Out of Arsenicum! ---UPDATED--- (Swine Flu p. 1b)

-----------------------------------
WARNING!
Even though the Swine Flu is classified as "mild" it can still be deadly.
The pediatrician told me that if my son had trouble breathing
to take him straight to the ER!
The homeopathic remedies are not a substitute for seeing the Dr.
(okay, back to my blog...)
-----------------------------------

So, I went to get another tube of Arsenicum Album at the local Super 1 grocery store, and they're all out! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I've been sending all my friends and family to get some since the Swine Flu is going around.

So, what to get? I read through the mini-descriptions on the display, and found one that says "stiffness and bone pain associated with the flu." Sounds like us - we've all been complaining about how achy and tired we are...but does it help the other symptoms?

The lady working in the Huckleberries aisle kindly let me look up the full materia medica for Eupatorium Perfoliatum. I skimmed it:

... it relieves pain in limbs and muscles that accompanies ... malaria and influenza...

...acts upon ... bronchial mucous membrane...

...Vomiting preceded by thirst...

...HOARSENESS AND COUGH, WITH SORENESS IN CHEST...

...Fever ...PRECEDED BY THIRST WITH GREAT SORENESS AND ACHING OF BONES....

...BETTER, by conversation....

Well, it did cover most of our symptoms, so I decided to try it. The bit about conversation took me by surprise! My five year old has been super hyper and talkative since he first got "melty poop." Maybe this will help.

To help you pick the right remedy for you your family here is a list from hpathy.com. If you click the name it will take you the long description:

How to differentiate in these flu medicines?

• If the patient has mild flu like symptoms (runny nose and watery eyes etc) but no other peculiar symptom but is anxious if it might be swine flu - think about Aconite.

• If the flu patient is listless, prostrated, indifferent, has offensive diarrhoea and the parts rested upon feel sore and bruised - think about Baptisia.

• If the flu patient is restless, anxious or fearful, thirsty but drinks small quantities and often, prostrated, diarrhoea after eating or drinking and nausea on seeing/smelling food, burning pains - think about Arsenicum-album.

• If the nausea is more pronounced, the patient is thirstless and has pain felt in bones - think about Ipecac. Also Ipecac should be thought of if a flu patient is developing or has developed broncho-pneumonia.

• If the gastrointestinal symptoms are not marked but the patient has deep pains as if bones are aching - think about Eupatorium perf.

• If the flu patient is feeling dull, dizzy, drowsy, has low thirst, feels chilly, esp in back - think about Gelsemium.

The only one I've used before is the Arsenicum Album, but you should see which remedy most closely matches your symtoms.

------------Update (Sept. 27th)------------

I am not happy with the results of the Eupatorium Perfoliatum. It did help the aches and pains, but I woke up with the pressure building in my chest. So I took my last Arsenicum and diluted it to make more. This probably wouldn't work with other things, but I've tried it and it does work with homeopathic remedies. Strangely, the remedies get more powerful the higher the dilution number (6x, 30c, 200c, etc...). Here's what I did:


Then, before it's all gone I will add more water and shake it up again. I took it this morning and my lungs feel much better! No more cough! If you're in the valley and want some before Super 1 gets in a new shipment, just let me know.

Swine Flu part 1

Some of you have heard by now that my oldest son got the flu...the "swine flu." The Doc said they are not testing anymore due to false negatives, but that it is the only flu in our area, that it is highly contagious, and that it would definitely go through the whole household. Because my son has kidney disease, he qualifies as "high risk" so he got Tamiflu, but the rest of us won't.

The reason for my blog though is to share the other "weapon" I'm using against the flu: Arsenicum Album! I wan't to write more specifically about each of the symptoms, but I don't have time now. I did find this good article about the flu and homeopathy that included a study of the 1918 pandemic:

"...24,000 cases of flu treated [bu doctors] had a mortality rate of 28.2% while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of 1.05%."

and this account from WWI:

"Dr. Roberts was working as a physician on a troop ship during WWI. He had 81 cases of flu on the way over to Europe. He reported, "All recovered and were landed. Every man received homeopathic treatment. One ship lost 31 on the way."

Arsenicum Album is the same remedy I discovered when Pablo had an uncontrollable fever. I'll write more specifically about how it is helping when I have more time. For now I just want my friends and family to know what can help if they get hit with this flu. Stay well!

Health Care: Obama's Speech

I just finished watching Obama's address, and talking about it with my brother. If you didn't already see it I highly recommend watching it, so here is MSNBC's full length video:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I was very moved by his address, but I suppose that is not surprising. I AM wondering what my Republican friends' responses will be. It felt to me that President Obama was very open to hearing and considering bipartisan ideas. I love that he is looking for the best ideas no matter which "side" the idea is from, but will it feel that way from "the other side?" I don't know.

I do know that when I got the email from Organizing for America (yes, I'm on the list) I clicked the link and asked my representatives to support health reform. Here are the personal comments I added to the form letter:

I am a mother who had to make the choice to take my eleven-year-old son for a diagnostic kidney biopsy all the way to Argentina. My husband and I were self employed and could not afford the cost of health coverage. We usually paid cash for whatever health care we received, or made payments on larger costs, but the biopsy was estimated at $9000. Much to high a cost for us, especially because that would not be the end of the care he needed. We now have excellent coverage which I pay 50% of as a part time teacher's assistant, but when President Obama mentioned parents who are unable to afford health care for their children it brought a stream of tears to my eyes. No parent should be in that position. I understand that Oregon has now promised to insure all the children here, and I am thrilled, but your votes affect the children in the rest of our United States as well! Please support health reform in 2009! The status quo is unacceptable!

Will you agree with me? Maybe, maybe not, but I do hope that we can all talk about the issues facing our country, and the options available to remedy our current situation, in calm, intelligent, open-minded ways.

Watch the President Address the Nation's Students

It starts at 11am Eastern Time!

Response to Pat Boone

I detest the viral emails that spread like wild fire eating away at truth. The latest one to hit my inbox is Pat Boone's "The President without a Country." One good thing is that it does provide a way to respond to half truths and fear instilling distortions. Here are two replies, starting with mine:

Dear [Friend],

I believe you send this out with good intentions, believing it to be true, but it is truly painful for me to read. I don't have time to address it line by line right now, but basically I do believe that America has been arrogant. We acted horribly after 9-11 - passing laws that took away the rights of our citizens and the rights of our prisoners of war, and blurred the lines of torture so that we could use ever more horrendous ways of getting information from those we feared. And that is the base line of this problem!

Pat Boone's words are playing on the fears of many Americans. Quoting Obama's words in a way that makes it seem that he doesn't care about the Christians in our country when all he was trying to do was to reach out to the Muslim community that also includes many patriotic American citizens! Do you remember [our Afgani friends that moved into the area after I moved back?] They are like family, sweet, loving, caring LEGAL immigrants to our country from Afganistan. Should we fear them? NO! Should we allow them to be discriminated against? NO!

I cannot go along with the fear that is spread by so many in the name of Christ these days! Jesus did not preach hatred or fear! Please be careful of who you listen to. I believe there are many who are using the name of Christ to rob our nation of the Freedom of Religion that it was founded with and to drive a wedge between us through fear! Please evaluate statements like this through the lens of LOVE! God IS love! Are these statements loving?

I love and miss you!
Heather

And then a response from someone who used the "reply all" button. They share the Adventist background I grew up in:

I read this June 8 piece by Pat Boone. I'm guessing you shared it because it rang true to you.

It must be that I've read too much history, too much Bible (especially Revelation 13), too much Great Controversy, too much "Liberty Magazine" to buy into it myself. Why? Because all that I read tells me it is citizens and leaders (like Pat Boone) who claim the USA is a "Christian Nation" who will be sucked in by the Devil's temptation to recreate a church/state "image to the beast".

Pat Boone had and probably still has a lovely voice for singing. But I've followed his political voice as well, and Pat seems to have swallowed the "Conservative Christians Should Be In Charge of America" bait, hook, line and sinker.

Pat has been critical of those who call for restraining ourselves within the boundaries of the American Constitution - especially when it comes to torture. You can visit http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/141690/pat_boone_gets_all_misty_about_waterboarding/ to read a negative commentary of the original that you can find at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104951.

It is just such popular demand to throw away the restraints of the US Constitution that has been predicted to bring about the opposite of freedom of conscience:

"The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words: 'The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.'" Revelation 12:17. {Great Controversy 592.3}

By the way, it doesn't have to be Sunday. It can be any religious law that people want enforced!

Have no doubt that Obama is subject to the same temptations - but nothing on his visible agenda indicates he would be in favor of taking away liberty of conscience or enforcing religious laws.

On the other hand, Pat Boone appears to me to be eager to have a Conservative Christian takeover of the White House, the legislature, and the Supreme Court. While he can cite some voices from the 18th century that call for nominating and electing only Christians to office, our Constitution expressly FORBIDS using a religious test for federal office.

Nothing in the Constitution defines the USA as a "Christian Nation". Obama, the Constitutional lawyer, knows that.

Yet Pat Boone feels free to write:

America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians.

What Pat fails to acknowledge is that these same "Founding Father" Christians debated and threw out any reference to a "Christian Nation" in our Constitution. A majority recognized how dangerous it could be to call ourselves that and expressly made certain it was not there. These American Christians were celebrating and securing their independence from a nation, the United Kingdom under George III, that WAS a Christian Nation; where the king was the head of the Anglican Church! They wanted no more of being an officially religious nation. They wanted liberty of conscience for all. They wanted citizens to be religious because they were free to follow the dictates of their conscience, not because it would help them gain political office!!!

Because of our Constitution, this nation is coveted ground for people of faith from all over the world, whether they be Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, etc. It would be, it will be a sad day when one strain of one of those religions, whether Christian, Muslim, Jew or Hindu (but most likely Christian since we're the majority) decides that everyone must comply with their interpretation of God's will.

Celebrate liberty of conscience. Defend our Constitution. As a Christian, you, too can apologize for our mistakes. Welcome those of other faiths. Tell them this country is their country as much as it is that of the majority Christians. Keep the dream of freedom alive!

AMEN!