths come very easily to her and she is excelling very much ahead the rest of the class in science. She LOVES scientific investigation!! Experiments and the like, as you might remember - and she is good at art, horse-riding, etc. She can be lazy, though -and bored with work that doesn't appeal to her. I know this, and so we've tried to find different ways to get her to learn (while not knowing she was acctually learning) by using different games, etc.

She is suffering in so many ways from this lack of being able to assimilate English in any form that is logical to her. It is like it's all gibberish in her mind, and she can't get her teeth round it.

Her teacher - recently - said we should consider putting her (once per week) with a special teacher (at the school). But, we said NO, after carefully considering the costs and the benefits. She is at the age where her peers play a large role in how she sees herself. So, we told the school that we weighed out the pay-off and the cost of each. And the cost of letting the school send her out of the classroom each week is too high.

Her peers are already making fun of those children who get any extra help in any area. And, we felt, to put her in the situation of being singled out (even if only once per week) would only set her apart further from her peers.

She is still not feeling accepted by her peers, who can be very cruel at times. There is one girl who secretly pinches her - and when my child cries out, "Ouch - why did you pinch me"..the girl says (to the teacher!) that my daughter is only trying to get her into trouble! This sort of thing is very difficult to counter or prove for my daughter. I advised her (when she finally broke down in tears last week and told me about this! had been going on since the start of school in Sept.) to secretly pinch the girl back and say EXACTLY the SAME words the little girl said to her!
I know some of you may think this is crazy, but my daughter was getting no support from other peers (they were taking the side of the snotty girl) and the teacher didn't see it, so I told my daughter that in this ONE instant, she should try it ONE time and see if the brat backs off. It worked - she hasn't pinched my daughter again in two weeks now! Like cures like? A bit mean, I know..but I really felt there was no other choice. The result was, this little snot KNEW she could get away with it, and the others were starting to think they, too, could treat my daughter nastily.

Basically, her self-esteem and confidence is still VERY LOW. I ache for her - and just wish there was some way I could convince her that she CAN do what comes so hard for her (english)..and that she is loveable (despite those spiteful brats!).

Since the Calc Phos - she had a rash on the back (hamstring area) of her left leg. It was ring-worm like..and disappeared after a week or ten days, leaving a white mark - pigment affected.

CURRENTLY: I'm thinking along these lines with her case:

I'm considering that she has had lice. And, until a few days ago - they were actively munching on her - she has some scabs that are healing now from where they were feasting. We are applying Olive Oil every 3 days to catch any new ones hatching. So far, no signs on live ones!

What is bothering her now - or making her feel ill, CAME AFTER the lice infestation a few weeks ago (I'm judging the period of infestation by the fact that mature - darker, blood filled - lice were found on her head).

These symptoms started about a week ago with a loose, phlegmy cough and are:

-Sore throat..mostly right side. She asked for hot tea with honey to soothe. I gave it.
-Swollen glands - both sides..worse today than before (she is home ill from school since yesterday).
-right eye is swollen, inside eye is bloodshot - red!, and glassy looking. Itching and throbbing pain in the socket.
-still coughing - rattly, loose - and when she coughs up phlegm (not often)it is greenish in colour. I notice she has to really work to cough it up.
-slight fever - only 99.9 - not much.
-sneezed a few times - always expels lots of thickish greenish mucous! But not much sneezing.

I gave coffea, as you suggested yesterday, GM. Sadly, it did nothing (I think the symptoms had been with her too many days). She is not feeling well at all. Her energy is low, as she usually bounces off the walls with it, but today has been rather quiet. Sitting round and reading or watching Nature programs (trying to cut down on cartoons ).

I'm afraid if I let this 'run it's course', she will be out of school for the rest of the week! She will fall so far behind in her work, that I'm afraid it will be too dispiriting for her. So, is there something indicated here?

Are the lice a factor to be considered in why she is so sick just now with cold-type symptoms? Could it be mumps? Since the glands are so swollen with the sore throat?(I could be off base with this, though..don't know a lot about mumps ).

Okay, I know this was long, and thanks for reading it all, but I partly wanted to post here for: Future reference - I keep losing files, which I would like to refer back to later in the future. (comp has crashed way too many times, and all past history gets wiped every time! )!


Any help is greatly appreciated - GM? Anyone elses comments are also welcome.
Thanks much.
Lisa

[This message has been edited by Lisa007 (edited 20 November 2000).]

Her English problem is called Dysphrasia I think, (I stand corrected) although I can't find that word in my 1976 dictionary!! Also dysgraphia which is the inability to write coherently. I really would get her special help - maybe out of school - to give her the clues that she needs to be able to write correctly.
Since GM began the prescribing I will leave it to him to discuss this with you.

Do you mean Dyslexia, Ricky?

Also, She just came through and told me this:

Sore throat - mostly right side - MAINLY upon swallowing.

Right ear hurts - ESP upon swallowing.

Throbbing pain in eye is GONE, but is still red, swollen (mildly) and glassy looking. Also, itching in the corners of the eye (right eye, that is).
Oh - I notice too, that her eye looks half-closed - perhaps from the slight swelling?
No agglutination.

Glands still swollen. Slight fever still.
Got any suggestion please, GM?

I'm not sure if this is simply an acute - or part something deeper.
Lisa



[This message has been edited by Lisa007 (edited 20 November 2000).]

It's not dysphasia as I have just found the word somewhere else and it is to do with speech!! I would doubt the problem was dyslexia because you said that she has no trouble reading. Whatever - she needs specialist help before she gets even more anxious about it. Specialists will give her rules on how to get her thoughts down on paper correctly.

Hey Lisa - just offering my support.
kids can be so cruel - when your children are hurt its as if you have been stabbed in the heart it just hurts so much - I can sympathise with that - you just want to wrap them up and protect them from all the nasty things in life. - I think having a go back was the right thing to do.

Also your daughter sounds just like me at her age, I found school relatively easy, so got bored easily, loved maths and science, and was always messing up my words especially this, that, they - I would just put "th" and quite often miss out the word altogether, would often miss out little words in sentences but the teachers never made a big thing of it, they just let it go. and it didn't affect my exams - (don't know how bad your daughter's writing is though) My speech is still like that to a certain degree. - is she the same if she types out things. Sometimes, my mind would go so fast I just go confused, I knew what I wanted to say but just couldn't write it down - I had to really think slowly and concentrate.

Hopefully someone here will come up with a solution.
Take care
Linda W.

No way she is Aphasic, as this disorder is always accompanied by speech and/or comprehension/language disorders. And dyslexia usualy with reading problems. I personaly wouldn't put too much emphasis on this at the moment; it could be just a phase.
Agree fully with your advice to nip back. It's part of the real world, and is one method to prevent a bully taking power.

Lisa,
Lot of symptoms match Lyc. such as Lacking self-confidence, right sided throat pain, right eye swollen, warm drinks amereloiate.

Also, mistakes in writing, missing letters/words - all point to Club Moss



[This message has been edited by qf (edited 20 November 2000).]

Thanks you guys. I pruned what I had posted earlier (a long definition of Aphasia disorders from the dictionary) to keep the thread readable.

I don't think this disorder applies either, Ricky and Louise.

She does sometimes find it hard to express herself, but I don't think it is anything unusual for her age. Sure, there are some children who find it easier to express what they want, but others are even worse than my daughter..so she fall somewhere in the middle of that , thankfully.

It's mainly that there seems to be a short-circuit whereby she can't seem to take the input, and put forth output in written form very well. Also, the school she is going to pushes the kids quite hard, so perhaps it is all too much. That is why i declined their pressured-offer (smirk) to put her with a special teacher, as I think it would only serve to enhance her weakness in English skills. At least she does get some things, so we try to focus on what her strengths are, but me being a pedantic perfectionist - I find that I can be way too critical at times (really have to work hard on this).
Anyhow, thanks much for the thoughts!

And, thanks Linda, too..esp for the link you emailed me..I'll take a look at it .

Hopefully GM will reply with what he thinks - esp about these current symptoms.
Lisa

Hi Lisa, Just a quick. I'm working on a patient's case and came across an interesting remedy re her writing problems. The remedy is Alloxanum and is described in the second Vermeulen's MM. It is a remedy that was first proved in 1945. It has:-

"Great forgetfulness (places, names, things just done, just heard) As if mind steps in front of body. Words don't register. Silly mistakes in writing simple words. Silly sort of attitude to serious things. Mistakes in spelling - resembling dyslexia."

Now I'm not suggesting she take it, just that you may like to look into it with your prescriber.

Thanks, GF, she was on Lyc recently (early Sept) and then her symptoms indicated Puls - and more recently she was put on Calc Phos.

I can still see Lyc in her case too, but GM maybe can point me more in the direction with this present cold. That is the main problem now (she has been progressing steadily, before this current 'cold' remember ).

Thanks for the thoughts..Lisa