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6-month Classical Homeopathy update


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First part is an update on my 6yo, second part is an update on my 3 yo. They have been without antibiotics and meds for 6 and 4 months, respectively. We have had life-changing results! There is a link to my blog at the end. Warning: very long!!

 

Eli

Eli is 6.5 years old with a history of autistic features (never officially diagnosed) and severe PANDAS, starting from the age of 20 months. Eli’s PANDAS became more persistent and more resistant to treatment when his baby brother was born because they were continually passing it back and forth. For those familiar with pandas symptoms, Eli had them ALL (including hallucinations). When we started treating pandas, a bad situation became worse when he reacted poorly to all interventions including antibiotics, steroids and psych meds. Eli became violently psychotic on these meds (having to physically restrain him for up to an hour at a time), but when we took him off of them, he couldn’t function due to the return of pandas full force (most likely due to chronic strep exposure in the house). With the meds not working and making things worse, and with insurance denying coverage for IVIG, I was forced to attempt to manage pandas with classical homeopathy. We consulted with Dr. Angelica Lemke (an associate of Pierre Fontaine’s, a homeopath in NYC who specializes in autism). For those not familiar with classical homeopathy, it is the practice of taking one constitutional remedy, prescribed by a professional homeopath, which stimulates the body to heal itself. The constitutional remedy is chosen from 5000 available remedies based on the patient’s unique constitution or “symptom picture”.

 

On Feb. 11, after one of his violent episodes I gave Eli the first dose of his homeopathic constitutional remedy, Ignatia, after he fell asleep. That was the last night (after dealing with these episodes for 14 months) that I have had to restrain my son. When he woke up the next morning, he came to my bedside and announced that “we have a lot to accomplish today, mommy, please get up so we can start the valentine’s day cards”. A few minutes later I came out of my room to find Eli sitting at the kitchen table already working on his valentines. I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself yet, but I knew at that moment that we had found a miracle and that things were about to radically change in our lives. He also began coming home from school and telling me stories about his day!

For the next nine weeks, Eli went on to be chronically exposed to strep by his brother and the most we saw of pandas symptoms from Eli was a transient fear that was expressed before bedtime, a cough tic, or a couple of non-debilitating OCD symptoms. Gone was his normal reaction to having strep in the house: vivid hallucinations, severe and prolonged meltdowns and debilitating separation anxiety (having to be pressed up against my body, couldn’t be separated an inch from me or he would have a severe panic attack – try peeing in that situation! LOL)

 

About 4 months into homeopathy, I’m pretty sure we had strep move through the house again, but this time 4 of us had sore throats and Eli appeared to have an actual strep infection. Not only did he express fears, have a moderate level of OCD, experience sound sensitivity and a cough tic, but he also had 10 minute meltdowns. He also had stomach aches and nasal congestion and a sore throat. Compared to the strep infections of the past, all of these were manageable enough, but they all pointed to an actual infection. I did not have a throat culture done b/c I didn’t want to see the positive test staring back at me, intimidating me into turning to antibiotics. I just did what I always do…increased the frequency of dosing his homeopathic remedy. Within 5 days his pandas symptoms were permanently and completely gone (those with a pandas child can appreciate days, instead of months!).

 

As far as the klebsiella, clostridia and yeast infections/behaviors which developed as a result of past chronic antibiotic use, they all come back from time to time, but they stay for a shorter duration, are much less in severity and remit with increased dosing as well. Not once have I had to turn to antifungals, antibiotics or steroids in the last 6 months to manage these infections/behaviors.

 

Eli has lost all of his sensory issues completely (getting hair washed, loud noises, etc.). He no longer has separation anxiety or severe OCD. Eli’s bowel movements have become normal and formed, his dark circles under his eyes are completely gone but he still gets leg cramps from time to time (once every other week) and stomach aches (once every 5 weeks or so). He is also still dependant on high doses of magnesium and vitamin c to maintain regular bowel movements. His social interaction with his peers is as normal as can be (except for the occasional need to “control the situation”). Any “stimming” left over from his autistic features is now confined to the home.

 

In terms of biomedical interventions, most of his meds/supps have dropped off over the last 6 months. When we started homeopathy, Eli was taking 25-30 supplements and prescription meds every day. As of right now, this is the list of supplements that Eli receives: Magnesium, Vitamin C, Calcium, Juice Plus, Culturelle, Melatonin. I have recently allowed some gluten infractions with seemingly no regression in gains or behaviors. I do suspect, however, that dairy infractions bring on asperger features still.

 

Eli has taken up Tae Kwon Do this summer and has already acquired his yellow belt! Eli spends 3 hours a week with his instructors who know nothing about any of his health issues. He has also taken up tennis this summer and he, for the first time in his life, was able to take swimming lessons and is able to swim laps across the pool. None of these sports were possible in the past due to his emotional nature, his exercise and heat intolerance, his fears, separation anxiety and sensory sensitivities.

 

Bradley

Bradley is 3.5 years old with a history of early-onset autistic features after his 4 month DTaP vaccination. He is developmentally delayed, especially in speech (diagnosed moderate-severe speech apraxia and mild-moderate expressive language delay). He has history of low-muscle tone, torticollis, Chiari Malformation type 1, severe PANDAS since 15 months, chronic strep and impetigo, chronic alternating diarrhea and constipation since 4 months old, distended abdomen, enlarged head, severe eczema. Bradley had all the same symptoms of pandas that Eli did, and he had all the same reactions to the medical interventions, including the violent episodes, although his episodes would only last 5-10 minutes (sweet mercy!). Bradley’s autistic features were significantly impacted by biomedical interventions (literally came out of the corner and joined the family within a couple weeks of initiation of diet and supplementation). His PANDAS symptoms were barely managed, though, and it was becoming obvious that he was a chronic strep carrier, unaffected by antibiotics. He was starting to get more and more violent. Due to feeding issues (related to intestinal issues and swallowing issues related to chiari), he also appeared quite malnourished.

When I initially started homeopathy, I did not trust in the process for Bradley and due to the fact that he was so severely impacted by pandas at the time – with an active strep infection/positive cultures, I continued to give him his constitutional remedy, Thuja Occidentalis 30c, but also tried a couple antibiotics to clear his strep infection. After trying azithromycin and augmentin with no success (rapid and culture STILL positive immediately after stopping antibiotics), I then tried Eli’s remedy, Ignatia, on Bradley. After increasing his potency, we finally got a negative culture and pandas behaviors were 80% gone. After awhile, though, ignatia stopped working for Bradley and I decided to give his remedy, Thuja, a chance again at a much higher potency (LM2). That was 2 months ago and we haven’t looked back!

 

As I mentioned in Eli’s update, we had strep move through the house a couple months ago (myself, the babysitter and the boys all had sore throats, in addition to sudden-onset pandas symptoms). I did what’s called a “sip-dose” with his remedy. Bradley received a sip of his remedy (much more diluted than his normal dose) every 15 minutes for 3 hours. This immediately relieved pandas symptoms. About a week later, they reappeared and I sip-dosed again, this time only for 2 hours. PANDAS symptoms have been gone ever since.

 

Starting Bradley on his own prescribed remedy, Thuja, has been nothing short of heaven sent. I’ve seen miracles happen with Bradley on this journey, but nothing like this! I restarted Bradley on Thuja 2.5 months ago. Immediately we witnessed Bradley do things we have never seen him do, and quite frankly were resigned to the fact that he probably never would. Here is a list of Bradley’s improvements over the last two months: full eradication of pandas symptoms (first time in 2 years), no more rages, responding to and initiating communication with acquaintances, teachers and peers, lost ALL sensory issues (sound, tactile, photosensitivity), potty trained himself, more eye contact, more interest in exploring new food options, impetigo fully cleared up after a year of failed mainstream and alternative interventions, improvement of speech apraxia (increased vocabulary, increased articulation, increased word-finding). The most remarkable thing about Thuja is that it has returned Bradley to his initial temperament when he was a baby and small toddler. Before PANDAS, I always called him “sunshine” b/c of his blond hair, blue eyes, chubby cheeks and infectious, non-stop grin and giggles! Bradley is back to being the happiest child on the block that everyone falls in love with (and boy does he know it!).

 

Like Eli, Bradley was taking 25-30 meds/supplements per day. Bradley is now down to the following: Juice Plus, Magnesium, Vitamin C, Culturelle . Bradley used to be on a very strict gluten and casein free diet. I have recently allowed some gluten infractions with seemingly no backslide, although I am watching him like a hawk (since we suspected celiac disease).

 

I am also happy to report that Bradley’s immune system is so much better that he is now able to attend preschool, where he will be receiving speech and oral-motor therapy.

 

Another gain we have seen with Bradley in the last 4 months is gross motor ability and less “ataxia” from his Chiari Malformation. Due to his hypotonia (low muscle tone), Bradley has always been a little behind in the area of gross motor development and had an abnormal “gait”. Shortly after starting homeopathy, Bradley was able to climb furniture: the couch, the very high bed in the master bedroom, the pantry shelves – yikes, the playground equipment! Also, Bradley has always suffered from ataxia from his Chiari Malformation (he would literally “fall to the floor” out of the blue while he was standing or walking). As far as I can tell, Bradley’s ataxia is completely gone! I have to believe that homeopathy is allowing his brain inflammation to decrease to the point that his cerebellar tonsils are not as herniated as they once were (part of the brain that was/is herniated past the skull into his spinal column). He also does not experience any pain at his chiari site, although this was becoming less and less of an issue in general, even before starting homeopathy, thanks to a last minute steroid taper one of his biomed practitioners did a year ago.

 

For those interested in pursuing homeopathy, I must stress that it is not wise to run out and try Ignatia or Thuja. I always hesitate to even mention my sons’ remedies, b/c inevitably someone emails me asking where they can get them. There are many homeopathic remedies which are helping pandas children, and an even bigger selection of remedies which are helping autism. Each one is selected for each child’s unique symptom picture and should not be used without the guidance of a homeopath (preferably one who has experience with children with special needs, especially pandas if the child has pandas). For example, one thing that thuja is good for is vaccine reaction, specifically reaction to DTaP. Personally, I would not want to give this to a child who has not had a DTaP reaction, b/c it could actually create the symptoms of a vaccine reaction in a child who has not had one. Would not be pretty! And one of the things that Ignatia treats is hysterical meltdowns. If your child does not suffer from these, giving Ignatia could cause these meltdowns. I also want to stress that classical homeopathy is not easy and it is not always immediate. One of the goals in homeopathy is complete and permanent “cure” of the illness. But this can take time and there will be days when the children backslide. I find one of the hardest things about implementing it is getting the timing of the dosing right (usually once every 5 days on average, but there are occasions where it needs to be dosed as often as every day or as little as once every 3 weeks). It requires constant observation of behaviors and skills. If you dose too soon, you could make the child feel worse. If you dose too late, you risk the child having a setback. Finding that perfect dosing time is stressful and requires you to rely a lot on your instincts about your child (which can take a few months to hone). Also, the transition of managing symptoms with traditional or natural medicine to a homeopathic remedy is a lot of hard work, too, and requires guts (the first month off antibiotics was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done around here), observation and plenty of judgement calls. Sometimes in severe situations, it also requires that each family member be treated because over time autism and/or pandas becomes a family “disease”, where each member of the family can be permanently affected and you all rub off on each other’s ability to heal from the situation. This couldn’t be any truer in our home. After 5 years of struggling, each of us has been severely emotionally, mentally and physically impacted, even my husband who is out of the home the majority of the time.

 

If you are interested in pursuing classical homeopathy and you have questions, feel free to contact me, but please read this page in my blog first which may answer any questions you have quicker than I can reply to your email: http://thelight-stephanie.blogspot.com/p/getting-started-with-homeopathy.html

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Hours before reading yuour post I made an appt for my dd with a clinician who utilizes homeopathy. You have just cemented my decision for me...unfortunately, the appt is for Dec 14. But in the mean time, I look forward to hearing more positive news from you in the coming months.

Mary

from Michigan

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Mary, is he a classical homeopath? If you are eager to move up the date, Angelica would be able to see you within the month and she has gotten a ton of pandas experience under her belt and is becoming very aggressive about treating pandas (we were one of her first guinea pigs). She can do the appt via skype, no need to travel.

 

BTW, you mention more positive comments from me in the future! No kidding, as we enter strep/flu season, right? Yikes!

Edited by Stephanie2
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This is very interesting to me. We are heading into our 3rd IVIG in a 1 1/2 weeks and we are having worsening and worsening symptoms this week. He is suppose to be doing better, not so. I would love to learn more what kind of homeopath to see. We live near Boston so I would assume, should have a good supply of individuals to try. I am trying to remain positive about IVIG, but As he gets worse, I am losing hope. It has been in the back of my mind but as time goes on and we don't see the improvement, I am thinking more and more about this route....

 

Lisa

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Hi Stephanie,

 

That is sooooooo great to hear! Thanks for posting and letting us know.

 

We are also seeing Angelica and are having some amazing results. I will have to post an update too....my kids are PANDAS/Lyme.

 

I am especially nervous though about the start of the school year. It makes me feel so much better knowing someone else using homeopathy is able to deal with strep/illness. Even the thought of it makes me freak out a bit. It's so hard for me to imagine them getting strep and being able to hold tight and trust in the process of homeopathy. But I'm working on it :)

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Hi Stephanie,

 

That is sooooooo great to hear! Thanks for posting and letting us know.

 

We are also seeing Angelica and are having some amazing results. I will have to post an update too....my kids are PANDAS/Lyme.

 

I am especially nervous though about the start of the school year. It makes me feel so much better knowing someone else using homeopathy is able to deal with strep/illness. Even the thought of it makes me freak out a bit. It's so hard for me to imagine them getting strep and being able to hold tight and trust in the process of homeopathy. But I'm working on it :)

 

Did you send me your update recently? someone did, I can't remember who and I can't find the email. It is hard to throw them in school "uncovered" but it does get easier with time, the trust part. Plus it is a little trial and error, the whole sip-dosing when they get pandas, etc. And sometimes people need to call Angelica/Pierre for an acute remedy when the constitutional is not cutting it with an active strep infection. I have been fortunate in that my boys' remedies always seem to pull them right out of illnesses. Hang in there and feel free to contact me in a crisis...

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Can anyone tell me what is the ballpark for an investment in these appointments and treatment? How many appointments do you need?

 

I guess Ziva is going to give you the "deets", but just to give you an idea (and this is not really the norm) but for Eli I had the initial consult on Feb. 11 and TODAY was my one and only follow-up so far! For Bradley, I have had to have about 3 follow-ups since Feb. Angelica is very forgiving about follow-ups, etc. If you have multiple children with her she will try to manage them both at each follow-up appt if she possibly can. She also will recommend a remedy for the mom at most initial consults. I have learned the hard way that I should have taken her recommendation that I take Eli's remedy. I went off and got my own homeopath who prescribed a different remedy all together, but after a few months it has lost it's efficacy. Guess which remedy she is now suggesting that I take? Yup, Eli's remedy (not knowing that it's Eli's remedy). I learn some things the hard way...

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Wow! Your update is amazing! I am so happy for you. Just curious ... how do you work with this doctor? Do they do traditional blood test and cultures or is it more about the patient history and answering questions? How often did you speak to her? Also curious about the cost. Right now we are treating with antibiotics. It is not clear if it is working yet. I would love to find a more natural solution. Thanks, Ngold24

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Would love these questions answered too!!!

Thanks,

Jen

 

Wow! Your update is amazing! I am so happy for you. Just curious ... how do you work with this doctor? Do they do traditional blood test and cultures or is it more about the patient history and answering questions? How often did you speak to her? Also curious about the cost. Right now we are treating with antibiotics. It is not clear if it is working yet. I would love to find a more natural solution. Thanks, Ngold24

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