Mrs. M of 51 yrs came to me for her problems with breathing and allergies.
She was a tall, lean, beautiful woman with a fine complexion and blue circles around the eyes. On arrival, she said that all her complaints started after getting her daughter married and sending her to the USA two and a half years ago. She has been in a lot of grief since then. She has been suffering from Asthma since she was a child and she has the most problems during allergy seasons. She has been under allopathic treatment for the past two years with no relief.
She complained that she has been losing weight for the past year even while eating well. She eats every 2 hours and still has lost 33lbs. Her starting weight was 143lbs. This worried her more than her Asthma. She felt that she was not attractive anymore and everybody said she looked like an old lady.
She was having coughs and asthmatic attacks every day and some days more than 3 episodes. She was coughing up a lot of sputum which was yellow or green in color. She was up coughing all night long and couldn’t sleep at all.
She was unable to tolerate heat and needed constant fanning and the air conditioner in spite of getting asthmatic attacks when exposed to cold air. During summer, she sweats profusely all over with no odor or staining and this bring about an attack. She has difficulty breathing during inspiration while in open air, while lying down on the back, after eating, after strong emotions, while walking, after foods like lentils, grapes, oranges etc., and on perspiration. She felt better on sitting up and after expectoration,
She is very conscientious for the smallest things, can’t tolerate talking ill of others, wants to help others and expects to be appreciated in return. She feels she wasn’t well cared for by her husband and is disappointed with him. She’s very argumentative, fastidious, pities herself, oversensitive to cruelties and feels as though she was forsaken. She likes to talk a lot and talks fast. She fears her disease, being alone, darkness and has a fear of defeat. She experiences grief about her relationship with her husband and feels unappreciated. She dreams of being left alone on an island.
She had primary complex (tuberculosis of lungs) when she was a child; her mother died of Tuberculosis when she was 19yrs old. In the past, for her asthmatic attacks, she used nebulizers and steroids.
Gets hungry every two hours. Thirst, stool and urine are normal. She is allergic to foods like lentils, oranges, grapes, apples and bananas, and watermelon brings on an asthmatic attack. Desires ice cream and cold foods.
The symptoms taken into account:
- Mind- Grief, ailments from
- Feels uncared for, but reacts with affection
- Wants reciprocation of love
- Fear of being alone
- Fear of impending disease
- Ailment from disappointed love
- Sympathetic, sensitive to suffering of others
- Mind- delusion of being alone on a distant island
- Lung symptoms < by cold, but in general feels better in cold weather
- Difficulty breathing < lying down on the back.
- Difficulty breathing < after eating
- Difficulty breathing – inspiration
- Emaciation and weakness
- Appetite increased during complaint
- Desires ice cream and cold foods.
Taking her totality of symptoms, I arrived at the top remedies, Nux vomica, Arsenicum Album, Ignatia and Phosphorus.
According to her mental picture, I prescribed Phosphorus 0/1, (1 pill dissolved in 120ml of water and then 1 tsp taken from the stock and mixed with another 120ml of water in another glass. 1 tsp taken from the 2nd glass) once and then report back after 3 days. She had an immediate aggravation the day she took the remedy, during which she had difficulty breathing. However she didn’t need the nebulizer and the attack subsided by itself. She said she felt more energetic and stronger.
She was asked to take the medicine twice a week and report back after a month.
She said “I was attack free for more than 20 days. It has never happened in the past 2 yrs without my nebulizer”. She continued Phosphorus for three months during which time I moved from Phosphorus LM1 to phosphorus LM3 whenever I saw some stagnation in the improvement.
I then I told her to take Tuberculinum once, after which she has been feeling great, no cough or expectoration, sleeps well.
Difficulty in breathing comes if she takes very cold food, but taking Antimonium tart relieves the acute attack. For the past 6 months, she hasn’t had any attack, has no food allergies, and is able to eat everything without an asthmatic attack, even during the allergy season.
Phosphorus, a common polychrest, helped this patient marvelously and she even gained 25lbs of her lost weight. She said that everybody tells her she is her old beautiful self now. I guess our polychrests, never fail to surprise us when prescribed correctly.
