An Acute Case of Pain in Hip and Thigh

On 1-2-15 a petite 42 year old female comes in walking with a cane. She is typically a very active person; she runs, plays tennis and works out at the gym daily, so this is very unusual for her. She complains of stabbing pain in her left hip that radiates through her pelvis, down the back of her thigh and ends in the knee. She went to her Chiropractor the day before, because an adjustment usually clears up this kind of pain and it did help a little but she needed more relief, saying “the pain is an unbearable nerve like pain”. In the past she has experienced torn and strained muscles, but she reports “This is a different kind of pain than muscle injuries”. Over a month ago, she slipped on the ice and bruised her coccyx, for which she took Hypericum 30C for 2 days and the pain dissipated completely.  Since then, she has not had any other accidents or physical stressors to which she can link this “sciatic pain”.

She tried Hypericum again yesterday and it helped slightly but she was not experiencing the full recovery she has come to know with Homeopathy.

The pain has kept her awake at night and it seems that the only thing that helps is moving around, having heat directly on the area and of course, pain medication. Sitting still, lying down and cold weather makes the pain much worse. The weather was warmer yesterday, and since the temperature dropped and it “feels like snow is on the way”, she felt like her pain worsened. When she gets up from sitting or being in one position for a while, it’s difficult to get moving because the pain is intensified. Her solution to this is to stay moving as much as she can tolerate. She speaks quickly and is anxious about how she will recover and not being able to exercise because she gets irritable if she can’t exercise.

Analysis

What needs to be cured is the shooting pain that extends from her Sacrum area through her hamstring and into the posterior side of the knee. What strikes me as different about her state is that movement makes the pain less intense, even though it is difficult for her to move around. What is also peculiar is that the beginning of motion is the most difficult, heat applications ameliorate and she noticed a change in the intensity of the pain when the weather changed.

Typically, she is a very active person so it makes sense that she is anxious about her ability to recover. I will take this into account but I don’t believe it is a symptom that needs to be more heavily weighted than the physical symptoms she is experiencing. The difference with this particular flare up is that it was not relieved by a Chiropractic adjustment, so her skeletal structure does not seem to be impeding her ability to recover. The etiology could possibly be residual from when she slipped on the ice a month before, but since she recovered from that injury, I am not totally sure that was related.

The rubrics I chose to use were as follows

GENERALS – PAIN – stitching pain

Extremities: Pain, motion, beginning of, agg

Extremities; pain; warm application; ameliorates

Extremities; pain; motion; ameliorates

Sleep; sleeplessness; pain from

Generals; exertion; physical; ameliorates

Mind; answering; hastily

RX:  Rhus Toxicodendron because of the restless sleep, better from heat applications and continued motion, stabbing quality of pain, worse sitting still and beginning to move, cold damp weather, and the hurried speech.

30C, 2 pellets dissolved under the tongue, 3 times a day. She was instructed to call with in the first 24 hours

1/4/15

Client report

Her choice was to discontinue the pain medication. The first thing I notice is that her speech is more relaxed, not so hurried. After taking the first dose of Rhus Toxicodendron, she felt the intensity of the pain diminish about 25%. She took the second dose just before bed and was able to sleep soundly through the night without pain waking her up. The next morning she still felt “creaky” so she continued to repeat it a 3rd and later a 4th time. She was in a meeting all day and had to be seated, she noticed that she was able to sit still and the pain was continuing to lessen.

1/6/15

She slept well the past few nights without being interrupted by pain. It was easier for her to get out of bed and begin to move around. She no longer needed the cane to assist her in walking around and the pain had disappeared  almost completely. Because she was feeling relatively well, she went for a ½ mile run on the treadmill, lifted light weights and did some gentle stretching. She was instructed to repeat Rhus Tox 30C as needed.

1/7/15

She has not repeated the remedy since 1/5/15 but woke this morning with sharp pain in her knee and later it traveled back into the hip. The hip and hamstring area were feeling about 85% better since beginning Rhus Tox until today. She was still sleeping well, moving with ease, had been able to sit for long periods of time without pain and has not felt the need to apply warm compresses to the area. Keeping in mind that she was not 100% better before going back to the gym, it seems that she may have had a relapse of some sort. She was asked to repeat the remedy again and as needed and rest until she was fully recovered.

1/10/15

She reported that after repeating the remedy, having a good nights rest, and adding a pillow under her knee at night, she was much better and the pain had dissipated to where it was before (85% improved) . She wanted to get back to the gym and work out, but will wait a few days to make sure her body has completely healed.

1/14/15

She has been hiking but staying off the treadmill since the last setback. After repeating the Rhus Tox on an “as needed” basis, she made a complete recovery and is looking forward to playing tennis again this weekend.

Analysis

She had a full recovery within 10 days, with only one short setback due to feeling well so quickly, which is astounding for such an overwhelming pain. When a homeopathic remedy fits the person’s totality of symptoms, the gentle and gradual restoration of health happens quickly and effortlessly so  people can continue to participate in the activities they love in life.