Fingers Crossed...Knock on Wood...Damn Parasites

This is a picture of my daughter looking like, as she would say, "crap". Pale, dark rings under far-off eyes, slack face...yuck. Poor kid.

So the past few weeks has seen us spending a great deal of time at bedside managing what she called her "croup attacks". Why she called them that, I do not know! But, they were awful and she repeatedly would say, "I hate my big, bad croup attacks", "This is a big bad croup attack", "I am sick of my big, bad croup attacks." She could feel them coming on. Her right arm would start to vibrate, quite literally, and we knew we were in for it. Hours of shaking and sweating and stiffing and pain and fear...just awful stuff. We managed her with Gravol quite a bit because she was nauseaus to boot. It was hard to keep her food and fluids up and I was just about to call the doc. and get him to authorize an I.V. for hydration (at home).

There are many factors that come into play with my girlie's "croup attacks", but we found out the main reason for the disaster was intestinal parasites...yep...hook worms! Dastardly things they are. About 5 years ago, our entire family got hit with these beggars, probably from some contaminated food. They are not unusual and are easily treated with Vermox...a sort of human pesticide. But, when you have a kid who doesn't move and whose only bowel movements are created via a daily enema, they are NOT so easily eradicated. We have been dealing with them for many years, but have had them mostly under control.

We think the reason they flared up so badly (yes you can see them in the stool...they are like bean sprouts...gross) is because of the transition to the new wheelchair. Until I re-worked it, she was too folded over and the suckers like to live high in the intestines, in little crevices and places that do not clear properly. My daughter's scolosis makes for a veritable parkland for the beasts. We have worked vigourously to remove them. This means extra doses of the herb combo Black Walnut and Wormwood added to her Rife treatments (this is a device that sends certain frequencies through the body and kills bacteria...quite effective...costly piece of equipment). The parasites like a very acidic environment and create mucus plugs around themselves (more fun with your imagination!!!) and so she had extra sticky phlegm in her throat which scares the heck out of her. So, her attacks were a combination of irriation and pure, unadulterated fear. Add to that the fact that her high level of agitation increased her spasticity and made her shunt "jump"...which adds to the dizziness...the poor kid was in a bad state indeed.

We're on top of it now. She has not had an attack in four days now...though she has been very fragile. She is quite happy again, and full of beans. We have to get her to the neuro surgeon, however, to get the shunt dealt with. It will not be difficult to convince her to put in a programable shunt and increase it to a medium pressure from the low pressure. Fortunately, this is not "major" surgery, as it involves "only" changing the valve which is just under the skin on her skull. By the time the ball gets rolling, we'll probably be living in London, which will make it a whole lot easier. Still, the idea of the clinic visits, the hospitalization, the drugs, the lack of communication....blah, blah, blah,...just makes me cringe. Gonna have to dig deep for peace on this one! Guess it's time for some more lessons!