Summer Things

In the summer, things can crop up quickly in the health department.  Little things not too serious that might become serious. 

By mid-June of this summer, two problems surfaced:

1)  Second Son developed an irritated eye.  It looked swollen about the lid like maybe a bug bite.  We put an ice pack on it.  But it got worse and spread to the other eye.  And made the whites of the eyes red.  It became clear that it was conjunctivitis maybe brought on by pink-eye.

Here's what we tried:  homemade eyewashes.  First one was a simple baking soda rinse.  Second, chamomile tea rinse.  Both made with boiling water.  We used an eye cup and, when we switched from eye to eye, we sterilized in between.

We tried hard and there would be improvement but then it would come back full-force.  We had to throw in the towel and go to the pediatrician.

Which involves this:  wait all day for an appointment time,  drive in gnarly traffic to appointment, get there on time but wait one half hour or more to get in with doctor, spend 3 minutes with doctor to have him say it is conjunctivitis and write out a script for antibiotic eye drops.





2) First Daughter showed up with something the same time as Second Son's eye issue. (My suspicion is that they both developed these things after spending an afternoon in a dirty pool.)

Hers was an itchy area around her ear.  I began treating it with some salve I have called Good Goop---a mixture of a lot of healing herbs.  To my dismay, it seemed to make it worse.  She was really irritated by the itching so I moved onto an over-the-counter anti-itch hydrocortisone cream.  At first, it seemed to work......but then it didn't.

It spread more behind the line of her ear and out into her face and on her earlobe.  There was a tell-tale "ring" on the outer line around the ear---which I recognized as ringworm having battled ringworm in the past.  I quickly moved onto the anti-fungals---tea tree oil, specifically. 

We were into week 3 and it was now taking on a cauliflower like appearance when not doused with tea tree oil.  A white and wrinkled up look.  Time to get more serious.  I consulted an herbal primer by an herbalist queen, Rosemary Gladstar.  She had a recipe for turmeric paste.  I cobbled together the ingredients I had on hand:  one curcumin pill, kitchen turmeric herb, drops of tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil and added rubbing alcohol to make a paste.  I painted it on the area.  First Daughter said it brought relief because it felt like she had a coat over the area. 






The paste had to be scrubbed off after leaving it on all day.  At night, I soothed the area with an application of local honey (tip from sister blogger D).  When First Daughter didn't feel like the paste, I just would do tea tree oil by itself.  I was giving myself a couple of more days before heading to the doctor for antifungal prescription.  I would never have let it get this far:









After several days of alternating between turmeric paste, tea tree oil and honey, success was achieved! 

Score card so far for the summer:

Allopathic......1
Alternative.....1


August 2014 Update:

Success wasn't really achieved.  I thought it was but then it came back again.  More serious measures were taken in mid-August:  a crushed garlic and turmeric paste applied to the area and covered with a bandaid for a day.  Not a good idea.  Much, much too much.  I was horrified that it became a pus encapsuled wound.  I worried about infection and tended to it as an infected area.

Because First Daughter has a great immune system, it cleared quickly.  And after it cleared...the ringworm was definitely gone.  What was left behind was a dryness to the skin that lasted for a couple of months....but ringworm gone. 

So next time:  a more gentle form of garlic paste somehow....

Winter Recap

So it is late March and just officially turned spring according to the calendar (the 20th or the 21th depending on what calendar you like to follow). 




So at the risk of jinxing my streak of health luck, I am putting forth my tally of colds, flus and other winter ailments:  zero. zilch. nada.

Okay, so what did I do? I have a couple of ideas.

First:  it was a cold, cold winter complete with polar blasts and other cold weather phenomena.  This is beneficial because it kills off stuff that otherwise would ferment and flourish.  So maybe a diminished scope of bacteria, viruses and other ickies out there.  Maybe?

Second:  a couple of winters ago, sister blogger introduced me to a previously untapped (for me) herbal remedy: ANDROGRAPHIS*.



It is a builder-upper of the immune system designed to work especially on the winter ailments.  If you do get something, it supposedly diminishes the longevity of it.  I really felt it helped me through previous seasons on this note.  But this winter I really think it "kept the wolves at bay".  I'll be pulling it out next winter for certain.

Third:  my kids did not get sick.  With the exception of First Daughter getting a fever for one day, my kids did not get sick this winter.  So because they did not get sick, that lessened my chances of getting sick.  They all get a multivitamin, Vitamin D3 and fish oil.  Otherwise, I keep my eye on their sleep and eating habits as best I can. But maybe the rest is up to throwing the dice---I dunno.

Fourth:  I got extra vigilant about hand washing for all family members.  The second they walk in, I make them wash hands---after a day at school or work, at friends' houses or wherever else they might be.  (Some of  them take to it better than others.)

*Andrographis paniculata

Andrographis is a shrub found throughout India and other Asian countries that is sometimes called "Indian echinacea." It has been used historically in epidemics, including the Indian flu epidemic in 1919 during which andrographis was credited with stopping the spread of the disease. (Hancke J, Burgos R, Caceres D, et al. A double-blind study with a new monodrug Kan Jang: decrease of symptoms and improvement in the recovery from common colds. Phytother Res. 1995;9:559-562.)

Hashimoto's---Mary's story

It can be a long journey to good health for some of us.  For others, the roll of the gene dice at birth gets them snake eyes, deuces or another lucky pair.  They get the red carpet roll out with no health problems to speak of through childhood and into adulthood.  No colds, no flus, no bouts of vomiting.  Maybe some sniffles.  Otherwise, health is a given.  They wouldn't understand any other way.

Others of us don't fare so well.  A bad roll sets us up with a cascade of issues, stacked upon one another.  Some work it out in infanthood after colicky days.  Some work it out in toddlerhood.  And in childhood. Some just never work it out.

I fell into the last category.  It was a dominoes situation leading to the end result of feeling crappy all the time and wondering why.  It's boring and melodramatic to talk about one's health problems.  Suffice it to say, I had more colds than the  norm, more stomachaches, more headaches, more strep throats and the list goes on.

Then I entered into early adulthood and the stakes ramped up.  I was at the roulette table of health by this point.  Not the craps table anymore. I was breakdown-able.  My particular Achilles heel was pollen season which left me down for the count after every spring.

I pulled the plug and decided to go hippie.  Delving into natural health with Andrew Weil's Natural Health, Natural Medicine as my bible.  I started off small focusing on the allergies.  There were dips and turns.   Small victories, then relapses.  Along the way, I figured out something was metabolically way off.

And thus I discovered that I had a condition known as Hashimoto's Disease.  It sounded pretty dramatic and brought forth visions in my mind of Japanese warriors and the like. 

In brief, it is an autoimmune disease that causes the thyroid to attack itself by making anti-bodies against thyroid cells.  The thyroid is the master gland of metabolism and responsible for running many other body parts in doing so---such as the heart, for example.  So...when this gland malfunctions, there are a whole host of symptoms that can go on.  Including allergies and susceptibility to illnesses.  After learning about it, I suspected I had had it for a long time.

But it is a chicken and egg scenario.  Did my thyroid fail because of other ill health problems?  I had a lot of strep throats as a child.  I also had mumps at age 12 caused by a faulty vaccine against mumps.  Did this impact on my thyroid cause its problems?  Or, conversely, did all my allergies and illnesses come from the fact that my thyroid had never worked right?

The end result of Hashimoto's is a state of hypothyroidism, meaning the thyroid needs supplemental hormones to function.  On the surface, this sounds easy.  Replacement in kind.  But it's not so easy. I first tried every natural option out there:  natural dessicated porcine hormone, fuccus seaweed, acupuncture and all kinds of herbs.  Once I exhausted all the options, I had to turn to the drug of choice which is called Synthroid. 

My turbulent affair with Synthroid began and I have taken this drug for 14 years.  Sadly, it has not been a good friend to  me.  While it has kept my thyroid marginally functional, I have pumped huge doses into my body with a less than optimal outcome. 

Over the past two years, I have experimented with diet and adrenal support in order to help my thyroid do what it needs to do.  I have been able to get my antibody levels down to nil----meaning I no longer have an active Hashimoto's concern.  Now it is a question of establishing how to supplement the level of hypothyroidism.  So I have been finagling a lesser dose of Synthroid in combination with some natural hormone called Naturethroid.  The trick is to get to a dose that doesn't bother my heart with palpitations but yet enables my body to not be in a hypothyroid state. 

Like most relationships, it's complicated.....

"C-Diff"

If you have never encountered the nasty germ with the pet name, "C-Diff", but really named Clostridium difficile, get down on your knees and give praise to the gods immediately.  I mean it.

The "clostridium" refers to the spindle shape of this motile bacteria.  The "difficile" means that this is one nasty bugger that gives a brutal fight to the finish, i.e. it is obstinate and difficult to eradicate.

My first encounter with CDiff was over ten years ago.  Here's how it went down: Husband had an ongoing sinus infection.  After many months, he was put on a big horsepill of the antibiotic, Augmentin.  He was supposed to be on it for 3 weeks to a month.  I think it was within a week that diarrhea started---a known side effect of this drug.  He stopped and was put on another.

But the "D" persisted.  Two months later, it caught up with him.  He became dehydrated and passed out.  He was admitted to the hospital and his body sucked up 2-3 bags of IV fluids pretty quickly.  He was in for a couple of nights and the diagnosis was C-Diff.

With a toddler and infant at home, it was difficult to visit him but I managed once or twice.  And I committed to memory a conversation I had with his nurse.  She told me three things:

1) gloves
2)Clorox bleach wipes
3)the smell

Wear gloves at all times when cleaning bathrooms.  Buy a product called Clorox bleach wipes and wipe with them all over the place.  You will know C-diff by the smell of it----and you will never forget it.

While he was in the hospital, I contracted C-diff.  Probably because I had not used gloves when I cleaned the bathrooms nor did I have Clorox wipes around.  The spores of C-Diff can live for a long time and sometimes bleach won't even kill them off.

With an infant strapped to my body at all times, it was hard to get to the bathroom in time.  It was a brand of "D" that I had never had before.  And the smell.  I'll never ever forget it.  It's a tell-tale odor marked by a sickeningly sweet overtone.

From that day to this, I have never not worn gloves when doing bathroom scullery duty.

After battling it for a couple of days, I came up with my attack plan.  I stopped eating.  Anything eaten perpetuated the cycle.  So my only intake was hydration drinks and broth.  I also went to my local health food store and asked the wonderful sales lady there what to do.  She said if it were her, she would buy the most expensive probiotic she could afford and take double.  I purchased one for $25 by New Chapter.  My situation was under control within a couple of days after taking these steps.

Husband was put on the C-Diff antibiotics and eventually his situation abated.

And now we encounter C-Diff again.  Husband's father was in and out of the hospital and nursing home starting in October and he contracted C-Diff by December.  He was released before Christmas.  After living with him again, Husband's mother contracted it and was admitted to the hospital for a week.   A week after mother-in-law got home, father-in-law was sent back to hospital with---you guessed it---C-Diff.  They have both been together for another week and are apparently out of the woods.  But C-Diff can be on-going and an uphill battle for many who contract it---especially those who are elderly and/or immune compromised.   These days, if they suspect a patient has C-Diff, signs are placed on the patient's door and masks and gowns are handed out.

I have my weapons of choice in place if we get a direct hit in the household----and this time I will buy an even more expensive pro-biotic.

The Year of the Louse?

So this is the year of the horse in Chinese zodiac terms.  But in my household.....it appears that we may have ushered in...the year of the louse.

For almost fifty years, I have blithely gone forth without an education on Pediculus humanus capitis, or as you might know it, head lice.






Because of this lack of knowledge, I thought it was dandruff on First Daughter's head.  She experienced itching and I saw what I thought was dandruff.  (It turns out that lice nits look like dandruff but you can not flick them off.) I began treating her "dandruff" with a macadamia hair oil.  I had enough for three treatments and, during this time, her scratching stopped. (Unwittingly, this probably did treat the lice.)  But I ran out of oil and the itching came back.  It was never that bothersome and she would just complain here and there. 

First Daughter and I went out one recent night to get hair cuts.  She was in the chair first.  The hair dresser called me over within a minute.  And said:  "She has lice."  I protested:   "No, no---it's just dandruff."  She then proceeded to school me on head lice because she had a first hand nightmare episode with one of her kids.  Her story got dramatic:  re-infestations, thousands of dollars, the finale involving mattresses thrown out on the curb.....

So I asked her to check me---I was fine.  I said I would like to go ahead and get my haircut.  "Sorry.  Your daughter can not be in the shop."  Oops.

We gathered our belongings and scurried out into the night.  Daughter sobbing; me trying to go into lice removal mode.  At the grocery store, I found a lice kit and booked it home.

Then the Abbot and Costello routine began.  First:  head check for all family members with a head of hair (Dad didn't rank here being mostly bald).  I sort of knew what to look for after the hair dresser's instructions---but both husband and I are blind as bats so it was a challenging endeavor.   Second Son was fine.  First Son had lice.

Second:  the treatments.  Putting on a gel solution; waiting; running a fine toothed comb through the hair in 1/2 inch sections.  The treatment killed the lice and the lice eggs.  The comb pulled out the dead. 

Third:  Stripping beds.  Bagging stuffies and bedrests.  Starting an endless stream of laundry.  The workload was daunting.  My education had just begun.

Quick google searches made a couple of things clear:

There would be three possible findings on the lice heads:  the actual insects crawling around, the live eggs attached to individual hair strands no further than 1/4 inch from the scalp, and, lastly, the "nits" which are the empty egg shell casings that the insect has hatched out of.  The lice eggs and nits must be pulled off the individual hair strands because they are attached with the equivalent of lice crazy glue.  After the treatment, a great deterrent to a head being a good "host" for lice is to keep the hair dirty and oily with tea tree oil preferably involved.

The bottom line learned, however, was that head lice are relatively harmless.  Of all things to get, it really isn't that bad.  (Unless you have OCD but that's another story altogether.)  You can't get diseases from them and the worst part is the scratching. 


The next day, I drove out to various stores collecting and refining my tools of the trade.  Walgreen's came up the winner in lice supply products and actually warranted two trips by the end of the day.


By the third day, I had a break in doing laundry and happened to pull out a hair from my head to find a little bump exactly 1/4 inch from the end:  a lice egg.

 

I was dependent on my blind as a bat husband to get the insects out of my head.

We have made it through the scourge but I will remain ever vigilant with oils, potions and new nit picking techniques.  A good tight French braid also helps out.

In the course of this education, I began to realize the close tie-in with an old interest of mine:  linguistics.  I am now fully authorized to use and understand the term: "nit picking".  As well as: "go through it with a fine toothed comb." Not to mention:  "lousy", i.e. he feels lousy, what a louse, the room was lousy with (fill in the blank).  Any prizes involved? 

 

 

 

The Hives Story

One summer when Second Son was age 7, he developed hives during breakfast one day.  Nothing different or unusual had been served.  I gave him the antihistamine, Benadryl, watched him and then sent him off to his day's activities.

Throughout the month of July, the hives came and went like an annoying pest.  They seemed to be associated with a viral sore throat that he had at one point according to our pediatrician.  Then, in mid-August, we were leaving for a beach vacation that involved a 10 hour drive.  He was really sick with a fever, sore throat and hives the morning of departure.  Instead of leaving for the trip, I took him to the ER where they ran a variety of blood tests and concluded it was:  a viral sore throat.

Hives continued to show up on and off.  Sometimes big welts.  Sometimes really small.  But intensely itchy. 

When the hives came at night, I would resort to giving him Benadryl so that he could sleep. 

We visited our pediatrician a couple more times about the hives and the best guess for a diagnosis was "idiopathic hives", i.e. hives for no good reason.  (The official definition is: "dermatologic disorder with itching wheals experienced on a chronic basis; etiology unknown." Medilexicon)

By the end of November this had been going on for five months and he was now needing Benadryl every night.  Something had to give. 

 

(An aside here:  I am a big fan of Benadryl.  Benadryl is always in my house.  It has literally saved my life and I would not be without it.  But, like anything else, I did not want my kid to have it in his system to that degree.)

I resolved to get to the bottom of it-----thinking there had to be a cause and effect.  By this point in time, the hives were showing up in the morning before breakfast and in the evening after he had been put to bed. 

I rolled out all of my natural health books and had at it.  Looking up hives in the Prescription For Nutritional Healing (one of my go tos) there was a sidebar list of about 50 chemicals that can cause hives in certain individuals.  I hit on fluoride and the light bulb went off.  His symptoms showed up after brushing his teeth in the morning and after brushing his teeth in the evening. 

I got him fluoride free toothpaste and slowly the hives began to dissipate----just showing up sporadically here and there.  And then leaving for good.

As far as the state of his dental affairs:  he is now 11 and the only one of my three kids without cavities.  Go figure.  (There are huge battles on fluoride use vs. non-fluoride use in many other places to peruse.  Suffice to say I am okay he is without given his body's response.)

CASE SOLVED.

CHILBAINS

Here is a post that is timely given the season we are in.  I know that winter is coming when the chilblains start up.  Right now, I have them on every finger of my right hand and some of my left hand fingers.  Ouch.

In addition to sharing this blog with my sister, we also share this malady.  I have not met any others who mention having them.  So what are they?

Here is a proper definition according to Medilexicon's medical dictionary:

Chilblains are Erythema, itching, and burning, especially of the dorsa of the fingers and toes, and of the heels, nose, and ears caused by vascular constriction on exposure to extreme cold (usually associated with high humidity); lesions can be single or multiple, and can become blistered and ulcerated. (synonym: periniosis)

Mine began about five years ago and are limited to my fingertips.  Little painful red dots, pinprick in size.  So sensitive that it hurts to touch and pick up things.  Eventually, the red dots erupt and heal over taking on a crater look. 

For me, the word, chilblain, conjures up an image such as this:

It is probable that chilblains come from my British Isles ancestors.  It seems a very English affliction to have.  Think Dickens' tales or Oliver Twist (especially the bad guy with the fingerless gloves).

They tie me to my ancestors in a romantic sense---the ancestors who bore the hardships of English/Scottish/Irish winters.  If not for them---and chilblains----I might not be here in my present form.

Other than wearing gloves at all times to keep hands protected from cold weather, I have not found any quick fix for chilblains.  If it gets worse, I may check out this:  

The medieval Bald's Leechbook* recommended that chilblains be treated with a mix of eggs, wine, and fennel root.  ^(Wikipedia)

 Anybody out there have chilblains and care to share remedies?


*(Bald's Leechbook (also known as Medicinale Anglicum) is an Old English medical text probably compiled in the ninth-century, possibly under the influence of Alfred the Great's educational reforms.  It takes its name from a Latin verse colophon at the end of the second book which begins Bald habet hunc librum Cild quem conscribere iussit, meaning "Bald owns this book which he ordered Cild to compile.  [Wikipedia])

Tick Mania Part II

     How do I handle tick bites?  Thankfully, I haven’t had any recent bites but I can't seem to keep them away from my three-year-old daughter.  Perhaps they are on me as well and her pristine skin gives them away while mine just go unnoticed, but I have plucked four ticks off her in the past two years.  However, I can’t force her to stay inside and stare out the window like an indoor cat anxious to bust outdoors.  She needs a daily dose of nature.  At first that meant she would safely watch the trees from a Baby Bjorn and I didn’t have to worry.  However, even as she began to explore on her feet I never really thought about potentially dangerous insects, I was more concerned she would fall in a lake or tumble off a stone wall.  Basically I figured that if we steered clear from obvious tick habitats like unkempt grasses and deep woods then we would be relatively safe.

       

     No such luck.   At age two she got her first tick at my parent's house just playing in the yard.  Tick number two was acquired there as well just one month later.  At that point in my neurotic mind the peaceful woodland yard was forever rendered into a shadowy danger zone.  I got both of the ticks tested for Lyme and various coinfections.  Mercifully the ticks were negative for Lyme but the second tick was positive for Anaplasma, a bacterium that actually caused Dave Letterman to get sick after a day in his Connecticut backyard.  I took my daughter and the tick report from the lab to the doctor’s office.  The pediatrician scolded me for getting the tick tested and then gave us a prescription for doxycycline just in case she became symptomatic.  I told her that while I respected her opinion I personally prefer to know what to expect, and at least if I am aware Anaplasmosis is a possibility than I can get her treated in time if symptoms should arise.  No symptoms manifested so we were good, and to the best of my knowledge tick free, until the following May. This time the tick crawled onto her hip at my friend’s house.  We were in the garden trying to enjoy the beautiful spring flowers. The tick was sent to the lab and now gardens are suspect too, not that we are giving them up.  This time we rejoiced in a completely negative tick and I sent a silent prayer of thanks to St. Jude.   

     The latest tick finding was the one that really threw me. She seems to have caught it simply by being outside.  I never even noticed it, but thankfully my husband spotted it attached to her neck.  Once again we sent the tick off to be evaluated; once again the little beast was negative for Lyme and positive for Anaplasma.  So while I feel relieved that we caught it, we had to go get another supply of doxycycline and are currently watching for strange symptoms. 

I don’t mean to overreact with constant tick testing, but I figure if I find the tick then it makes sense to be diligent.  I guess I have heard too many tick horror stories, and even if some of the lore is legend I prefer to play it safe.  In the meantime, after every tick bite I give her an immune boosting protocol which includes echinacea, astragalus, and elderberry syrup three times a day for a month.  I also give her a bit of chopped garlic soaked in raw honey with each substantial meal (as long as she doesn’t exhibit stomach upset).  The tick bite itself is doused daily in an anti microbial solution of thyme, myrrh, comfrey, and calendula until it disappears.  Luckily her tick bites have not looked angry; inflammation around the bite, even if it isn’t in a bull’s eye pattern, can be an indicator of infection.
     And of course while we are probably more aware of ticks we are not going to let them limit our outside excursions. Daily tick checks, as tedious as they are, are an imperative. In addition, light colored clothing and white socks pulled up high over her pant legs are a part of her new eccentric outdoor look.  I also force a hat on her because hair tick checks always end up feeling futile.  And finally a healthy application of tick repelling essential oil formula is a must have for us.  We reserve the Deet for long hikes in the woods, which honestly we may avoid for awhile.

So I have a new healthy attitude about ticks in Maryland. I respect them but I am not going to fear them.  After four tick bites, I hope I am learning something. 

Tick Protocol:

1)    Don’t panic and carefully remove the tick with tweezers by grasping the tick as close to the skin as possible.  Do not apply anything to the bite before the tick is removed (including alcohol).  There are tick removing devices available but the one I tried was useless for the nymph deer tick I was trying to remove, I think it was geared toward the removal of larger ticks.

2)    Disinfect the bite with alcohol and disinfect your hands and the tweezers as well.

3)    Keep the tick!  Place the tick in a plastic baggie with a tiny bit of wet paper towel.

4)    Try to estimate how long the tick was attached and consider testing. Two labs I have used with quick turnaround times are Clongen in Germantown, MD and UMASS tick testing at University of Massachusetts Zoology Department.

5)    Watch the tick bite for inflammation and monitor symptoms for one month.

6)    Consider adjunct treatment with herbs to support your immune response. This could be similar to the elderberry-astragalus-echinacea blend I give to my daughter or you could try other herbs like andrographis, cat’s claw, or medicinal mushrooms.