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Help for my dad

Hello, I'm caring for my father who has been depressed for the past 1 yr 3 mo. He normally suffers from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and takes medication for that, but in the summer he went off of it because he felt so good. He was caught off guard in the fall and when he went on the med. it did not work this time. He also was in a major accident that left him blind (both eyes) and with an amputated left leg-this happened 1.5 yrs prior to starting the depression. The tip of the leg hurts him, but the drs. could not find a reason. They think it's anxiety related, however, he does have a bony spur near the tip that they are aware of. After 1 month of depression, he lost all desire to drink and eat and, and became halucinatory- I took him to the hospital where they rehydrated him. His meds were changed and in the next month he had a major anxiety attack (first time ever). Meds were changed again and he no longer has anxiety attacks. At this point he sleeps approx. 22 hours/day and doesn't shower, shave, brush teeth, walk, socialize outside of our house without my coaxing him. (After the accident, but before depression, he was social and went places on the bus by himself, and cooked on his own) He has a bad case of psorisis on his face/scalp (red patches that flare up and itch). He's underweight-about 120#, but eats 3 healthy meals/day. He doesn't like water at all-says it makes him gag, so I give him very diluted juice. He has a strong body odor-even after showering. He has trouble making decisions. He hates being hot, doesn't like to sweat, says he has trouble burping, gets constipated a lot. I hope I've given you enough info to suggest a rhemedy, if not, please feel free to ask. Blessings, Brenda
 
  caregiver on 2007-03-08
This is just a forum. Assume posts are not from medical professionals.
Dear Brenda:
You have given us a very useful information about your father, but we need more detail in order to select the best remedy.
Please answer the following questions in a descriptive manner after careful analysis and recollection of previous experiences and happenings.

Patient ID:
Sex:
Age:
Nature of work: Habits:



1. Describe your main suffering?



2. What other physical sufferings do you have in your body?



3. What mental sufferings / feelings do you have associated with your physical sufferings?


4. What exactly do you feel when you are at your worst? Describe the sensation in your own words.


5. When did it all start? Can you connect it to any past event or disease?



6. Which time of the day you are worst?

7. What are the things which aggravate your suffering and which are those which ameliorate the same? Example- time, temperature, pressure, rubbing, washing, eating, tight clothing etc.



8. Do your think your sufferings have relation to any external stimuli (like, change of place) or any internal biological changes in the body, like, menses (in females)?



9. When do you feel better, during hot weather or cold weather, humid or dry weather?


10. Describe your general mental set up? Are you Moody, Arrogant, Mild, Agreeable Changeable, Nervous, Suspicious, Easily offended, Quiet, Arguing, Irritating, Lazy etc.

- How do you feel before or during a thunderstorm?

- Do you like being consoled during your tough times?
- Are you sensitive to external stimuli like smell, noise, light etc?

- Do you have any typical habit or gesture like nail biting, causeless
Weeping, talking to one self etc?

- How do you feel about your friends, family, your children and especially your husband / wife?

11. What are your fears and do you dream of any situation repeatedly?


12. What do you crave for in food items and what are your aversions?


13. How is your thirst: Less, Normal or Excessive?

14. How if your hunger: Less, Normal or Excessive?

15. Is there any kind of food which your body can’t stand?

16. Is your sweat normal or less or more? Where does it sweat more: Head, Trunk or Limbs?

17. How is your bowel movement and stool type?

18. How well do you sleep? Do you have a particular posture of sleeping?


19. Do you think you are able to satisfy your sexual desires in general?

20. Do you have any strange, peculiar or unusual symptom or feelings? How are you different from others?


21. What medications have been taken earlier by you to treat the diseases and do you have any particular symptom surfacing after the medication?


22. What major diseases are running in your family?


23. Describe, how do you look like? Describe your overall appearance.
(For Females)
24. If your menstrual cycles are not normal, please describe the irregularities, like pains, moods, flow type, clots etc.

25. Have you had another illnesses in you life? What and when (from past to present)

Best regards
Andrés
 
andres last decade
Thanks for responding Andres. Here's my replies:
Patient ID: LKW
Sex: Male, single
Age: 67
Nature of work: Retired Habits: The only thing he does is listen to books on tape and walk in the house for 5 minutes only when I tell him to. We talk but he doesn't talk much at all.(He’s almost blind and has an amputated leg)


1. Describe your main suffering? Mental state, Feeling low, depressed, indecisive, anti-social, not caring, unhappiness, no joy, indifferent, lack of motivation apathy

2. What other physical sufferings do you have in your body? Pain in end of amputated leg (he won’t put on his prosthesis because he says it hurts a spot at the tip of his amputation), cramping constipation approx. every 5 days,

3. What mental sufferings / feelings do you have associated with your physical sufferings? Don’t want to do anything-lies in bed. Doesn’t want to shower or walk. When constipated won’t eat or do anything but lay in bed.

4. What exactly do you feel when you are at your worst? Describe the sensation in your own words. (this is a tough one, because I’m trying to help my dad who is not even asking for help). Part of his mental state is that he complains about his problems, but does not want to do anything to help himself. He won’t go to a doctor & has great difficulty doing anything to better himself. He is waiting (doing nothing) for the day when all of the sudden he feels good.

5. When did it all start? Can you connect it to any past event or disease? The depression started 1 yr, 3 months ago. And his accident where he became blind and his leg was amputated was 2 yrs 9 months ago. But for 1.5 years after the accident he was fine and not depressed (however, he was on depression medication). Going back even further, he thinks he’s suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder since he was a teenager, and it got gradually worse in his 40s. He’s been divorced 2 x and the 2nd divorce put him into a deep depression where he almost took his life.

6. Which time of the day you are worst? Morning/Afternoon (I can’t narrow it even further)

7. What are the things which aggravate your suffering and which are those which ameliorate the same? Example- time, temperature, pressure, rubbing, washing, eating, tight clothing etc.

He’s very sensitive to temperature-doesn’t like being too warm-says that he doesn’t like sweating and won’t go outside. Doesn’t like any pressure on his stump, doesn’t like to wash (I think because it’s difficult because of his disabilities and being depressed he doesn’t want to do it.) I can’t figure out anything that makes the symptoms better.

8. Do your think your sufferings have relation to any external stimuli (like, change of place) or any internal biological changes in the body, like, menses (in females)? I think that he has an imbalance in his body, whether it’s hormones or serotonin or something else. He has difficulty falling asleep. Certainly the pain in his leg is due to the amputation.

9. When do you feel better, during hot weather or cold weather, humid or dry weather? I would say cool for sure, but not sure if humid or dry, possibly dry.

10. Describe your general mental set up? Are you Moody, Arrogant, Mild, Agreeable Changeable, Nervous, Suspicious, Easily offended, Quiet, Arguing, Irritating, Lazy etc.
Moody, mild, easily offended, quiet, lazy, doesn’t like to talk, indecisive, stubborn, indifferent, passive aggressive

- How do you feel before or during a thunderstorm?
Not sure.

- Do you like being consoled during your tough times?
I don’t think so. His attitude is skeptical, that it’s going to take a long time to get better, optimistic attitudes bother him.

-Are you sensitive to external stimuli like smell, noise, light etc? Extremely sensitive to loud, sharp noises, gets irritated by them. Won’t even open the window to allow fresh air in because he thinks that a dog might suddenly start barking and that will be too bothersome and not worth having fresh air.

-Do you have any typical habit or gesture like nail biting, causeless
Weeping, talking to one self etc?
No

- How do you feel about your friends, family, your children and especially your husband / wife?
Doesn’t care about his friends anymore, never talks about them & never calls them, never talks about his other 2 children, he’s single. I sold his house (at his ok) & moved all the contents out and he never asked me anything about the whole process, not even where his stuff went or how much money he made on the sale. Doesn’t care about his investments.

11. What are your fears and do you dream of any situation repeatedly? Fear of falling (because of extremely low vision) In his dreams, occasionally he’s walking on 2 legs and can see vividly. Says that he enjoys these dreams and it’s hard to wake up and find out that he can’t walk normally and see well.


12. What do you crave for in food items and what are your aversions? Craves milk products, doesn’t like eggs. When he went into depression his food likes changed and he says that things don’t taste the same as they used to. Extremely sensitive to salt.

13. How is your thirst: Less, Normal or Excessive? Less, doesn’t like plain water, says it makes him gag.

14. How if your hunger: Less, Normal or Excessive? Less

15. Is there any kind of food which your body can’t stand? Not sure.

16. Is your sweat normal or less or more? Where does it sweat more: Head, Trunk or Limbs? Doesn’t like sweating at all, it bothers him. Not sure if’s more or less, or normal.

17. How is your bowel movement and stool type? Bowels are gassey and spurting, and about every 5 days he’s very constipated with cramps in his stomach. When he gets this way it affects his whole mood and doesn’t want to do a single thing but sleep.

18. How well do you sleep? Do you have a particular posture of sleeping?
Sleeps approx.20 hours a day, mostly on his back, sometimes the sides and never on the stomach.

19. Do you think you are able to satisfy your sexual desires in general? He’s not having sex and I’m not sure if he desires it.

20. Do you have any strange, peculiar or unusual symptom or feelings? How are you different from others? Gee, everything seems strange to me, but I’m not sure what he would say.

21. What medications have been taken earlier by you to treat the diseases and do you have any particular symptom surfacing after the medication? He’s taken Prozac for depression and now he takes Celexa for it. He also takes Methadone for pain in his stump (very low dose) and Neurontin (low dose) for nerve pain in leg. I think that the depression and the pain relievers are contributing to the constipation.
I don’t feel the Celexa is working for his depression-he seems so flat (mood).

22. What major diseases are running in your family?
His brother has Parkinson’s disease & was recently diagnosed & treated with Prostate cancer. His mother had 2 kinds of cancer, don’t know anything about his father who left the family never to be seen again when he was only 3 yrs old. No other diseases.

23. Describe, how do you look like? 5-10” tall, approx. 120 pounds, balding, slumpy posture, sagging skin, unkempt. Describe your overall appearance.

25. Have you had another illnesses in your life? Hernia about 5 years ago. What and when (from past to present)

Best regards
Brenda
 
caregiver last decade
Dear Caregiver:
Thank you for all the information and for your trust.
The case of your father is quite complicated. The homeopathy can act well on the depression and on the mental and physical symptoms with great effect, but the problem is in that I believe that almost all the problems that you tell me, come from the medication that he is taking and from the lifestyle and the dietary habits that he has.
The anti-depressant drugs that he takes, act on the biochemistry of the brain and they affect to the neurotransmitters and substances like endorphins, serotonin and dopamine, among other. This makes that their nervous answer is slower. This medication type affects easily to the movement of the bowels, because when relaxing the nervous system and to the ralentize the nerve impulses, it also affects to problems like the constipación.
On the other hand, if your father hardly drinks water, we have a very very serious problem. First he can suffer a severe dehydration, and that weakens the whole organism; on the other hand, the antidepressant medicines look for to maintain a certain quantity of product inside the organism, and hence by means of the urination it excretes the unnecessary quantities outside of the organism. If your father doesn't drink water, that means that he has inside the body a great quantity of medicine that is what intoxicates him and it causes him the other symptoms. It is patent that the organism looks for to excrete those toxic substances outside, for that reason, if he is not able to by the urination, he will try to excrete it by the sweat.
I have said that your father's problem is a complicated problem because, on one hand, he needs those medicines to avoid autolesiv tendencies ; on the other hand, those same medicines are producing him a very bad benefit.
My opinion is the following one:
I believe that heshould take homeopathic remedies that drain its organism, in order to clean as deep as possible all the medicine remains.
Once fact this drainage, we can study what symptoms they remain and to check those that come from the antidepressant medication. Later on, if the situation is more optimistic, we can try to prescribe him a treatment for its emotional problems.
I regret that they are not these good news, but I don't see another solution.
I wait your comments or questions. Feel free of asking.
Greetings
Andrés
 
andres last decade
Hello Andres, what you said makes sense to me. I would like to clarify exactly how much he drinks. Throughout the day he drinks 3 8 oz glasses of very diluted fruit juice and 2 8oz glasses of milk. He is very stubborn about drinking more. Do you think that he could be dehydrated on that amount? All his life he's not liked drinking much. What do you mean by 'autolesiv tendencies'? At one point I weaned him off of all prescription drugs and tried a natural approach using tryptophan, melatonin, Omega fish oil, 5HTP, SamE & Calms Forte & Anti Anxiety (both rhemedies), but he had a major anxiety attack after only 2 weeks of being off of the depression meds. We kept him off for about 3 more months but we couldn't see any improvement from the natural approach so he went back on a different depression medication. I don't like giving him prescription drugs but he trusts the doctors and drug companies more than natural approaches. I have an appt. in 1 week for a medical eval by his psychologist and to be honest I don't feel the depression medication is doing anything for him except it cleared the anxiety attacks-but it leaves him depressed. What rhemedy to you recommend to drain his organism? Are you French? Thank you for your concern. Brenda
 
caregiver last decade
Thank you Tendercity 73 for your suggested rhemedy. Can you explain 'liquid dose'? Do I add a certain quantity of tablets to a certain volume of liquid? Then how much is taken in the evening?

Also, I'm curious if Andres would concur that this is the rhemedy he would have chosen as well? Andres...are you there? Thanks to both of you. Brenda
 
caregiver last decade
Dear Caregiver:
Sorry me, but I'm this weekend in Madrid and I have not a good conection nor time to answer. Morning I'll return to Zaragoza and I ?ll be able to answer to you. I'm curious to know how Tendercity73 found this remedy as adecuated. A great surprise.
Best regards
Andrés
 
andres last decade
Hi Andres, thanks for getting back to me. I have not given my dad the Arnica yet. I'll wait to see what you recommend. Brenda from Sonoma County (wine country) California, USA
 
caregiver last decade
Dear Brenda:
Drinking 2'5 or 3 liters of water is the best. 2 liters is the usual. Less than this volume, isn't good.
If he doesn't like to drink, he has a problem, because the drugs remains in his organism and can provocate this situations: asthenia, abulia, fault of hygiene, etc.
When is there a patint who suffers depression, the medical doctors prescribe antidepressive medicines with two proposes: first, in order to the patient can overcome the symptoms as anxiety, anguish, insomnia, etc; second, in order to avoid the patient can try to hurt himself (suicidal tendences).
If your father hasn't this autolesives tendencies, you are luck, and the desintoxication process will be easier.
When we try to desintoxicate to a patient, we go decreasing little a little the amount of drugs, trying the patient has no 'turkey'. In order to get this propose, we prescribe some remedies to relieve this desintoxication. And after time, patient are desintoxicated and we begin to treat his complaints.
But if you stop the drugs substituting them with natural or herbal remedies, usually you can't get success, because the drugs are very strong and herbal preparations aren't able to calm him.
Please, I would like to give you an advice: if you want to cure him, first of all is that he want cooperate. If he wants, tell me and we begin as soon as possible.
Tendercity recommends ARNICA. Sorry, but ARNICA doesn't fit this case. If Tendercity have good reasons to prescribe arnica, I'll be happy to know them.
Best regards
Andrés
(I am from Spain, as I said)
 
andres last decade

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