This is the story of a very charming little boy named Ori. At birth, he appeared quite healthy and developed normally until about the age of a year and a half when he began showing signs of regressed development from the waist down. Ori was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a genetic disease causing degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord. Motor neurons are nerve cells that carry information from our brain to the muscle resulting in muscle movement. In patients with SMA these motor neurons are not fully functional resulting in muscle weakness and wasting. Weakness is often more severe in the legs than in the arms.
I had recently treated his older brother for allergies and eczema, so his mother considered homeopathic treatment for facial tics that Ori developed after a recent vaccination.
At our first session, I observed a very bright, charismatic, independent and strong willed five year old little boy. Ori was crawling on the floor using his upper extremities to drag his little body from place to place. He eagerly showed me how he walks using the support of leg braces.
As I do when working with young children, I began the session by asking Ori to draw a picture. He drew a picture of Sponge Bob, the television cartoon character. “Sponge Bob feeds Gary and Gary is a snail. Sponge Bob and Gary live in a pineapple under the sea. It (the pineapple) is orange and has green lettuce on the pineapple, and it has a circle thing on the door so that we can open the door.” At this point, Ori began clapping his hands and shaking his head and playing with his hands. These energetic movements lead me to understand that Ori is excited about Sponge Bob, so I asked him to tell me more.
“Patrick is a star. They call him Patrick Star because that’s his last name and his first name is Patrick but I don’t know his middle name. They (Patrick and Sponge Bob) were copying each other, and Sponge Bob told him to stop copying him because Patrick wanted to get an award, a trophy.” I asked “What would happen to Sponge Bob if Patrick got a trophy?”… to which he replied… “Patrick would feel happy – both of them would feel happy because Patrick wanted a trophy and he got a trophy.”
Ori then suddenly started playing with coloring markers and described the action between the markers. “All the colors except for the black and the brown were destroying them and they had guns. When the other colors were shooting at the black and the brown, the black and the brown ran away. The green and the yellow took their guns. All the colors except the green and the yellow are in charge, but the brown and the black were the boss of the pink and were killing the (other) colors. The black and the brown only killed the pink one.”
Wow… a battle scene as described through the eyes of a child. He described destruction, guns, killing, domination, fleeing. Definitely the language of survival and, in the understanding of modern homeopathic methodology, the animal kingdom. Combining this nature with the intensity of his underwater story of Sponge Bob and his friends, I began to suspect that his remedy should be a sea animal.
To determine the most homeopathic remedy, I focused on his physical attributes. Ori was coughing – a moist cough that brought up a lot of phlegm. A month ago, he was hospitalized with pneumonia and this seemed to be what still lingered. His teeth were very small and pointed with a lot of space between them; his gums were very soft and not healthy. When he sat, his body twisted like a pretzel. He folded his legs using his hands, one on top of the other. He had sores by each fold of his mouth and on the inside of his lips. And as the session continued, he was hiccuping – spitting as he hiccuped.
Ori quickly became impatient and wanted to play. So I continued the session with his mother discussing her pregnancy, birth and his development. It was a “beautiful pregnancy” and an easy birth. Ori was very verbal and bright. He developed normally up to the point when he was expected to walk. He always used something to support himself, but he never walked by himself.
Ori is a child that needed a lot of physical touch. He slept with his parents but didn’t sleep well. He had eczema on his hands, face and behind his knees which was itchy and often disturbed his sleep.
Facial tics were the chief complaint and the initial reason for this consultation. Ori’s tongue would slide out of the side of his mouth and he would uncontrollably move his mouth to either side. The first time these facial tics appeared was a year and a half ago and they lasted a week. Six months later and on the evening after receiving 5 vaccinations in one day, the facial tics reappeared.
His eating habits were not good for a child with such delayed physical development. In fact, he really didn’t like too many foods – Chinese chicken, chocolate milk, and chocolate ice cream were his favorites. He absolutely disliked hot dogs, regular chicken, rice, tomatoes, and beef. His hands became raw and swollen when he touched raw eggs or pickles. He was also allergic to dust.
Ori was always hot especially his head. He often asked for a cool pillow at night and removed his hat in the winter. This seemed strange, rare and peculiar.
It seemed to me that Ori’s overall state required a remedy from the sea animals, however after consultation with another homeopath, it was decided that Ori’s treatment should begin with a remedy known to counteract the reaction of the vaccination. Facial tics were the chief complaint that initiated the consultation and this condition appeared immediately following a vaccine. Since Ori was born a healthy child that developed normally until the age of 1 ½ years, there was a strong suspicion that his spinal muscular atrophy may have been induced by earlier vaccines. Carcinosin is a remedy which has been clinically successful in treating facial tics, ailments after vaccines and muscle disorders which were Ori’s most prominent symptoms. So his first treatment was one dose of Carcinosin 200C.
A week later Ori’s mother phoned me with concern about his cough which didn’t seem to be better. He was, however, eating foods he would not otherwise eat and his sleep was generally better. The treatment was slightly changed to Carcinosin 1M, again one dose.
The next day, Ori developed a fever which never got too high and disappeared quickly. He was vomiting phlegm, his coughing seemed worse and his facial tics started again. This appeared to be a normal aggravation following a higher potency, so we waited a few days to see how he progressed. The facial tics disappeared 2 or 3 days later and, a couple weeks later, his cough improved significantly. Though, he had a runny nose in the morning and sneezed periodically, his eating habits continued to improve as he now began eating fruits.
In the middle of February, Ori began to cough again and his eczema on his hand was bothering him. It was time for a follow up consultation. I had just begun using picture cards as a tool in analyzing cases, so Ori was asked to select pictures from a deck of cards. The first two pictures he picked were of fish and a star of David. The energy of this child once again lead me in the direction of the sea animals. Ori can not walk without his braces and his natural movement is to drag his body using his upper extremities. I had to find a sea animal that had this strange, rare and unusual characteristic and was known to have the prominent characteristics of the remedy Carcinosin.
My search lead me to Asterias rubens, the remedy from the starfish. In nature starfish, rather than using muscles to move their hundreds of tiny legs, use a complex hydraulic system to move around or cling to rocks. Some species of starfish even have the ability to regenerate lost arms and can regrow an entire new arm in time. And, if you remember in the initial consultation, Ori described in detail Patrick Star who wanted a trophy in the story of Sponge Bob.
Ori’s new treatment began with one dose of Asterias ruben 1M (liquid). A month and a half later, Ori’s mother advised me that he was eating better with a much wider selection of foods, though she was still concerned about his weight. His body temperature seemed to shift as he didn’t like to swim in a cold pool. And most recently, his physical therapist began walking exercises (with braces) outside on the grass and, surprisingly, he was relatively stable during these exercises. His sleeping habits and his energy level had also improved.
I expected more progress especially with his muscles, so I prescribed another single dose of Asterias ruben 1M and added a daily dose of Asterias ruben in a lower potency. One month later, Ori developed pus like eruptions all over his legs, feet and hands. It was itchy, red and hot. We stopped the daily remedy and waited for the discomfort to ease. His mother kept the area clean, usec Calendula ointment to ward off infection and applied warm compresses which were similar to reduce the heat on his legs. He also developed a mild case of strep throat without fever during this month which was treated with antibiotics as a precaution.
At the end of May, he repeated the remedy with another dose of Asterias rubens 1M and resumed the daily dose of Asterias rubens double diluting the remedy to avoid unnecessary sensitivity. On June 7th, Ori’s physical therapist noticed a dramatic change in his legs. Ori could for the first time lift his legs using the strength of his leg muscles. He could flex his ankles. And most importantly, Ori stood on his feet without braces for 27 seconds. What a thrill for all of us.
A few weeks later, Ori’s pediatrician confirmed that he has a strong reflex in his left leg. And then on July 15th, Ori peddled his bicycle without wearing his braces… something he could never to do before.
This story is not over – it’s probably just begun. So I invite you to visit this page again and follow the story of this charismatic little boy as he continues to develop the muscles in his legs. I look forward to the day when Ori separates the “A” in atrophy to win a trophy for health, happiness and a productive future.
All the names and non-pertinent details of all the cases presented in this website have been slightly modified to protect the privacy of those treated.
