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| Hpathy Ezine - August, 2006 | ||||
| When Remedies Fail -- Elaine Lewis, CHom |
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I would like to air my confusion when I say that sometimes, a well selected remedy fails to act which leaves the patient, as well as the doctor, desperate. What can make homeopathic treatment fool proof? Yours sincerely, Mrs. Elsy John
Well, Mrs. J, let me just begin by saying, I don't have the foggiest idea! Homeopathy is very difficult. You mentioned "well-selected remedies." I have no idea what a well-selected remedy is. Let me give you an example. My friend "Camille" called me the other day and told me she had a pain in the neck, and assured me that I was not the cause of it, which I found unusual. I had no idea what the remedy could have been; I asked all the usual questions about which side it was on and so forth, I wasn't happy with the remedies that came up, and then it dawned on me to ask, "What was going on in your life when you first noticed the pain?" I wasn't prepared for the answer--I think because I was expecting her to say, "Nothing."
File this under: "When am I going to learn to keep my big mouth shut?!" So, this is what happen: Camille's friend came over and started crying, and confessing how sad she was and how things weren't going well with her boyfriend and Oh my God! So, I looked in the Repertory under, "Ailments from Emotions", "Ailments from Mortification", "Ailments from Embarrassment", "Ailments from guilt" and so on and came up with Ignatia, and it worked! Now, what if I hadn't asked this question? This is the most frequently unasked question in homeopathy: What was going on at that time? Here's another example. Someone wrote into the discussion board some time ago asking what to give her five-year-old son for sinus headaches. She said he had a sinus headache every day! We could have delved into the headache situation and asked all the usual questions, but instead I asked, "When did it start and what was going on at that time?" What we found out was that the headaches started right after he had received antibiotics for the flu! Ohhhhh....! This child doesn't have sinusitis, he has the flu--deranged by antibiotics! The question then becomes, what was the flu like before the antibiotics were given? It turns out to have been a Gelsemium flu, so, I recommended Gelsemium and the child got well. We'd have been way off track had we pursued the "sinus headache" illusion! Now of course, the most obvious reason a remedy might not work is because you have the wrong potency! Again, using Camille as an example, her son D______ was plagued with ingrown toenails for most of his life. The reason I knew what remedy to give was because he had previously seen another homeopath who gave Silica 10M and it had worked to a minor degree. I was shocked by such a high potency, but encouraged that it worked "somewhat". To me, that suggested that if a lower potency were given, it might be the correct remedy. I recommended Silica 6X four times a day. Camille misunderstood and got Silica 6C, but it didn't matter, because it worked in about 2 weeks times and saved D______ from his second surgery for ingrown toenails. You see, it was a chronic, life-long problem which a 10M isn't suited for. 10M's are suited for severe occurrences and intense presentations. In one of our recent quizzes, Kelly's son does acrobatics with his bike and lands, face-first, on the cement. That was Arnica 10M! I remember having a horrible virus once, courtesty of Shana's germ-infested pre-school! It was clearly Arsenicum and at the time I had Arsenicum 30X, which I thought was a high potency! Boy, was that potency ever inadequate! It did absolutely nothing, and I was devastated! "Homeopathy failed," I cried! It was a long time before I realized that I needed at least a 200C for that case! Now, if you read our article by Dr. Stuart Close in this very issue of the ezine and you read his cases at the bottom, you may notice that more often than not, the remedy in a case is actually the causal agent in potency! In one case, a patient was given colchicum as a drug by the hospital, as was apparently common at that time, and when Dr. Close realized the patient had been poisoned by colchicum, he prescribed...Colchicum! In another case, a patient was dying because of doctor-prescribed arsenic; so Dr. Close prescribed...Arsenicum! I had a client once who was having an asthma attack from eating gravy which contained MSG which she was allergic to, so I said, "Make a remedy out of the gravy!" I mean, when you know what the causal agent is, that could be the remedy. When remedies work, then fail, and you try the higher potency and that doesn't work so you give a different remedy and that works, and then that fails, and this pattern repeats itself, you need a nosode! A nosode is a remedy made from the disease. You also need a nosode when all you have are the common symptoms of the disease, or the case seems to match every remedy and no remedy in particular. Maybe this nosode is already a homeopatic remedy, like Medorrhinum or Anthracinum or Tuberculinum, or Pertussin, or Influenzinum, or maybe what you have is some strange bacterial infection that defies explanation or identification and in that case, you have to make a remedy from the patient, from some discharge the patient has. Where is the disease manifesting--the saliva, the sweat? Where is it, in the blood? You don't need a lot of substance to make a remedy. (For my article on how to make a remedy from scratch, click here.) Why else might a remedy not work? Because you're prescribing for the constitution when the patient has an acute. You've ignored the acute because it doesn't interest you. Periodontal disease? Who cares! Arthritis pain? Borrring! Well, the exciting constitutional case is going to have to wait until these dull items are cleared away! As long as there is something "on top", the constitutional will not work or might even aggravate. Also, if you're trying to treat an acute and you've mixed the constitutional symptoms in with the acute case, you're most likely going to wind up with a hodge-podge of remedies; so, keep the two separate. Often you'll be presented with a case that seems to have literally a million symptoms in it! You'll marvel at how many diseases and disorders this patient can possibly have and still live to tell about it! What will you do? Ask the patient, "If I granted you a wish, which of your complaints would you want to go away first?" The idea is to start with the worst thing, the greatest suffering is where you'll want to start, and then, of course you'll want to move on to the next worst thing after the first one resolves. You know, it could also be that you have misjudged the cause of the symptoms before you. Without a diagnosis, or perhaps there has been a misdiagnosis, you could be selecting a remedy for muscle spasms when your client actually has kidney stones! Here you are giving Mag-phos. when the patient needs Berberis! Also, if you are prescribing based on a lab result? That will do you no good if the case has no symptoms. If a lab test comes up positive and there are no symptoms, give the constitutional remedy. Now, what else could cause a remedy to fail? You've got a patient with, let's say, cancer, and you note that he's depressed, so you prescribe on the mentals like you've always been taught to do, and you give Nat-mur., and it doesn't work. Well, here's one more homeopathy surprise! When there's organic pathology in a case, the standard hierarchy no longer applies! Actually, you turn it on its head! The person's depressed because he's sick; he's not sick because he's depressed. We have to find a cancer remedy; a remedy which, in material doses, could cause cancer and therefore, in homeopathic doses, will cure cancer; remedies like: Conium, Cadmium sulph., Hydrastis, Phytolacca, Cundurango, or Carbo animalis. In other words, you can't give the constitutional remedy here. Occasionally they will be one and the same, but don't count on it. Another thing in cancer cases, don't expect there to be just one remedy; the case may change rapidly! You're going to have to be ready constantly with a remedy for this and a remedy for that; these cases are unstable. Don't think you can give a 200C and say, "Come back in a month." Another problem: Your patient might be too toxic to respond to the homeopathic remedy. Too many drugs may have defeated his vital force; therefore, your first remedy might be found in Generals: reaction, lack of. Also consider the remedies for antidoting prescription drugs, like Nux vomica and Avena sativa. The symptom that appeared last, according to Hering's Law, is the first to go. Therefore, you would want to ask, "What's the most recent symptom?" and make sure your remedy covers it. Why else is your remedy failing? Maybe because your patient won't tell what's really happening! Lachesis is too suspicious to tell you the truth! Nat-mur is too dignified to volunteer any information. Staphysagria doesn't want to be a bother! Sepia's are too exhausted to talk and Sulphuric acid is in too much of a hurry! Don't forget the concomitant! The clue to the case often lies in the concomitant symptom, which is the "other" symptom in the case. The person with the headache also has....what. There's always something! Nausea, frequent urination, thirst, irritability, desire for company, runny eyes, drooling...these are all concomitants. The headache patient with thirst may need phosphorus. The headache patient with drooling may need Mercury. The headache patient with desire for company may need Arsenicum. In other words, it suddenly becomes all about the concomitant. Colors! Colors often sway the remedy choice. I didn't know what to give my friend Juliana for her cold until she told me her mucus was "Electric Yellow"! I said, "Kali bich!" And it was Kali bich! This is called prescribing on keynotes. If you see a super keynote in a case, or a strange, rare and peculiar symptom, you may be able to prescribe on just that! You antidoted the remedy by repeating the exact same unaltered dose! This has happened to me many times. "I'll just give one more dose for good measure!" There goes the case! If a remedy has begun to act, stop giving it! Your next dose might antidote it--unless you put a few pellets in a bottle of water and shake before each dose; but, if your remedy has already begun to act, don't repeat unless the case has stalled or is starting to relapse. Sometimes the remedy didn't fail at all, we just don't know how to recognize a curative response! We may be looking for the physical pathology to change when actually the first thing you'll see in a case is a change in the mentals. The patient's spirits are lifted, or his sleep improves or his appetite improves. When we don't see what we want, we abandon the remedy, when we should stay with it and wait or keep dosing. Aggravation? If the chief complaint is worse after the remedy, that can be a hopeful sign that maybe when this aggravation wears off, an amelioration will follow. Well Mrs. John? Have we covered your issues? Let us know! |
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Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom takes online cases. Visit her website at: www.hpathy.com/office/ElaineLewis.asp |
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A
Mrs. Elsy John writes:
Instead,
she went on to describe one of those once-in-a-lifetime Awkward
Moments that could only occur in your worst nightmare and it goes
something like this: a friend finds out that you said something
bad about him or her and he or she comes over to confront you about
it!
