Every time I blog I forget to promote myself and the person who is trying his very best to keep me right...least said!
So I’m adding this extra bit on to try and correct myself. This silver surfer will learn one day, I promise. And, I would like to put this PS onto this short blog. Would Karen for Alnwick please get in touch and give me your correct contact details. I’ve tried to mail you back, but your info to me was wrong. Check your emails!!! And I will get back to you. Blessings always I’ve spent the past few days going through a huge pile of magazines. From up market home designs, to new kitchens and bathrooms. How to redesign your home on a budget and so much more.
We are hoping to move house in the next few months, so my family and friends have kindly supplied me with all their cast off mags for me to demolish. And demolish them I have. I’ve spent hours scouring through them looking for ideas. Every page of interest has been torn out and kept, and the rest of the mag has gone into the recycling bin. We have found a house we would love to buy, our offer has been accepted, all we need to do now is sell our home. Our home has been on the market for a very long time. We have dropped the price way down low, but it’s still not sold. Why? Because we live way out in the country side. It’s a magical place to be, but no one seems to want to buy a beautifully modernised large home, full of character and charm. With a beautiful three quarter acre garden to enjoy on a summers day and log burners to snuggle beside (but not to close or you’ll roast) on cold frosty nights. Most young couples now seem to prefer modern living on new estates. The thought of my neighbours being able to peer into the rooms in my home fills me with horror, but that’s what people seem to want theses days and are used to. Me, I like my privacy. The house we have offered on is a lovely bungalow on a quiet housing estate, and not one window from anyone else looking into this house or garden. So my privacy will be intact and that for me is very important. But it needs modernising, so that’s why I’m scouring the magazines for ideas. Years ago I loved ‘things’. I had a huge collection of old cups and sauces, also a large collection of old plates. I had a very large antique dresser that I displayed the cups and sauces on and oh, I’ve forgotten about my collection of china jugs. It used to take me hours to dust them all. The plates were all hung on the walls of our home as if they were large pictures. And again, they all had to be cleaned. Not now, they have all gone. Why, because I got sick of cleaning them and I didn’t like the fact my home was so full of ‘stuff’. There are far more important things in life for me to do now. Like writing, My tastes have changed so much. I don’t like clutter any more! I don’t want ‘things’ anymore. And I must be honest I don’t miss any of them. I like the freedom that being rid of ‘things’ brings me. So our new home will be ‘things’ free and lovely and light and airy, to allow the energy to flow freely through our house. But...and it's a huge but, my healing room has always been full of ‘things’. Things people have bought me as little gifts to say thank you to me over the years, and I wouldn’t be without them for the world. So to all my friends and patients...fear not..all of my treasures are going with me and will be in my new healing room, I promise. Thats all for now folks. Blessings always Your not going to believe this! I thought I had listed all the things that could cause a Laryngospasm in my last blog post, but I’d missed quite a few, so here they are. And I’m not promising that I still haven’t missed some. 1) tickly cough. 2) dry mouth . 3) pepper, and it might just be a tiny bit of pepper catching the back of your throat. So no more black pepper for me, unless it’s very finely ground. 4) mustard. 5) a tickle at the back of my throat. Trying to lead an everyday existence when you are afraid of so many ordinary things because it could cause me trouble....trust me, it’s not easy. OK! Now let’s get to where I should have been at the start of this. Theses are the things I have found help me to either stop a laryngospasm before it develops and goes into a full blown spasm. 1) Bach flower rescue remedy spray, I never go anywhere without it. I always have some in my handbag. I have some in the fridge in our kitchen, so that’s down stairs covered and I also have a bottle on my bedside table, so that’s upstairs covered. When I can feel a spasm coming on, and it’s a bit difficult for me to be able to describe this, I just know, as I’m sure you do if you suffer from them like me. The first thing I do Is give myself a good few sprays of the remedy into my mouth. When my throat closes completely I can not swallow anything, but I can spray rescue remedy into my mouth, and it will eventually get to my throat and help the muscles in my throat to relax. 2) If the spasm is just beginning I can swallow....so I always carry a small bottle of water everywhere I go. Then if I feel a tickle or my mouth goes dry or anything that alerts me to the possibility of a spasm starting, I can have a few sips of water. Not loads, just sips and lots of them. This usually stops the spasm from developing. 3) I always spray rescue remedy into my mouth before I get into bed at night time. This helps to stop anything happening as I’m falling asleep. (That used to be the worst time for me). 4) I need someone, anyone to tell me to calm down, because if a spasm is going full blown it’s the most frightening thing most people will ever experience. So....my husband knows if he hears our kitchen pan lids being clashed together he needs to come running. Because contrary to what you read, when a spasm is moving up a gear, I can’t shout for help, I can hardly speak. So the pan lids do that for me. He knows to keep telling me to calm down and of course he would then be with me if I lost consciousness. If it were to happen in bed, I have a bell on the bedside table, to ring in his ear to wake him up. Thank God we have not had to use this. (Yet). 5) Breath through your nose....and oh boy that’s not easy when your panicking for air. The obvious is to breath in through your mouth to try and get More oxygen, but that’s not the answer. The only way to calm your throat spasm is to breath in through your nose and keep your mouth tight shut. Sounds easy, but it’s not! And 6)Last but not least, I call out to God, my guardian Angels and my father to help me. Might sound daft to you, but it works for me. I have been told by a doctor, that if I should pass out because of lack of oxygen my throat will relax, and then I will be able to breath.... and that’s supposed to make me feel better!!! Again I’ve got to say thank God it’s not happened to me when I’ve been out shopping. It did once happen at a restaurant when we were on holiday. A tiny bit of pepper corn sparked an episode. My husband and daughter were with me, so I wasn’t alone. Horrible! And I had a very near miss at a party. My own fault, I was talking as I was drinking a glass of wine. I somehow managed to stop it from going full blown, but you should have seen the looks I was getting from people all around me, they didn’t know what to do, so they just stared! I have to be very careful, but you know, we all forget!!!! I make no apologies for my last few blogs being about Laryngospasms because I know there are people with MS who have these and lots of people who do not have MS who also have them. I could not believe my own MS specialists didn’t seem to know what I was describing to him, that’s why he sent the specialist speech and swallowing nurse to me. It was she who diagnosed me. Yet, all those years ago in 1980 to be precise, the Professor who diagnosed me with Multiple Sclerosis asked me at the time if I ever had trouble with my throat as I was falling asleep. And he had spent his life researching MS. Bless him where ever he is now. I think that’s all. I do hope I have been able to help someone with this information. Blessings always This is one of the reasons I love what I do so much.
I have a new patient, and what a lot of giggles I and his aunty have had with him. I wish I could put a photo of him on here for you all to see. His aunt has taken a few of him in my healing room, so sometime in the future I may be able to show them to you. This young man is 15years of age, but it’s very difficult to put a mental age on him. He reminds me of my grandson when he was four. He was able to go to the toilet on his own, but he couldn’t wipe his bottom, and this is our young man. He’s only recently got out of nappies through the day, so he’s doing really well. He’s still in nappies at night, but each day now is seeing a difference in him. He doesn’t talk, but he can make himself understood, with grunts and giggles. He waves goodby when he’s leaving and almost says bye. Apparently the problem occurred while he was in his mummy’s tummy, somewhere between 16-24 weeks, the right and left side of his brain didn’t fuse properly causing his brain not to work like yours and mine. He's an adorable handful. His aunty is bringing him to me for his treatments to give his mum and dad a rest. He spent his first treatment getting on and off my healing bed, then dragging his aunty onto the bed to be beside him. Then he found he could get under the cover on the bed. So that’s where he went spent the last part of his treatment, along with his iPad (Pepper Pig being his favourite). It made no difference to me what so ever. Brick walls wouldn’t stop the healing energy, so he still received healing, just through the towelling cover. The second time he came, he ran into my room, jumped onto the bed without being asked and lay down. Then of course, he disappeared again under the towelling sheet. And that’s where he stayed for half an hour. I didn’t try and make him stay any longer, half an hour for him being still and quite was amazing. And this last Saturday, again up on the bed without being asked. After half an hour I told him he could get off the bed if he’d like to, but no, he wanted more, about ten minutes more. Then he got out from under the sheet, got off the bed and came straight to me and gave me a kiss. Oh boy....I was taken aback by his spontaneous show of affection towards me....I loved it. Somewhere in his brain he knows what I’m doing (the healing energy) is helping him. Apparently he sleeps from eight o’clock at night until eight thirty next morning after his treatments. Which apparently is amazing for him. His mum came the second time with aunty to see what was happening at his treatment, she loved it. She’s telling friends and family that he is so much calmer. Thank you Lord for the wonderful energy that flows through me. And thank you for the love I’m often unexpectedly shown. Blessings always I’ve got my breath back now after relating to you my horrendous experience, my first full blown laryngospasm.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Emily for taking the time to send me a comment on that post, it meant a lot to me, my effort was not in vain. My grateful thanks Emily. Now I need to explain what causes a Laryngospasm to occur in the first place. Please remember this is me, it might not be someone else. 1) A drop of fluid and it doesn’t matter what it is. Water, milk, juice or wine, anything at all. 2) An intake of breath the wrong way. Don’t ask how a breath can be wrong, it just can be. 3) Gulping when your drinking, again anything. 4) Dentist’s water spray when your teeth are being cleaned, or the air spray when your having a filling. If the water from the spray hits the back of your throat, or if the air hits the back of your throat, yes air. Doesn’t bare thinking about). 5) Don't ever speak as your swallowing and gulp at the same time, fatal. 6) A crumb, yes a tiny crumb of food catching the back of my throat as you breath in. All of the above can happen in a split second with no warning and then trouble will begin. 7) If I’m feeling stressed I’m more likely to have a spasm. 8) When my voice gets tired, as it does, then I need to be careful. I need to stop talking and give it a rest. If I’ve forgot anything, please forgive me. If anyone out there knows of any other causes, please get in touch with me. I think you can see it’s not mouthfuls of anything. It’s not gerd (your food coming back up), it’s not food stuck in your throat, it’s got nothing to do with chocking with anything, so the Heimlich manoeuvre will not help you in anyway. I did forget to mention to you, that when I’m having or are about to have a spasm I am screaming out in my head for help. I call to God and I call to my father. When your frightened beyond words thinking your going to die, trust me, even someone with no faith in anything would be calling out for help. When I’m having a spasm I’m so engrossed with what’s happening to me that I can’t actually speak, I have no voice. So for me its great that the two people (I use that word loosely) I trust most in the Universe can hear me without me talking out loud. Now, what can you do to try and stop an episode from happening and if one does, what can you do to try and help yourself from it turning into a full blown spasm. Ok! I started to try and write this and I got in a bit of a muddle, so I’m going to give myself another break and think about all the things I do,. I’m going to list them all down in case I forget anything. I’ll be back in a couple of days. Blessings always, This isn’t going to be easy for me to write, because I’m going to try and relate to you exactly what happened to me as the Laryngospasm happened. I’ve got to be honest, I’m not looking forward to reliving this horrendous episode. For the sake of passing on information that may just help someone else, I know I must try. So here goes. I was on my own in our home on a summers evening about 15 years ago, when I decided to get my self a bit of pomegranate. This was not something I was used to eating and I wasn’t quite sure how to approach the process. After getting it out of the fridge, I stood with it over the kitchen sink, in case it was very juicy and made a mess. I didn’t stop to think as I lifted my head back to let the juice run into my mouth. Seconds after a ‘drop’ of juice caught the back of my throat, I gulped and breathed...but I couldn’t. I tried and tried again, but there was NO air getting past my throat. Obviously at the time I didn’t understand that my throat had actually completely closed, stopping any air from allowing me to breath. Within seconds I was panicking, and that’s when I ran for our front door. MS or no MS ...I ran! I opened the door and knelt down on the door step. I was on my hands and knees trying desperately to get some air, but I couldn’t. I WAS TERRIFiED! Me running for the door - apparently my flight fight response kicking in. I wanted air and the obvious place in my terrified state was the air outside. Perhaps my brain thought there was no air inside our house? Now if you haven’t read my first book your not going to know that I’m clairaudient. In other words I hear Spirit voices and no, I’m not crazy. (Read my story). I may have been all alone, but my father was a by my side within seconds, trying to calm me down. His voice was very loud and very clear. “Calm down Isabella, calm down. You must calm down.” And he kept repeating those words to me in a very loud voice. He also kept telling me that I would alright. But I couldn’t calm down. I was desperately trying to force air into my throat and it wasn’t working. I honestly thought I was going to die. Please remember, I had no idea what was happening to me. As I was desperately trying to breath, I could hear the most horrendous noise. It sounded as if a wild animal was being skinned alive. I even looked around into the garden trying to see if I could see anything that was being hurt through the darkness. A high pitched screaching noise....and then I realise it was ME making the noise. This apparently is what is called a Strider. Dad must have somehow worked his magic for the umpteenth time, because somehow I did begin to calm down and I started to be able to breath again. I was shaking like a leaf when the episode was over, I felt like a wet rag. I was absolutely exhausted and very weepy. This is without doubt the most frightening thing that has ever happened to me. We instinctively breath in air without thinking, it’s second nature to us. So when that supply is cut off...Trust me....it is frightening beyond words. I hope and pray it never happens to you. Ok! I’ve managed to tell you my storey. Has it happened to me again. Yes...but not quite as bad. It happens without a doubt when I’m stressed or very tired. I have had a lot of near misses over the past fifteen years. The fact I now know what is happening is a great help. And, knowing what to do when it starts, is also a great help. For give me, I’m exhausted now. I’ll give you all the tips I know to try and stop a full blown episode from occurring, another day. Blessings always. As my last two blogs were about Laryngospasms I thought it might be a good idea to try and explain to you what they are, and not from a text book or the web. From someone who suffers from them, me.
So here’s a birds eye view on a very terrifying problem. But lets have a bit of background first. It first began for me way back in the 1970’s. I would be just about to fall asleep when suddenly I would realise I was not breathing, no air was getting in, I found myself gulping, trying to get air into my mouth. I would sit bolt upright in bed and try to force a breath. It would only last for a few seconds but it was very frightening when it occurred. Every time I mentioned it to my doctor I was told it was just ‘gerd’ - acid reflux, in other words food coming back up. And it didn’t matter how many times I told my doctor it had nothing to do with me having reflux of any kind, - that was that. When I was eventually diagnosed with MS in 1980 one of the first things Professor Branson asked me was did I ever experience a chocking sensation at night before I went to sleep. I think you will be able to understand how I thought this man was my saviour. He knew all my symptoms without me telling him, he knew what was wrong with me when no other doctor could be bothered with all my random symptoms. Anyway, back to my Laryngospasms. Fast forward a few years. I had one or two nasty frights with not being able to breath for a few seconds, but this next episode terrified me. And I’ll tell you all about it, next time. Blessings always. And unfortunately the answer was Yes. This is one of many times over the years that I have not liked the fact I was right. Let's face it ‘when you have the tee shirt on something’ you kind of know. The first question she asked me when she found out was had I heard of the word Laryngospasm before I was diagnosed, and the honest answer was no, I hadn’t. It’s not the sort of word that had ever come up in a conversation and she said until she heard me use the word a couple of years earlier, she’d never heard it before either. So how common did I think Laryngospasms are? She said her husband was asking because he wanted to know how come she managed to get the most obscure problem imaginable. (Well certainly one of the most frightening). I have a feeling there are far more people out there so to speak, that are suffering from them and perhaps don’t know what is happening to them at the time, or what it’s called. Until I spoke to the special nurse that came out to see me I hadn’t a clue. I’m going to ask a question here - If you think you have had a Laryngospasm please get in touch? If you want to talk about anything to do with Laryngospasms, please just get in touch. I did mention to the specialists nurse who came to see me ( I rang her) after she had been to me, that I had searched the web looking for a site for information and help from people who had experience a Laryngospasm but there was nothing. And at the time she agreed with me and suggested I start a help page. If the interest is there, I might do just that. At least now my friend has her answer - yes she does indeed have Laryngospasms and she has the diagnosis from the specialist nurse, who will in-turn pass it onto her doctor. All we need now is for her to somehow be given an MRI scan of her brain. Love and Blessings always. I really thought my last blog post would have got a few responses, but no, not one.
I had thought that only being able to discuss one problem with a doctor at a time would be an issue for quite a few people, but apparently not. Not one retweet or comment, so it must just be me. But having said that... Over the last thirty years that I have been helping people, the most common grievance I hear is. “My doctor doesn’t listen to me. He talks over me. I wish he would just stop and hear the words I’m trying to say.” When a patient of mine told me last week that when she sits down in the doctors surgery he puts a clock timer on as she starts to speak. I’ve got to be honest, if a doctor did that to me no matter how badly I needed to speak to him or her, I would get up and walk out. I used to feel sorry for doctors, I know their time is limited. But please, where’s common decency gone to? What do you think? Blessings always. |
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