lupus and depo provera--Zev??

[Guest guest]

Hi All

 

Here's one for you! Patient female, 45 y.o., with lupus first

diagnosed in her late 20's. She had very difficult upbringing

with " borderline schizophrenic " mom, rich family who were,

nevertheless quite emotionally negletful in many ways of her and

siblings (brother was favorite, killed in car crash soon after her

dx.). She has been on Prednisone and Methotrexate for the whole time

(varying dosages) and remained quite active with the steroids (was a

river raft guide). She claims staying active helped her throughout--

against dr.'s advice. She has had two knee replacements in 2001,

apendectomy in 1976. Her wrists are now completely useless and she

has to use her hands like pincers to do anything (the prednisone has

dissolved the boney junctions). Her typical state is alternating

constipation/diarrhea, very scanty and infrequent urination and pain

in all the major joints which moves around and sometimes has very

severe swelling that comes on in minutes, the last time in one of

her knees (the muscles and tendons--the joint is artificial). She

has experienced seizures but not in the last 3 years. She gets

dizzy, has nausea, poor sleeping (due to the Methotrexate she says),

bruises very easily, fatigue, very fragile skin, hair loss, poor

vision, tinnitus, teeth problems, sores inside mouth, earaches, low

blood pressure 90/60, swelling of the hands and feet. Her hair is

dry and wiry and the skin on her calves and shins is almost black

with scars. In February, she asked her doctor if depo provera would

be ok for her and he was glad to shoot her up. Almost immediately

she began to experience severe dementia, shortness of breath,

palpatations, and was unable to get out of bed for the fatigue and

sleepiness in the day time but remained unable to sleep at night.

Then she started a heavy menses which lasted 6 weeks with cramping,

finally tapering off to continual spotting with " pus " as well, low

back pain off and on. She experienced some hot flashes which

subsided as the bleeding slowed and now feels mostly cold despite

summer living in the desert. Exposure to the sun causes her fatigue

which she said was never the case before (she says she doesn't get

the butterfly rash or sun sensitivity common in lupus and this is

the first time the sun has bugged her). Before she saw me she went

to a Gynecologist for the bleeding who gave her a very low dose of

progesterone which stopped the bleeding and she is to wean herself

off that. She also has low appetite and a bland taste. Her tongue is

thin and pale, especially the sides, with a thickish dry gray coat.

There are red spots on the tip and some on the sides. Her pulse is

72 bpm and wiry/slippery on both sides. The chi region seems a

little deep, wiry and thin on the left and maybe a little deep and

weak on the right. I also think the right side pulse felt a little

floating as well.

Any acu and herbal advice would be wonderful--especially from Zev as

I attended a lecture by him which included a short section on depo

provera dangers.

Thanks, Shanna