Testing! Testing! This is an experiment!

Kirsten doing her favorite thing, sucking her thumb!

Picture of feet and hand reflexology

AN EXPERIMENT WITH REFLEXOLOGY!

Kirsten has Myochlonic Seizures. She has a VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulator) implant in her upper left chest just below her collarbone. She is on her '3rd' battery. It has been in almost 18 months. We have a magnet that we swipe across her VNS when her seizures start. Sometimes it is helpful, but most of the time it isn't much help. The reason being that for the past 6 months her seizures have increased in intensity from the onset. These usually happen predawn, around 4:00a.m. and 5:00a.m.

I went down to visit Lisa last week for a few days. We arrived on Thursday afternoon. Saturday morning around 6:00a.m. she woke up and I could tell by her breathing that seizures were starting. Her eyes rolled up in her head. Something (I'll will say it was the 'spirit') prompted me to rub and massage her feet. This particular start of seizures was mild, whew! I massaged her feet for 10 minutes and she relaxed. I continued to massage her feet for a total of 20 minutes. Kirsten fell back to sleep undisturbed by seizures. I was impressed! I thought, 'Wow! I wonder if massage therapy would help her with her seizures? Hmmm.'

We left that afternoon to head home. When I got home I hopped onto the Internet and researched reflexology.

This past Monday Neil came home from work with a book all about 'Reflexology.' I briefly gleaned the pages. It's a wonderful book!

Well, this morning, Wednesday, Kirsten woke up at 4:40a.m. with a full onslaught of seizure activity. I started in right away massaging her toes. (Toes tips and finger tips relate to the brain area as well as two areas on the top of your head-just above and below the crown area.) She resisted and was rather stiff but I persevered and continued to massage. She started with tremors and I grabbed her magnet and starting swiping across her VNS but also I switched to massaging her scalp on the crown area. At first she would grab my hand to pull it away but after a few seconds her hands went limp and slipped away from my hand. Now fifteen minutes had passed and she began to relax and I continued to massage her head for an extra 10 minutes. She fell back to sleep undisturbed by seizures.

When Kirsten has full on seizures I am only to wait 7 to 10 minutes and then administer Diastat (Valium) rectally as it absorbs quickly that way. I was about ready to do just that after 10 minutes but I wanted to wait five more minutes. I found that the head massage acted much quicker to relaxing her than when I was working with her toes.

What I discovered...
I think for her mild seizures the foot massage works. I think for her full on seizures the head massage seems to work better. I am going to continue to experiment with the massage for awhile longer and read more in depth on reflexology. I am tracking my work and Kirsten's reaction to the massage. I would never replace medication, ie, Diastat, when she needs it. But I found it interesting that massage technique might help her as well! If this proves helpful and successful, I might be brave enough to share this with her neurologist. Can you just imagine what he would tell me! Quack! Quack! :o) You know I really believe that the Chinese have it down with herbs and acupuncture!