“One of my healthy students”

During a recent meeting with Moses’ grade 1 teacher, she told us that she considers Moses to be one of her “healthy students”.  It’s been a difficult year healthwise for the grade 1s in Moses’ class this year. Many coming down with pneumonia (a third of the class!). Strep throat. Flus. Stomach bugs. Several hospitalizations. For several weeks at a time during the winter, she often had 1/3 of the class home sick. I think it’s time to revisit this post.

And guess whose body has been strong enough to fight off infection? That’s right. Moses’s body has been strong enough to fight infection. The boy with a diagnosed primary immuno-deficiency has a strong immune system.

I feel that it’s a strong, strong, strong sign that Moses is definitely healing, and we are definitely on the right course. I have no doubt that the 2.5 years of Heilkunst homeopathy played a big role in his healing. And I feel that the essential oils are currently helping to bring his body ease, strength  and comfort.

In addition to physical health, he’s also been doing well emotionally, mentally, socially, academically, and behaviourally. We are very, very pleased. He’s still not that keen on being in school, but he’s adjusted very well. Has a few good friends. It’s no longer a struggle to get him to school. He no longer tells me that he hates school in the morning. I feel that the oils are helping to bring his body ease and comfort. Balance.

I typically walk him all the way to the school door (and sometimes, I walk him into the school), but a couple of weeks ago, he left me at the entrance to the parking lot of the school. He ran to the school door, met a friend at the door and they walked in together. I was an emotionally full / heart-full mama in that moment. My boy is growing up. My healthy and strong boy is growing up.

Eye shield ulcer – Part 3

We’ve been using a homeopathic paper remedy to clear Diflucan (an antifungal medication that he was on for 15 months), as well as Flovent (a corticosteroid puffer — a preventative puffer to “control” his asthma). When we stopped Diflucan, we also switched his preventative puffer from Flovent to Alvesco (since thrush is a potential side effect of Flovent, but not Alvesco).

Since that time, he’s been going through a huge healing reaction. It came as a surprise to me because even I think it’s odd that paper remedies work, but sure enough, he’s been going through a typical homeopathic healing reaction. Diarrhea, low grade fever, increased wheezing, increased itchiness. Even a night terror. And, unfortunately, in the process of rubbing his eyes, he also re-injured his left eye and on Monday, developed another eye shield ulcer (an actual hole in his cornea).

Ack!!!!

For my new readers, Moses first injured his eye 14 months ago (his eye was so irritated that he rubbed a hole in it), and then re-injured it again 9 months ago. Over the last 9 months, we’ve been continuing to patch his other eye every night to help strengthen the injured eye, but to date, his eyesight never fully recovered to the pre-injury state (although it did slowly improve). During his last appointment with his eye doctor, a scar was still present, and even with a stronger prescription, his eyesight with his glasses on was still only 20/40 to 20/60 (meaning that he needs to be 20 feet away from an object that a person with average vision would be able to see from 40-60 feet away). We’ve been praying that his eyesight would gradually heal with time and have been using total body modification (TBM) to help as well.

So, it was a huge blow that he re-injured it.

He was in a lot of pain. Lots of tears. We immediately gave him all of the eye drops that he needed during previous injuries (FML, Patanol, Tobramycin, Refresh), as well as three homeopathic remedies (one for his eye, one for extreme pain and anxiety and one for “medical appointments”), and rushed him to the ER. They diagnosed the eye ulcer, and advised us to continue with Tobramycin (an antibiotic) at least (but we continued with the rest of the eye drops because we knew that he needed them).

He was still in pain the next day, and we brought him in to see his normal ophthalmologist (who we love), and on the good side of things, she said that the injury wasn’t as bad as the last time (the last time was so bad that Moses needed a ridiculously powerful antiobiotic to be administered every 30 min, in addition to the rest of the eye drops). She saw that his eye had a piece of lint / small string in it and she flushed it out. It brought immediate relief to his eye and he hasn’t been in as much pain since then. Thankfully.  She advised us to continue with the four eye droppers (FML twice a day, Patanol twice a day, Tobramycin three times a day and Refresh six times a day).

We are sooooo thankful that he is no longer experiencing intense pain. He was back to his normal self emotionally today. What a trooper he is! We saw his eye doctor again today, and she said that his eye is doing really well and healing quickly. His eyesight is currently 20/80 to 20/100 in the injured eye with his glasses on (not great, but not bad considering that his cornea is still healing). The rate at which his eye is healing is already a miracle.

He’ll continue to have follow up appointments until the injury is completely healed over. And then we pray that he regains his eyesight in that eye. I’d love for him to be able to see 20/20 with his glasses. We see his chiropractor tomorrow and he will help with his healing as well (using total body modification). Increasing glutathione can also help eyesight.

Holy moly! What a crazy ride this healing journey is. We’re just so thankful that he is already on the mend and we are holding space for his continued healing. Please join us in this prayer.

Updates:

February 16, 2012 – The ulcer has completely healed over and his eye doctor says that there is only a slight haze over where it was. Wow! I feel that was a fast and miraculous healing!!  His eyesight is already at baseline (i.e., at where it was before the injury) at 20/60. We are slowly starting to taper off on the eye drops and will start patching his strong eye every night. I’m so thankful for his eye’s quick healing and recovery.

March 14, 2012 – He is officially back at baseline (20/60) on his left eye, and the scar that is left is his baseline scar (i.e., the scar from the first and second injury). His doctor would like us to continue patching his strong eye for 2-3 hours every night (Moses has only been tolerating 30 min a night, so we need to do better on this). His doctor would like to see his eyesight improve to 20/40 to 20/50. The good news is that we don’t need to make another eye appt for 3 whole months. Woo hoo!

March 23, 2012 – Ack! He developed a chalazion (a small bump that results from the blockage of an oil gland) on his right eye (i.e., his good eye). Last time he developed one of these  (on the same eye) was three years ago, he needed to have it drained under general anaesthetic. His eye doctor started him on a topical antibiotic and an oral antibiotic. I also started him on a homeopathic remedy for eye abscesses.

March 29, 2012 – Great news!!!!!!  His left eye is now at 20/40 with his glasses. Woohoo!!!  This means that he will not be needing eye surgery.  I’m so thankful!!!!!!!

March 30, 2012 – During Moses‘ total body modification /cranialsacral session with his chiropractor, his chiropractor sensed that some nerve irritation to his left eye resolved during the treatment. I trust this is a sign of even more healing of Moses’ eye.

May 9, 2012 – Moses’ left eye is back to 20/60. Yikes. This means that potential eye surgery is back on the table. We’re going to do a better job of eye patching (we’ve been inconsistent about it lately as Moses has a hard time seeing when his eye patch is on), but now we are motivated as we want to avoid eye surgery.

June 8, 2012 – Moses’ left eye improved to a strong 20/40. Yay!!  We’ve been more consistent with eye patching and its’ working.  He developed a chalazion in his left eye 8 days ago, but it resolved with the homeopathic eye abscess remedy, along with a topical antibiotic.

September 4, 2012 – Moses’ left eye is a 20/40+ (he got one at 20/30). The eye doctor said that we don’t have to worry about eye surgery at this point. Yay! We need to get back at consistent eye patching.

November 17, 2012 – Moses’ left eye is stable at 20/40. We need to do a better job at eye patching and will be trying to use the eye foil four days a week (rather than a few hours a day).

MRSA came to visit our home

Update (January 19, 2013): We are now using doTERRA essential oils (OnGuard, Oregano, Melaleuca, Frankincense) to deal with MRSA infections. See this and this  for ideas on protocols. Read more about how we are using doTERRA essential oils in our house here. You can order these oils here.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) came to visit our home two weeks ago. MRSA is a bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics (which actually developed as a result of the over-use of antibiotics), and as a result, is difficult to treat. It can result in painful skin infections (as well as other infections). It is common in hospitals and we can only surmise that we picked it up from one of our many trips to the hospital.

DH developed an MRSA infection on his lowerback and it was so painful, it radiated pain down to his leg and up his spine. He couldn’t lie on his back, or even sit in a car without being in agony. We didn’t realize at the time that it was MRSA because it took a week for it to be cultured. The day that the test results came in, DH’s physician recommended that DH live somewhere else for a week, for fear we would pass it to Moses. The first thing I did was google MRSA and Job’s infections and I found tons of cases of Job’s syndrome patients with multiple MRSA infections given that  individuals with Job’s syndrome are susceptible to staph infections. It painted a terrible and horrifying picture in our minds.

It wasn’t the best timing because we were expecting out-of-town guests. I didn’t want DH to live somewhere else for a week, so we sought second opinions from Moses’ pediatrician, my mother (a nurse), my Heilkunstler and also my intuition. DH decided to stay at home, but we took a lot of precautions, such as Moses not being allowed in our room, DH using a designated bathroom that Moses couldn’t use, lots of handwashing, switching to an antibacterial soap (something that we hate to do under normal circumstances, but given the situation, we needed to take all precautions), sanitizing the bathroom with bleach, spraying our beds and couches with antiseptic spray, wiping everything down with antibacterial wipes.

Then two days later, I developed a MRSA infection on one of my persistent rashes (I think it’s psoriasis) on my left knee. (Likely because  I was helping to change DH’s dressings and my rashes had been terribly itchy that I couldn’t help but scratch them). Within a couple of days, the infection was so painful, I couldn’t bend me knee and it hurt and throbbed with pain constantly. It felt as though I had cut open my knee and that someone was poking it with a stick. ALL DAY LONG and all night long. Ridiculously painful. It shocked me how painful it was and I prayed that Moses would not get it. Moses rashes were up and were all open and/or scabbed over on his back from scratching, making the likelihood that he would get it high.

My Heilkunstler prepared two homeopathic droppers, one to help me deal with the infection, and another Syphilis dropper (given that staph infections are related to the Syphilis miasm). I also started a 10-day dose of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic that MRSA is not resistant to. This was my first dose of pharmaceutical antibiotic in over 15 years. I also researched alternative treatments for MRSA and I learned that turmeric is helpful. I took a  teaspoon of turmeric in a glass of water a couple of mornings (yuck!). I started upping my dosage of MMS. I took oil of oregano. I took Cold Effects (North American ginseng) to boost my immune system. I prayed. I researched all that I could on MRSA. It was depressing reading because most of the websites said that once you had MRSA, you would be a carrier for life, susceptible to future infections, and it is often passed  back and forth amongst family members. Ack!

Why did MRSA visit our home?

I wondered why MRSA visited our home. Why now? We’ve been so optimistic. Moses has been doing so well. This happened right before DH’s 10 mile race (and it now looked like he wouldn’t be able to run it). This happened a day after I had an expansive evening sharing Munay Ki rites with a fellow healer, following weeks of self-care (weekly body work sessions, etc.). It wasn’t related to a healing reaction on my part (or so I thought) since I was waiting until we were back from our vacation to start the next round of Heilkunst healing.

It seemed to ironic that it was MRSA, a particular infection that Moses was susceptible to, yet DH and I were the ones who had it. And not Moses.

I talked to my Heilkunstler and she said that even though Moses is the one with the diagnosis, really, the diagnosis is related to the deeper miasms that both DH and I carry. I had heard many times before from various sources that Moses is a powerful healer, and through his little body,  he has been processing a lot of karma related to the family line, helping the whole family’s healing. It almost felt as though by DH and I having MRSA, we were helping Moses to process some of the karma ourselves (not that we aren’t anyway, but we were now doing it in a more demonstrative way). Not sure if that makes sense to you, but it kind of made sense to me. In any case, I’d much rather it be my husband and me to have infections than my boy.

My Heilkunstler shared with me that staph infections are indicative of parental betrayal and being violated by family. Self-sabotage. Harsh words, but the words resonated for me as when I was a child, I experienced violations and betrayal. My Heilkunstler also reminded me that one of my daily droppers was a mixture of Lachiasis (guilt and shame) / Nat-Mur (old grief), and that these together worked synergistically to bring healing of old guilt, shame and grief in my body. And, which could very well manifest as an MRSA infection.

The MRSA infection helped to really bring out my feelings of “being a leper” (the homeopathic remedy, Hura, which is an ideogenic disease). DH and I didn’t touch for most of the week. Our out-of-town guests decided not to stay with us (for good reason). We couldn’t bring Moses to a swimming birthday party. Both DH and I felt infected and diseased.

Cranialsacral Therapy / Total Body Modification

Moses and I had a follow up session with our chiropractor. He could tell that my body was fighting an infection and was able to desensitize my body to staph (using energetic vials of staph), as well as boost my immune system with other vials energized to represent parts of the immune system. This was part of the total body modification work. Then, he did some cranialsacral work with me. He shared that my solar plexus, which had been highly reactive during previous sessions had softened and that some of the energy had moved up to my neck (hence, the new pain in my neck — another story altogether), but this was actually a good sign. It had occurred to me that all of the body work that I had been receiving (cranialsacral therapy, TBM, Munay Ki rites, massage, acupuncture, yoga, meditation and breathe work every few days during the last month) could have also led to the development of MRSA.

During my first session with my chiropractor, I felt old wounds from my traumatic childhood release. During the second session, I felt that I was being re-birthed into his hands. During the third session (yesterday), my body felt at ease. Like everything made sense, everything was falling into place, and everything was going to be alright. This infection is yet another dramatic healing reaction, after which, our whole family will be more healed, more at ease.

Moses is MRSA-free

MRSA has been in our home for two weeks now, and Moses is still MRSA infection-free.  It’s amazing and a miracle. And we are so thankful. I’m now thinking that the infection may just leave our home, without affecting Moses. (But if by chance, God forbid, he does get it, we also have the tools to help him through it).

His chiropractor desensitized Moses to staph using TBM. And our Heilkunstler started him back on a daily Syphilis dropper (again, given that staph is related to this chronic miasm). We talked to Moses’ pediatrician and she didn’t think it was necessary for any of us to leave the home (we couldn’t since both DH and I had it anyway). She didn’t even think it was necessary to swab him for MRSA. In fact, she was convinced that Moses was actually already colonized by MRSA given all of his time spent at hospitals, but was asymptomatic. Somehow that idea brought me relief because I had been so scared of Moses getting the infection from us. If he was actually carrying it already and is asymptomatic  – wow — that’s really amazing. Another huge sign of how strong Moses body had become at fighting off infection.

His chiropractor also shared that Moses lungs were softer and “freer” than they had been a couple of weeks ago. Another great sign.

Decolonizing from MRSA

I found information on Wikipedia (and other sites) on how to decolonize from MRSA.

After the drainage of boils or other treatment for MRSA, patients can shower at home using chlorhexidine (Hibiclens) or hexachlorophene (Phisohex) antiseptic soap from head to toe, and apply mupirocin (Bactroban) 2% ointment inside each nostril twice daily for 7 days, using a cotton-tipped swab. Household members are recommended to follow the same decolonization protocol.*

DH mentioned this decolonization technique to our family doctor and the  doctor thought that it was a brilliant way to decolonize from MRSA (he didn’t even realize that it was possible prior to this). He agreed that it would work and even wrote down the instructions for future reference. We are going to do this, but we need a prescription for the antiseptic soap, so it will have to wait until we get back from our vacation from Gros Morne next week before we get the prescription (the doctor had thought that you could get the antiseptic soap over the counter, but you actually need a prescription). In the meantime, we will use the Bactroban ointment on our nostrils (all three of us), and DH and I are showering with an antibacterial hand soap (again, I hate doing this, but under the circumstances…). Moses is still bathing in tea tree oil, which has antibacterial properties. We will continue to take all other precautions as well (hand washing, frequent washing of clothes, bedsheets, etc.).

Good News

• Moses is healthy.
• DH’s infection has healed and he will be able to run the Tely 10 tomorrow!
• My infection is clearing up and no longer hurts.
• We are going on a much-needed vacation to Gros Morne with dear family and friends on Monday.
• I’m back to feeling hopeful and optimistic and feel that this MRSA infection was just another step in our family’s healing, and that when we return from vacation, we will return refreshed, healthy and well in body, mind and Spirit.

Related to the last point, I chose 3 tarot cards this morning that let me know that we were on the right track. The three cards:

• The Tower – a picture of a tower being struck by lightning and people falling out of the tower.
  • Meaning: A time of great change, either outward or inward.
  • Old structures and beliefs are swept away to make way for creativity and inspiration, and the next step on your path.
• Princes of Wands – a pictures of a young boy warrior riding a horse.
  • Meaning: Enjoying travel and adventure (our Gros Morne vacation).
• Ten of Cups – picture of a content and happy family with their 10 cups full to the brim.
  • Meaning: A promise fulfilled. Dreams really can come true; you can be blessed with good fortune, success, and a warm and loving family. Rainbows appear after it has rained. The storm is over and the indications are that the positive situation will endure. Loving and permanent relationships. Happiness. Spiritual and emotional blessings.

So be it!

Other useful MRSA links

• Living with MRSA
• Dr. Mercola’s thoughts on preventing MRSA
• CDC’s info about MRSA

Updates:

July 28, 2011 – I had an appointment with my doctor and my rash is still oozing, so I’ve started my second dose of antibiotics (a 14-day course). I was advised not to use band aids, which help to breed bacteria, and instead, use dry dressings with tape. Within a couple of days of the dry dressing, my rash closed up. Thankfully.

August 3, 2011 – We have been showering daily with Phisohex (a prescription antibiotic cleanser) and putting Bactroban in our nostrils for the last week. Great news – Moses is still MRSA-free!!

August 16, 2011 – I’m done my 14 day course of antibiotics and had a follow up with my doctor. The infection has cleared up. He didn’t bother to do another swab to make sure that we’re MRSA clear. He just said, “We’ll wait and see what happens…”. Great news — Moses remained MRSA-free during this entire time and we’re allowing him back into our room now for morning snuggles… 

August 17, 2011 – My Heilkunstler suggested that I start a paper remedy for the antiobiotic that I was on (write the name of the antibiotic on a piece of paper, along with a 30C for the potency for a couple of days) and place it under my pillow.

October 24, 2012 – Due to Moses’ recurrent abscesses, his infectious disease specialist suggested that we try this decolonization technique:

- All members of the household do the following daily for five days:

• Bathe in a bleach bath (1/4 cup of bleach with a full bath); and
• Bactroban 2% or Mupirocin 2% in both nostrils 2x per day, using a cotton swab.

She said that decolonization may or may not work in the long run, but it’s worth a shot in our case.

January 19, 2013 – We are now using doTERRA essential oils (OnGuard, Oregano, Melaleuca, Frankincense) to deal with MRSA infections. See this and this  for ideas on protocols and order here. Read more about how we are using doTERRA essential oils in our house here.