Clinical Cases

Revisiting: The Only Homeopath Anywhere Within Miles

Prince Charles
Written by Elaine Lewis

Elaine gives the answer to last month’s quiz!

Here is the answer to last month’s quiz.  I’ll repeat the case, as submitted by our dear friend Kelly Young:

 

Kelly

 

Not to disappoint Elaine this month, I came down with and successfully treated a sinus infection, just in time for the November issue.  I had what appeared to be a cold coming on for several days.  It seemed to settle….

Oh geez; Kelly, I hate to have to interrupt, but, are you using your own name for this case?

Is there something wrong with that?

Kelly; let me give you an important tip regarding homeopathy.  If you use your own name, people will think you don’t have any clients!  And this is not the impression you want to create; people should think that your skills are highly sought-after!

Oooohhhh…!  I didn’t even think of that!

That’s why my professional advice is so important!

OK, let me start again.  Ahem!

One of my many clients, Queen Elizabeth, (not her real name) just happened to be in my neck of the woods when she quite unexpectedly developed a stuffy nose.  I ran out of my house….

 

Psst!  Kelly!  I don’t think anyone’s going to believe you!  Queen Elizabeth is too old to travel!

Oh….  You’re right.  She’s much too old.  Let me start again.

“Prince Charles…”

That’s better…

…just happened to be walking past my house when he suddenly broke out in a stuffy nose!  Fortunately, my reputation as being the only homeopath anywhere within miles…

Hey, now there’s a catchy phrase, mind if I borrow it?  Elaine Lewis–The Only Homeopath Anywhere Within Miles!  How does that sound?  Am I interrupting again?

Oh no, not at all!  If there are no more “announcements…”  OK, so he rang my door bell and I quickly hooshed all my other many clients out the back door and asked him in to sit down.

I didn’t realize you had buffalo on your property.  Then what happened?

I think we all know what happened, Elaine!  His wife got killed in a car chase, he got engaged to his mistress….

No, no, Kelly, his cold!

Oh, that.  Well, “Prince Charles” had what turned out to be a cold.

No!!!!  Really?

It was coming on for several days and seemed to settle in my, I mean, “his”, nose, which was stuffy.  I, I mean, “he”, was chilly and restless.

So, you, I mean, “he”, had a cold, slow onset, which finally settled in your nose, I mean “his” nose, and you, I mean “he”, was chilly and restless.  Do go on.

I’ll try but this ain’t easy!  After a couple more days of this, “Prince Charles” began to have a headache centered above his eyes, along with nasal congestion and a discharge that was yellow-green and gelatinous.

How devastating!

Yes, it truly was!  It was difficult to blow out and seemed to be high up in my (aaah!) “his” sinuses.  (Elaine, I’m going to get you for this!)  The next day, “Prince Charles” had the same symptoms but also a throbbing in his right jaw that hurt worse when he opened his mouth wide.  The pain was really bad when “Prince Charles” bent forward to pick toys up off the floor, or clothes–I guess the servants had been dismissed early!  Needless to say, the castle was a mess!

I recommended that “Prince Charles” start ______________30C in water with 5 succussions before each dose.  He took a total of 3 doses by the end of the day.  He could tell the remedy was working as he felt “crackling” up in his sinuses and a decrease in pressure.

The next morning however, I’m told, his stuffy nose was back and he had a headache again.  He took another dose of ____________30C in water and waited.  He felt better within an hour but several hours later, was back to feeling stuffed up again. I, I mean “he”, resolved to try a 200c dose after giving the 30c one more try that afternoon.

Well, the 30c worked and held!  He took another dose the next morning and continued for a couple days taking 2-3 doses per day.

Thank God for homeopathy or my house would be a perpetual mess!

And by “your house” you mean Buckingham Palace, right?

Yes, that’s what I meant!  Can I leave now?

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Well, I don’t know, maybe a lot of people were stumped by this case because we only got ten responses, but strangely enough, they were nearly split right down the middle between Kali bich. and Pulsatilla!  Kali bich., however, prevailed by one vote and Kali bich IS the winner!!!!!!

Alert reader, Rajiv Prasad, from India, gave an extensive account of the reason for Kali bich in this case; so, without further ado, I give you–

Rajiv Prasad!!!!!

Dear Elaine,

Here i am again trying to guess an answer to this month’s quiz.  But once a homeopath has identified a remedy in a case with most or all the keynotes of a remedy, it hardly remains a guess–it becomes a certainty.  I hope I am right again this month.

I think the remedy for this month’s quiz case which Prince Charles (!!) received is Kali Bichromicum.  It has almost all the symptoms of this case as its keynotes.  The Kali Bichromicum cold develops slowly over a few days.  It has stuffy nose with yellowish green, sticky or gelatinous discharges.  It is one of the chief remedies for sinusitis.  Kent in his Lectures on Materia Medica while describing this remedy mentions that “Headaches during coryza when the discharge of the coryza slacks up a little; it is worse by stooping; headache worse when the coryza slacks up; headache settles over the eyes and the forehead; it is worse by motion.”  Of course Kali Bichromicum is famous for its gelatinous or sticky discharges which this case has.  It also has rheumatic pains specially of a wandering type which is worse when the nasal discharges dry up. This patient is chilly and restless as Prince Charles here.  All his headache and rheumatic symptoms improve as the nasal discharge is again established just as in this case.

First of all I would like to say that there are sometimes cases where you get to see a number of keynotes of a single remedy.  One of the main keynotes attracts your attention while the remaining ones confirm the remedy choice.  For example, we have Hering who believed in the three legged stool theory; i.e. at least three major keynotes of a remedy more often than not confirm the remedy choice.  In this particular case there are so many keynotes of Kali Bichromicum, as I pointed out.  As a result my attention didn’t go to any other medicine.

But, when you specifically ask about Pulsatilla, the fact that the patient was chilly is a strong pointer against Pulsatilla; perhaps this symptom prevented Pulsatilla from coming to my mind.  On further looking after your question I find that Pulsatilla is indeed in the Repertory for a number of symptoms of the case, but the patient being chilly would rule it out for me.  Also on page number 161 of Kent’s repertory we have a rubric, “head, pain, forehead, middle, frontal sinuses from chronic coryza” which is a key symptom in this case.  Here we have Kali Bichromicum along with Silicea, Arsenicum, Thuja and Sanguinaria.  Pulsatilla is not there.  There are too many pointers towards Kali Bichromicum and a couple of important ones as I pointed out, against Pulsatilla.

With regards,

Rajiv Prasad

__________________________________________________

Thank you, Rajiv for your commentary.  Also, to prescribe a polychrest such as Pulsatilla, a remedy about which so much is known, we would expect to see more than one keynote–namely the yellow-green discharge.  We would, as Rajiv said, expect the patient to be warm and worse for warm stuffy rooms and better in open air; we would be looking for the twilight aggravation time, the amelioration from cold compresses, or perhaps the thirstlessness with dry mouth; but, we get no confirmation for Pulsatilla.

So, let us now congratulate our savvy winners: LuAnn Batt, Jayashree Kanoi, Mati Fuller, Kim Marin, Brooks and of course, Rajiv.

Dr. B will now tell you what you’ve won!

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[Oops!  Sorry, we no longer offer the discount at the hpathy mall!]

_________________________

Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom

Elaine takes online cases.  Write to her at [email protected]

Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com

About the author

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at [email protected]
Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at:
https://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org

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