Please Help!

Dear Brother Joe,

I'm not an internet addict, but while I was online I happened to come across someone who recommended you for asthma cures. I read some cases you've cured and I think my prayers for my son and me to be cured might get answered with your help. I've tried homeopathy more than once, but I think that we'd been given general medication which perhaps didn't target our problem.

Here's as much as I can tell you:

My Son - He's almost 18 now. He had pneumonia when he was 2 weeks old, and then every winter he'd have it again and again, though sometimes it would only be a cough and a non-pneumonic chest infection. He outgrew it when he was about 7, then he had adenoiditis for about a month but it got cured with homeopathy. For the next 7 years he was fine except for a cough and cold in winters, which wouldn't travel down to his chest. Now, for the past 3-4 yrs he's developed asthma. It starts with a sore throat and dry cough with a bit of temperature. The next day, the cough is a productive one with a wheeze but more often he complains of a feeling of heaviness in his chest, shortness of breath and extreme lethargy. During such a bout of asthma he has to get nebulised every 4 hours. This lasts for about a week, then it subsides. Otherwise, he's very energetic and is into every kind of sport. I try very hard to ensure that he eats well, but he does tend to prefer junk food and he has a strong sweet tooth, which runs in the family; so does diabetes and hypertension. He doesn't have any problem with any particular type of food. He's thin, but fit and not unhealthy looking. He says exertion doesn't trigger off a wheeze, nor does exposure to cold (but I have noticed that he breathes repeatedly when he gets up on a cold morning, checking out a possible wheeze), it's mostly a sore throat that's the first symptom, and sometimes he feels asthmatic after he cleans his room, because of the dust, but dust isn't really a proved allergen in his case. I hope I haven't left out anything important. I desperately want the right medication and get him cured.

My Story - I'm 41, a mother of 2 sons, 18 and 14. I'm 5'3' and I weigh about 54 kgs. I never had chest problems as a child, just a sore throat. For the past 20 years I have suffered from periodic sneezing bouts: About once a week (sometimes once a fortnight), I sneeze all day, have a very runny nose, rub it violently because it itches, I also feel a kind of 'under-the-skin' itching around my neck, throat and shoulders. By evening time I feel feverish and I take one of those anti-allergy tablets, which does the job, but it isn't a permanent cure. About 10 years ago, these sneezing spells also started including wheezing and shortness of breath, which got diagnosed as asthma. My asthma DOES get triggered by exposure to cold, and, like my son, a sore throat also turns into a cough with a strong wheeze and/or crepitus. Dust also aggravates it and so does exertion/exercise. The wheeze lingers on for weeks, even months, and I have to use a nebuliser or inhaler. With the passage of time, now, day and night, approx every minute, I have to cough up this loose phlegm from out of my chest, otherwise it rumbles in my lungs. I know it's all getting worse, but I haven't yet experienced the really frightening 'turning blue' episode or getting delirious etc., though I think I will if all this isn't stopped.

I don't know if the following symptoms are important but my hands, arms, feet and legs have started to get numb, followed by 'pins and needles' very, very easily, like when I sit cross-legged and even otherwise. At night I have to turn on the other side about every hour because the arm and fingers of the side I sleep on feel the same numbness, tingling and pins and needles, but my sleep isn't generally disturbed. And there's this inch-sized area on my right calf muscle which has been numb for the past 3 years. Wasn't told much by the doctor but to have Vit B's, which I'm not having. I also have joint pains, and suffer from osteopenia. If my sleep cycle is disturbed, I get headaches and if I don't have a painkiller in time, my head starts throbbing badly and I sometimes end up vomiting. Sometimes I feel that my jaws are tightening, then the feeling goes away after a few seconds. I don't know what starts it and why it goes. I have permanent dark circles under my eyes, bad enough to get people commenting on them quite often. The families of both my parents have a history of diabetes and hypertension, but although I cannot avoid confectionery, my latest blood tests show that the blood sugar level is within range so far and my BP is mostly normal; it's been low more often than high. I have to eat fruit and veg regularly to avoid constipation. I am very fearful and anxious by nature, cannot face having to deal with health problems in the family...a hypochondriac. I try to be strong but I'm not. My son (the one I've talked about above) and I both get irritated and angered easily.

I hope I've given you enough info about our medical history.

I'm desperately anticipating your help. God bless you forever.

aiyah