Who remembers the case from last month? Here it is again:
We nearly didn’t have a case for you this month until, luckily, I was stupid enough to eat at Red Lobster!
My “date”–really my stepson– whom we shall call “Antonio”, asked me where I would like to eat. “Oh, any place is fine with me,” I said. “How about Red Lobster?” he said. Despite sensing the inevitable ship-wreck, I cheerfully said, “Yes!!!”
Red Lobster is a pretentious McDonalds with sea food!
Fast forward to this morning around 7 am when I first realize I’m in big trouble!!!!!! Abdominal discomfort–that unmistakable feeling that diarrhea can’t be too far into the future, an increasing sense of nausea; chills and a bit of rectal flatulence which did not ameliorate, greeted me rather suddenly. So….what remedy could possibly cover this?
Out of 23 votes cast, five of you said Arsenicum—the first remedy we think of for bad food and water. I did take Arsenicum—right away. It showed promise in the beginning but quickly fizzled out. Now I was in trouble!
All I remember was that I was lying there, and you know, when you’re sick, you’re not one for getting up and doing research and repertorizing! So, I just said to myself, “What remedy has flatulence and chills?”
I remembered thinking how peculiar it was to have chills with diarrhea, where you’re not just chilly but your teeth are actually chattering and you’re shaking! This had never happened to me before, so that was a big consideration, and remember, the “concomitant” symptom will usually tell you what your remedy is; chills is the concomitant in this case, and there’s a rubric—
“Chills: diarrhea, chills during”.
The remedy I took is only in Murphy’s Repertory, so, yet one more reason not to be using Kent’s Repertory! But in truth, I did not get this remedy by repertorizing, I got it from Hahnemann: Chills goes for China! So does flatulence that does not ameliorate.
Most of your votes went to Lycopodium—9 votes. Lycopodium is known for flatulence, but, an awful lot of remedies have flatulence! If this was all we had, we’d be in trouble! If you repertorize:
Rectum: flatus, rectal, diarrhea, during
and
Chills: diarrhea, chills during
the remedy that comes out on top is China, and it worked within minutes! Coming in a close second was Aloe, and we did get a vote for Aloe, and here’s what our Aloe voter said:
Regarding your trouble the morning after Red Lobster…….. I have chosen Aloe.
I was led to this using instinct, humble but yet focused experience
and Murphy’s Repertory. Here follows a few guiding rubrics for this
case:
CHILLS, diarrhea, chills during
RECTUM, diarrhea, bed, driving out of
diarrhea, painless
flatus, stool, urging for but only flatus is passed
urging, desire to stool, flatus when passing
morning
I wonder did you eat oysters?
Regards
Fiona
Thanks for sharing your thinking with us, Fiona; maybe Aloe would have worked too! However, we have to be careful not to make assumptions. I never said that diarrhea drove me out of bed, nor that it was painless, nor that only flatus was passed and “urging, desire to stool, flatus, when passing” doesn’t pertain to the case either.
A lot of you said, “Ailments from Shell Fish,” did I say I ate shell fish? It could have been the “Cheesy Garlic Bisquits”—in fact, it probably was! Did I eat oysters? No, Red Lobster is too cheap to serve oysters!
Anyway, don’t look now, but two of you got it right! So, congratulations to: Ravi Narayan from Mumbai and Dr. Amit Arora, also from India, who, alone, gave us an explanation:
How I know that remedy was Cinchona [China] is very simple. Your description was so beautiful that every homeopath could know it.
So, see? Get with it, people! Thanks, Dr. Arora! See you again next time!
