My 85 year-old mother who lives on the east coast received a diagnosis of Congestive Heart Failure during this last Covid winter 2020. Hearing about the diagnosis, I felt quite powerless to help from afar. It prompted my desire to get the Covid-19 vaccine so I could travel across country to her as quickly as possible. I thought I might spend two weeks with her, not really knowing how much I could do for her with this diagnosis. It was five+ weeks when I finally left.
The general treatment pattern was to work on her a couple of hours a day for a couple of days in a row and then take a few days off to let the effects of the work settle into her body. Osteopathic treatment is something that takes time to integrate into the body.
When I initially arrived and began the first treatment, her slender lower legs and ankles which I was used to seeing all my life looked like large chunky logs. It was quite a jolt for me; I couldn’t believe how swollen her legs had become. She had dyspnea (shortness of breath), fatigue, balance problems, atrial fibrillation (irregular and often rapid heartbeat), wheezing, a frail appearance, lack of strength, pleural effusion (fluid in her lungs), pitted edema (the swollen legs), and ascites (fluid in the abdomen).
Fortunately, when it comes to health-related issues my mother listens to my advice and consented to go completely off alcohol and sugar and commence an anti-inflammatory diet. I also had her begin a gentle liver cleanse. This is important with congestive heart failure. Part of the congestion in the body is related to the liver, not just the heart, which makes everything back up in the system and swell.
The treatments varied from day to day. I treated her nervous system and vitality levels via the cranium and spine to stimulate the autonomic nervous system, opened the pressure systems via diaphragms, kidneys, heart, lungs and a balanced talus (ankle) bone, released boney structure and musculature of the thorax and cranium, and created pathways throughout the digestive system for fluids to move and flow.
Every day I listened to her heart and lungs with my stethoscope, measured her legs, and assessed her symptoms. By the third day of treatment the circumference of her legs had decreased an entire inch+ from knee to ankle. The diuretics she was on had not reduced the edema in the way my treatments did. It was astounding. One evening at the end of the first week my mother got up out of a deep cushy chair in a spritely manner that she had been unable to do. My 89 year-old father, who was sitting close by, literally jumped up from his chair to emphatically hug her. The look of his joyous surprise and shock was all I needed. She promptly sat down again in the same chair and then popped up again to display her new- found energy, stability, and mobility. He was dumbstruck. We all took a moment to celebrate with big smiles and laughter.
During the five-week treatment period my mother went through some ebbs and flows but by the time I left I didn’t need to worry about losing her. During the six additional weeks since I left, she has increasingly grown in strength, vitality, and mobility. She no longer has dyspnea (shortness of breath), fatigue, or wheezing. My mother isn’t any longer the fragile woman who was my patient. She still has a small bit of pleural effusion (fluid in the base of her lungs), but the pitted edema (swollen legs) and ascites (fluid in the abdomen) have been dramatically reduced and kept in check. Her overall blood pressure improved so her Internist has decreased her blood pressure medication.
I often call on my parents to check on her and I can honestly say that I can fully relax now knowing she has stabilized, is happy and doing quite well. She has returned to her life.
