Flowers of Earth...

We are halfway through our visits of the morning.  Babygirl awoke with a slight headache, which has resolved.  She is tired, and very cranky, which I am sincerely hoping is NOT a side effect of the Depakote.  The neurology nurse agrees that generating a flow sheet of all medications that could conceivably ever be used for migraine under any circumstances either for maintenance or rescue, traditional, herbal, supplemental or otherwise.  This would be useful for all patients, and also for teaching purposes.  But in our case it would be useful because we would be able to give the entire list to nephrology for clearance in advance of need.

We discussed Botox again.  Babygirl is a bit reluctant to try it, so it was back-burnered for now.  I asked about the Cephaly device (http://www.cefaly.us/) and got permission to try it ($300, not covered by insurance, but well worth the investment if it works at all for either one of us).  The doctor said, "I have patients who swear BY it, and some who swear AT it."  Good to know, Doc, good to know.  He wants to continue the Depakote at a lower dose than the inpatient neurologist recommended. 

All of these things are preventatives.  We still don't have the best plan available to TREAT the headaches as they occur.  Tylenol and tramadol have been ineffective. Migranol was effective briefly.  Imitrex caused chest pain.  So now we've added Reglan and Maxalt (or restart the Migranol with the Reglan) to try, and we are to see if nephrology will clear us for aspirin use (to be avoided at all costs if she is actually ill). 

Flowers of earth.  Botox, Migranol and the aspirin are ancient, plant-based medications.  There is evidence that they have been being used since the Neanderthals roamed the earth, along with foxglove, belladonna, purple coneflower and many other plants that we still use widely in our pharmacopeia today (although it is only recently that Botox has been used for anything other than poison).   More recent development of drugs like Taxol from the Pacific yew for ovarian cancer make scientists keep looking at plants for more potential treatments for diseases.

Our overall disrespect for our planet is costing us medical treatments.  Every time a plant species goes extinct due to habitat loss before we can study it we lose, potentially, the cure for a disease.  Even (and perhaps especially) those plants that we have previously deemed toxic may prove useful if we look at them from a different perspective.  We have take our directive to 'subdue' the earth a bit too literally.

We need to back up, let the planet recover, and be thankful that God put here what we need for our health and well-being.

DeeDee