Clinical Cases

Epistaxis and Severe Headaches in a Man of 28

Written by Sumera Atta

Homeopathy student Sumera Atta shares a case of epistaxis and severe headaches in a man of 28. Fear of pins, cold extremities and headache relieved by pressure were symptoms leading to the simillimum.

Initial Consultation on Dec 22, 2017

In the winter of 2017 Brandon, a tall, skinny 28 years old male came to see me for his epistaxis and debilitating headaches. He had this issue for the last 10 years. His nosebleeds (Homeopathy Treatment for Nosebleeds) were very profuse with dark red blood and a continuous feeling of dryness in the nose. He described it as a water faucet running. His wife said that nothing stopped the bleeding. If he tried to lie down with his head tilted back all the blood would go down his throat. The only option they had to stop the bleed was to wait it out. He was losing a lot of blood 2-3 times a week. He was very sensitive to the weather changes from warm to cold. He loved to take very hot showers and liked blowing warm air on his face when driving or at home. At home and while driving he was keeping the thermostat to 80 F. Any exposure to cold could trigger his headache. He felt pain behind the eyeballs and in the temples. The headache was getting worse every year. He got married two years ago. His wife told me that two years ago she used to put pressure on his head with her hands and he would feel better but now he wanted her to press with her feet and even that brought little comfort to him. His blood pressure was also very high for a couple of months now.

He was very sensitive to odors. His mouth, skin, feet all had fetid odor. He had developed a habit of sniffing his fingers. When asked he said that he was doing that to make sure the smell in the skin was not getting unbearable. He had profuse sweat on his feet with bad odor. He couldn’t leave his socks in the room after taking them off; one could smell them as soon as he entered the house.

He had a right lazy eye since his childhood. He was very afraid of needles, pointed sharp objects. He also had constipation with hard to expel stools. Brandon’s wife told me that he’s a very strong willed person and did not believed in homeopathy. It was not easy to bring him for the consult because his mother is a pharmacist and he had free access to all kind of medicines at home. I was also told that he never accepted his mistakes and always followed his will.

Plan: 

Brandon was one of my earlier cases and it would have been challenging to come up with a similimum without his wife’s input. His one word answers were not helping much in moving the case forward. I repertorized the case using what was striking about the case. I came up with Merc, Puls, Calc, Bell, Sil, Chin, and Verat as my first seven remedies. Using my knowledge from my teachers and supervisors I didn’t jump to the first remedy that was in my rep chart. We are told to get to the bare bones of the case and then start adding symptoms one by one for the differential. I started reading Materia medica, looking for profuse hemorrhaging, very cold, lots of odors with sweat and obstinacy as the marked feature of a personality.

I repertorized his chart as given below.

Materia Medica: 

The following symptoms were found in Allen’s Encyclopedia for Silica

1- Emaciation of the whole body, with pale, suffering expression

2-Sensitive to cold air, he took cold very easily

3-obstinate

  • headache as if the eyes were forced forward (he said he feels headache behind the eyeballs)
  • headache with chilliness wanting to press out through forehead-(bng)

6-Profuse nosebleed, long continued sense of dryness (bng)

7-stool consisting of hard lumps, evacuated only with great effort

8-Constipation

9-offensive sweat on feet, hand, axillae

Remedy given​: Silica 30. Once a week if no aggravation occurs

Follow up 1:  Feb 20, 2018 

After taking the remedy he had a nose bleed every day for 3 days after dinner. After that there was no bleeding at all. His BP came down from 149/84 to 130/75. He had a couple of headaches but they were not as intense. He didn’t take any painkillers. He felt that the smell in the skin was less. Constipation was better but still there. He was sleeping better than he had in years. He came for the follow up without his wife and was openly sharing all his symptoms.

Plan:​ Continue Silica 30 once a week

Brandon never came back for his second follow up. I met his wife at a mutual friend’s house and she said that he never had another nose bleed or headache after that. Brandon was not sure if the homeopathy remedy did the work or the weather was getting better and he was not as cold. He said he will know next winter.

Current Update: 

While I was writing this case I called Brandon to get his permission to publish the case. I asked about his nose bleeds and he told me that he never had any after our last follow up. The reason he gave was that he moved to his parent’s house from an apartment and the air was not as dry over there. His headache also stopped after the first follow up. He never took the remedy after that. I wonder what miracles the remedy had done if only he had continued taking it. His wife told me that his headaches started to come back again but he does not want to try homeopathy.

About the author

Sumera Atta

Sumera Atta is a final year student at the Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine. She says that homeopathy has always inspired her with its amazing quick and gentle cures. Her dream and mission is to spread homeopathy all over the world and especially to those countries where people don't have access to health care services or it is too costly.

2 Comments

  • Very good case. It will happen for sometimes, but don’t worry. We should understand that every person has right to be healthy or not to be healty. If you by chance get similar patient, keep in your mind this rubric MIND – REFUSING – medicine; to take the (lach. arn. hyos. kali-p. stram. verat-v. cimic. mim-p. visc. ) If you understend why he doesn’t want to take medicine you will get the correct remedy.

  • Thanks Dr. Sumera Atta for posting the case. I would have thought of Merc sol too in the beginning although the symptoms of fear of pointed objects were guiding me to Silicea. His obstinacy strongly indicates the latter remedy. Merc would have been a defiant or disobedient person.

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