Reprinted courtesy Petr Zacharias from : Case Quizzes And Clinical Hints For Devoted Students Of Classical Homeopathy – by Petr Zacharias © Petr Zacharias, 2017
Case 1 – Male infertility
Male 37 years, the main problem is infertility. The next problem is that whenever he drives a car, he has collapse-like states with faintness, vertigo, numbness of hands and strong anxiety and perspiration. This episode occured for the first time during a trip to Germany by car in 2009. He feels very bad after twilight, the last 5 years. He feels anxious when there is a thunderstorm or cold air which has lasted for the last 5- 6 years. He bears a grudge, and is not able to forgive anything. No anxiety about his health. Very strong fear of open places. Regarding his mood, he feels the best in the morning
Follow-up after four months
He and his wife are going to have a baby as she got pregnant with him. The collapse-like states have never come back since the first dose of a remedy.
Analysis
I always focus on understanding first, before I come to analysis. I was wondering what those collapse-like states mean. What is interesting, is that he used to visit a lot of physicians and homeopaths and nobody was able to tell him what was, it although that they are a perfect example of panic attacks. These panic attacks were the main problem for him together with the infertility. I needed to understand if there was any etiology, as he was able to recall a year when it started. When I asked him, he told me a really terrifying story. While he was flying by airplane on a bussiness trip, both engines ceased altogether and people on board panicked. There were a few seconds when everybody on that plane was sure they would die. Finally, the pilots figured it out somehow and they made a forced landing. This experience during which he was scared to death was a triggering factor. The aggravation from cold and strong aggravation after twilight confirmed Aconite, which cured him promptly. I gave it in 1M potency in single split dose.
Case 2 – Chronic rheumatism
I would like to share with you part of a very interesting case of a woman I had been treating in my clinical training the last two years. She presented in a state of severe chronic fatigue with apathy, recurrent severe acutes and painful rheumatism. It was a very complicated case and she needed several remedies. I would like to share the last followups that will show you how much she got better and how I found the final remedy that triggered her impressive recovery.
February 2017, after the last remedy (Lycopodium in November 2016) she had an initial aggravation on the 3rd day (large amount of stool) and since then she had felt much better regarding digestion and she has been free of acutes since then. She feels much more energy and less pain in joints. So, I suggested she wait at this point. During the next followup on April 2017 I found she was still free of any acutes, but last week there was an aggravation of pains in small joints (fingers) and she complained about pain in her great toe as well. The great toe was red (3) and swollen (2). Pains were aggravated by exertion and by change of weather from cold to warm (2). Cold weather made her better, especially wet weather. Thje pains were better by bathing affected parts in cold water (3). When warmed, she had an enlarged feeling (2) in her joints but there was no strong swelling. Motions of fingers were very painful (3). She complains about knee pain as well but there are no specific modalities. Her power in fingers is much less since these complaints have started and she feels awkward (1-2) regarding her hands due to the pains.
Follow-up after four months
Three days after the remedy, the pains from finger joints diminished completely and she started to be able to move her fingers normally and mobility had become perfectly normal. The pain in knees diminished too. She had regained a normal sensitivity in fingers and there was no more awkwardness. She said that she is free of pains completely and she had not reacted to weather changes at all. She said very spontaneously that her energy was much better.
Follow-up after seven months
Except for a few small reactions at weather changes (slight swelling with very little pain in joints) she was still without pains. No acutes. She felt on top of her energy. No new symptoms have come up.
Analysis
From the beginning I knew the main problem was the joint pains, especially in small joints (finger joints). There was no significant swelling and the patient was complaining about a kind of stiffness. I was thinking of Rhus toxicodendron first when she mentioned the stiffness but her pain was very aggravated by heat (3) which ruled out Rhus toxicodendron. The only thing that made her pains better was cold applications (3). Therefore I searched for the most important remedies having the aggravation from heat and amelioration by cold applications in joint pains like Ledum, Pulsatilla, Sulphur and Apis, but I was not able to confirm any of them.
Then I remembered Guajacum to be one of the remedies having amelioration by cold, but not icy cold application which was exactly the case. I also knew that Guajacum affects small joints and has a stiffness. But that was not enough, because stiffness is something quite common in such problems and I was looking for something from other areas than joints which could give me a confirmation. Knowing that Guajacum has very strong desire for apples (and from my experience this modality is very often present in Guajacum cases) I asked her: Have your food cravings changed since we met last time? She spontaneously said: “Last month I had a tremendous craving for apples. I eat apples every day instead of dinner“. That was the confirmation I was looking for and the effect of Guajacum 30C twice a day for 2 weeks was far beyond the joints, having a very profound and deep effect upon her constitution.
