Mom, it is time once again for another fun and fantabulous Hpathy Quiz!
Geez, a whole year has gone by!
I’m so glad 2016 is over.
You are? You’re glad the last year of the Obama administration is over? Not me! We’re about to walk off the edge of a cliff!
Mom, I know that! Which is why we have to stop being so negative and turn our attention to… “The Death Report”!
I guess you’re right. The “Death Report” will cheer us up.
I’m going to miss Barack and Michelle Obama too, but I’m glad the year of endless celebrity death is over! I have never seen so many famous people die in all my life!
They were smart to get out while they could!
In the last days of 2016 we lost many people!
Like who, for instance?
George Michael.
But he’s only 53!
I know, it’s crazy! I don’t know every song he did…
(Gasp!)
…but I’m familar with a couple of his songs such as “Careless Whisper” and “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”.
What about “Faith”?
Oh right! I knew that!!!
It was his biggest hit!
Here is George singing “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” with Elton John.
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! What are we doing now?
The Quiz, The Hpathy Quiz!!!!
Shouldn’t I be cooking dinner?
Maybe. But guess what? I forgot to make an announcement.
I find that hard to believe…
In April 2017, James Taylor…
Oh no! Not James Taylor again!!!!
…is playing a few shows with Elton John. I would love to see them but the shows are in Brazil and Argentina.
Oh. And you can’t just go there? Well, Shana, the important thing is…. It’s time for the Hpathy Quiz! You remember “Wonder Boy”, right? He sneezed 100 times and used up 100 tissues? Well, this time, his mother, “Wonder Woman”, is here and she went to a New Year’s Eve party and was attacked by Chickpeas!
I wish I could have seen that…
Me too. She woke up the next morning with what we call “Acute Abdomen”. I found this email message from her husband on the morning of New Year’s day:
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Hi doc,
This is Wonder Woman’s husband writing to you, wishing you a very happy and healthy new year!
We were at a New Year’s Eve party yesterday and Wonder Woman has woken up this morning with severe stomach pain and gas. She threw up 6 or 7 times–even water doesn’t stay down. Unbearable pain in stomach and back like a full circle. It’s so bad that she’s not able to sit, stand or lie down. Mouth is dry. Can you please suggest what she can take?
Thanks
Tell her to take _______________30C in water and if that doesn’t help at all, go to the 200C, and if that doesn’t work, let me know.
Doc, an hour ago she took ______________30c and after a bit, took 200c as well.
She says it’s helping but she’s still not fully OK yet. She is feeling very uneasy, restless and very tired, doesn’t want to get out of the bed. She hasn’t had anything but water today but is throwing up that as well each time. She is also feeling pain in her abdomen on the right side. Does she need to try anything else or just rest it out? Thanks
What percentage of improvement has there been?
She says that the pain has reduced by around 60%, she’s able to sleep on her side now which she wasn’t able to do earlier. But still unable to sit up for long as the abdomen pain on the side kicks in. Should she try anything else?
The way I see it, 60% improvement in one hour is pretty good! It leads me to believe that we’ve got the right remedy and shouldn’t change anything.
She was tossing and turning constantly in the bed, feeling breathless, trying to get off the bed on to the floor and sit/stand/walk. But all that was a couple of hours ago. Restlessness has reduced drastically since then and for the past 30 minutes now she’s been lying down on her side (asleep).
Oh, she’s asleep? Well, that’s different! That’s a very good sign! She might wake up feeling completely better! Tell me how she is when she wakes up. Is she sleeping soundly or fitfully?
Soundly.
Oh! Then forget about it, she’s fine!
***
Dear doc, it’s me, “Wonder Woman”! I woke up and am feeling almost 90% better now. You are really amazing doc. Thank you so much!!!
I have not had anything other than water since morning. Feeling a bit hungry now.
Wishing you and your family a very Happy New year!
Five hours later…
Doc, since 30 minutes I have terrible headache on top of my head mostly around forehead…Throbbing pain. What should I take for that?
Maybe it’s still _____________! Take a succussed dose of ______________200C and let me know what happens.
Next morning….
Thank you so much doc. I slept like a log after taking ________________ 200c again last night and my headache is gone. I still have teeny-weeny bit of uneasiness in stomach, but am more than 95% alright!
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Well, folks, when your appetite comes back, and you sleep like a log, that’s when you know you’re OK! So what was the remedy? Write to me at [email protected] and let me know. The answer will be in next month’s ezine.
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Votes:
Arsenicum-4
Bryonia-2
Colocynthis
Hi Elaine!
Oh look, it’s Maryam from Pakistan! Remember Maryam? She named her cat “Little Elaine Lewis”, after me! Even if I die, I will live on as Maryam’s cat. Here’s “Little Elaine Lewis” now, reading the Repertory:
A very happy new year to you!
Thank you, I could use one!
Hope all is going good in your life!
Now come to the quiz, I guess it was Arsenicum album, because Arsenicum is the first remedy we think in food poisoning. Her concomitant symptoms like much restlessness and tossing about also indicate that it would be Arsenicum.
Regards,
Maryam from Pakistan.
Hi Maryam! Ya know, it does look like Arsenicum if you just take the restlessness and food poisoning into account…seems obvious, right? But there was something too intense about this case for me to liken it to Arsenicum. Such severe pain, she couldn’t get comfortable in any position! She literally couldn’t do anything! She couldn’t lie, she couldn’t sit, she couldn’t stand, she couldn’t walk… That’s not my experience with Arsenicum.
What do they famously say about Arsenicum? “Moves from bed to chair and back again”? “Paces back and forth”? Arsenicums are restless out of anxiety, not because they can’t get comfortable in any position. Every position causes pain to this patient! All I could think of was Bryonia’s “worse least motion”–I know it sounds strange; but, it’s like, “I can’t move here, I can’t move here, I can’t move here, and I can’t move here!”
And the thing about Bryonia is, they all have some kind of extreme pain such that they can’t move. So, she’s tossing and turning wondering, “Where can I move to, what can I do so I won’t be in pain; because, if I could just find that spot, I would stay there!” That’s how I saw it. I see the restlessness as her trying to find a spot where she won’t be in pain. It turns out that in Murphy’s Repertory, Bryonia is actually a 2 under “Generals: restlessness, physical”. Can you believe that? Who knew that Bryonia could be restless? It’s a whole different dynamic than the Arsenicum restlessness due to anxiety, worry and fear.
Anyway, so I gave Bryonia, and she got better, and then 5 hours later, the case is now a headache–again, extreme, a really bad headache! So again, Bryonia cases usually involve an extreme pain. So I said, “Maybe it’s still Bryonia!” And lo and behold, it was! And so that’s a different look at Bryonia than the one we’re used to seeing. Bye Maryam, give my best to Little Elaine Lewis!
Is anybody else here today?
Hi Elaine, so the case of WONDER WOMAN…
it looks like THE STOMACH FLU, at least for me it does.
No, it’s either food poisoning or some kind of idiosyncratic reaction to chickpeas, but, either way…food poisoning and stomach flu can look just about the same. We’re concerned with discerning a remedy picture.
morning agg
unbearable pain
dry mouth
is it BRYONIA????
YES! YES!!!!! It is!!!! It Truly IS Bryonia! Good for you! Not sure how much significance “morning agg.” has, but, “Unbearable pain”–yes! “Dry mouth”–yes!
Oh my god !
I grabbed the right remedy? Oh thanks…
My first quiz attempt was a blunder. But this time I’m lucky enough….
Thanks.
Dr. Mukesh Patel
Thanks for voting, Dr. Patel! Who do we have now? Come in and sign-in please!
Hi Elaine, it’s Jan again.
Happy New Year! I hope 2017 will be a very good year for you and Shana
Thanks! Same to you!
I thought I would have another go at the quiz, since I learned so much last time!
Great, let’s see what happens!
I think the remedy is Colocynthis, although I first thought of Phosphorus due to the vomiting of water.
But after repertorisation, I read Coloc. and it fitted the acute onset, restlessness, intensity of pain and difficulty getting comfortable.
And of course the possible trigger of Chickpea attack!
Well, Jan, the thing with Colocynthis is, they must, simply must, bend over double when they’re in stomach pain. This is how you can always recognize a Colocynth patient. They are either doubled over, holding their stomach, screaming, or pulling their knees up to their chest, or walking bent over. Without the husband saying, “Wonder Woman is bent over double…” I wouldn’t think of Colocynth.
There was an unusual symptom: Unbearable pain in stomach and back like a full circle
– for this I used:
Generalities; pain; circle, going around in a
OK, that rubric is only in the Complete Repertory, my 2009 edition shows only 3 remedies, they’re all 1’s, meaning the remedies aren’t strong for that symptom; plus, “pain going around in a circle” isn’t quite what the patient means. The pain isn’t traveling in a circle, it’s just occupying a circular region.
Abdomen; pain; extending; back, to; lumbosacral region
I think that’s too far down the back. The patient says the pain is in stomach and in the back right behind the stomach pain; so, lumbo-sacral is too far down. And abdomen would be too far down too. Use instead “stomach, pain, extending, back, to”.
Here are the other rubrics I took
Mind; restlessness, nervousness; pain; from; abdomen, in
Have you read Tidbits this month? Tidbits 42? I wrote about mistakes in repertorizing. You should read it because you’re making the mistake of taking inaccurate rubrics. Above you picked abdomen instead of stomach and now you’re assuming the restlessness is due to nervousness; we have no information on that; the patient never said, “I’m so nervous from this stomach pain that it’s making me restless.” Isn’t that right? So we have no information about nervousness; and again, she was quite clear about the pain being in her stomach; and indeed, since she’s throwing up, you have to believe it is her stomach.
Head; pain, headache; pulsating, throbbing; forehead
You’ve gotta stop using The Complete Repertory. There are so many additions, it’s gotten out of hand! It’s almost like any symptom can go for any remedy! Take the rubric you just chose: “Head, pain headache, pulsating, forehead”. The Complete shows 154 remedies! In Murphy’s Repertory? The same rubric has 18 remedies. Eighteen Remedies! I’ve found this situation throughout The Complete Repertory where most of the rubrics are so bloated, so over-populated, you can’t trust any of them! Take any rubric at all, like “Mind: excitement, nervous”. The Complete Repertory lists 165 remedies. Murphy’s lists 70. That’s roughly half of what’s in the Complete! It’s jaw-dropping! I’ve seen people here get the wrong answer to a quiz only because they used a rubric from the Complete Repertory! OK, do continue…
Abdomen; pain; vomiting; with
Again, the pain is not in her abdomen, though she does mention pain in the right side of the abdomen.
Respiration; pain; from; abdomen, in
No, this is another example of taking rubrics that aren’t in the case. The husband says she’s breathless: “tossing and turning constantly in the bed, feeling breathless.” We don’t know why. It could be that the gas in her stomach is pushing up against her lungs, making her feel breathless. That’s highly likely.
Sleep; position; side, on; impossible
Don’t use this one, the problem isn’t sleeping, it’s lying. She can’t lie on her side.
Generalities; food and drinks; beans, peas; agg.
Generalities; restlessness, physical; pain, during
Generalities; sit, sitting; agg.; upright, erect
The other remedy I differentiated with was Arsenicum, due to the intense restlessness and most of the other symptoms – but it didn’t have pain going in a circle or extending into the back.
Again, too picky. It’s time to forget all this and look at the big picture. Now, as I said in this month’s Tidbits regarding repertorizing, people are missing the big picture all the time. They think their job is to write down everything the patient says and then find a rubric for each thing and then repertorize them and the remedy that comes out on top wins. Imagine if we drove our cars that way, giving equal weight to everything we saw instead of getting the big picture! Imagine if there was a traffic jam ahead and we need to get off at the next exit to avoid it, imagine that instead of making that our focus, we instead made note of every bird in the sky, or every billboard on the side of the road or maybe noting the number of red cars vs. the number of blue cars…. and didn’t have enough sense to say, “None of this matters.”
So what do we have in this case, what is the big picture? What is most striking? It’s a lady with an upset stomach and stomach pain due to possible food poisoning or food that just won’t agree with her. Now, details pertaining to food poisoning in this case is not going to help us! For example, “food agg.” is not going to help us! Why? It’s obvious! It’s covered by the rubric “food poisoning”, which presumes that food agg. Vomiting water is not going to help us! Why? She’s vomiting everything! Again, it’s covered by “food poisoning”. And rubrics like “sitting agg.”? The reason sitting aggravates is because every position aggravates! That’s the whole point, it’s what the case is all about; it’s about not being able to find any position that doesn’t aggravate!
Remember, that was all I heard when I blurted out the remedy: she had a severe pain, and it was so severe, she couldn’t get comfortable in any position! There was not a single thing she could do to get out of pain: she couldn’t lie, she couldn’t sit, she couldn’t stand and she couldn’t walk.
And finally, she had a “dry mouth”. I thought that was a very helpful concomitant because it confirmed the remedy I was thinking of.
So we have 5 big issues here: 1. severe stomach pain. 2. every position agg. 3. dry mouth. 4. vomiting. 5. headache, pulsating forehead.
If you repertorize these 5 things (and I’m using Murphy’s Repertory), here’s what you get: Bryonia.
I would show the chart but my computer is not cooperating! Clue: Cases of Bryonia almost always have some sort of severe pain! When you hear “severe pain”, Bryonia should be at the top of your thoughts. Secondly, they famously have dryness. Thirdly, I can remember Robin Murphy saying that Bryonia can be restless out of exasperation — but the restlessness doesn’t ameliorate. And I remember thinking at the time, “No way! No way can Bryonia be restless, I don’t believe it!” But fortunately, I remembered him saying that, which helped me to solve this case.
Oh dear, it’s back to the drawing board for me!!
Thanks for the reminder of the keynote for Colocynthis. When I think of Bryonia, I have this image of someone keeping very still…
You know, there’s no “rational” explanation for why I picked Bryonia, but I could “see” it, I could “sense” it, as if I was seeing “the other side” of Bryonia, like, Bryonia turned “inside-out”. Come to think of it, many years ago, I remember experiencing a painful episode of “acute abdomen” where I realized that nothing was making the pain better! Rubbing wasn’t making it better, doing nothing wasn’t making it better, I suddenly realized, “This is Bryonia!” No ameliorating factors! I just kept saying, “There’s nothing I can do, there’s nothing I can do.” And so in this case, again, there was nothing the patient could do. So, when you see a picture like this, you might want to think of Bryonia. After all, look at it this way: What is the “opposite” of holding perfectly still, what would the other side of that coin be? It would be non-stop movement, would it not?
So it was good to read about Robin Murphy’s understanding of how the Bryonia state may manifest.
Apparently everyone knew about this, I’ve been checking various rubrics and materia medicas.
Am about to re-read Tidbits. You make it all sound so easy!
Oh, believe me, I know homeopathy is not easy!!! I took my first course in homeopathy in 1996. Alan Schmukler was the teacher. I had listened to courses on tape before that. One was Dana Ullman’s acute prescribing course, maybe that was 1990 or even earlier. So, look how many years I’ve been at this! It truly does take time.
The next book I buy will have to be Murphy’s repertory..
Good! And hopefully, you have homeopathy computer software? Yes, I know it’s expensive, but, I can’t imagine going back to repertorizing by hand like in the old days! It would be like going back to driving a car with a manual shift! Do you remember those?
Thank you again so much for taking the time to help me Elaine. I love your analogies and your way of explaining things.
Well, thank you for the compliment!
Best regards
Jan
Does anybody else want to answer?
Hi Elaine.
Hi Wayne!
I think the answer to January’s Quiz is Arsenicum.
That’s very understandable, but here’s the thing. I didn’t see this as restlessness so much as thrashing about in pain. She was in severe pain no matter what she did. She couldn’t sit, she couldn’t lie down, she couldn’t stand…there was nothing she could do. It was almost like she was desperate! Arsenicum is generally restless out of anxiety; it’s a mental thing. Often it’s not a matter of pain at all. As the materia medica says, they go from bed to bed, from bed to chair, they pace… This looked like something else to me.
My Repertorisation
Food: Poisoning
What repertory is this rubric in? Oh, OK, I see it now. It’s in Murphy’s “Food” and “Toxicity” chapters.
Vomiting, general; everything
Once you pick “food poisoning” as a rubric, anything that pertains to “food poisoning” is just another way of saying “food poisoning”; so, you risk skewing your repertorization by picking numerous rubrics that all refer to the same thing, because, presumably, they would all have the same remedies in them; so, it would be just like voting for Arsenicum over and over again.
Pain; stomach; eating, after
Pain; stomach; drinking after,
No. Same as above. Here’s the issue: We need a food poisoning remedy with a really, really bad stomach pain resulting in restlessness and then we also want our remedy to have dryness.
Dryness; mouth
Yes. See? Now this is useful. This is what I used to help confirm the remedy that I was thinking of. The remedy I was thinking of is known for dry mucus membranes.
Restlessness: pain during.
Only other candidate was Ipecac.
Enjoyed your Tidbits.
Thank you! Well, I believe it was Will Taylor who once said that in almost every BRYONIA case, there’s a very severe pain! And that was a real revelation to me! I never forgot that! And then I remembered Robin Murphy saying that Bryonia can be restless, and since we all know about “polarities”–that if a remedy can be at one extreme it can also be at the other–it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the normally completely still Bryonia can also, potentially, be tossing and turning in bed due to pain. Then I remembered that Bryonia was known for dryness, so, that was the icing on the cake for me.
And then, at the end of the night, after the stomach pain was gone, she got a headache which also was described as severe! So I said, “Maybe it’s the same remedy!”
Here is what Borland says in The Homeopathic Treatment of Influenzas, page 7:
“They will tell you that it hurts them to move and yet, very often, Bryonia patients are constantly on the move. They are restless and uncomfortable and move about in spite of the fact that movement increases their pain. Get hold of this fact very clearly, because it is so definitely laid down in text-books that Bryonia patients are aggravated by motion. Apparently it does hurt them, but they get into this restless state when they will not keep still. When the patient is restless, find out whether it eases him or not. If it does not, it is probably a Bryonia case.”
I’m sure this has been a real eye-opener to a lot of people!
Thanks!
Wayne
I wonder where Maria is…..
Hi Elaine and Shana!
Oh! There you are!
For this month’s quiz my vote goes for Arsenicum.
If I am wrong I will try again 🙂
You’re wrong so try again! Actually, this quiz is not easy! But the clue that I can give you is dryness. She has a dry mouth.
Ok, Bryonia then? Alan in his book mentioned that Bryonia has vomiting with dry mouth and we know Bryonia has dryness- hence the thirst. Husband mentioned restlessness that’s why I ruled it out in the first place.
But I see in Murphy’s repertory restlessness during pains, bryonia is there.
You know, that’s really the essence of the case, is it not?
Also Vithoulkas in Keynotes says Bryonia can be restless due to severe pains. So it could be Bryonia.
Excellent! Brilliant! I’m so glad you found that! I think we’re all learning something important about Bryonia today! You did a great job!!!!! Yes, it did not look like Arsenicum to me at all despite the tossing and turning. It looked entirely like a response to pain and not being able to get comfortable in any position, and not the anxiety, fear, despair and anguish Arsenicum suffers with, forcing them to move from bed to chair and back again and pace back and forth like the Repertory says.
If I am wrong I will try again 🙂
You’re not wrong so don’t try again!
Oh great! I thought it was a long shot!
To be sure, a presentation we don’t see a lot and may never see again!
You know another important matter in the quiz we should pay attention to, is when a new picture emerged, you said “maybe its bryonia again” and it was! I too make the mistake often when the picture changes to change remedy. We may lose it entirely this way.
Actually, when I heard the word “terrible” describing the head pain, and knowing the stomach pain had been “terrible”, I immediately thought of the same remedy. So bizarre the way this illness showed up again later in a different place! So unexpected! So, I wouldn’t call it so much a “new picture” as the “same picture” in a new place. What did you think of “Tidbits” this month?
Yes I read Tidbits-42 and I wanted to tell you that it was great!!!!!!!!
It helped me understand better that is for sure.
I’m so glad you got the information you needed!
I think many many, people may benefit from it.
You should write a book dear, I have told you before and I am telling you now.
Tell Dr. B! He said I could put my articles into a book, but then he said, “Take out all the colors, all the pictures, all the different font sizes…” and I was like, “Huh? What? My articles without pictures? And colors? And everything the same size? What the heck?” Imagine all my food pictures in black and white! It was so demoralizing, I was just stopped cold. Dr. B said it would make the cost of the book too high, if it had pictures and stuff in it. So…. I don’t know, I just don’t know….
You have a great way of transmitting to others the essence of things. I know, that I have printed out most of your articles and read them occasionally over and over again…Maybe others have written about those topics too BUT YOUR WAY is so rare! We constantly read about theories blah blah blah blah, but you go straight to the point.
What a nice thing to say. It reminds me of what actor Sterling Holloway once said on the “Tomorrow Show”: “If you’re gonna talk, TALK!”
Don’t look now but, the twins from Slovakia are here!
Mom, they’re not twins!
Hello Elaine and Shana,
Hello Miroslav and Jitka!
this time we had a problem to understand what it means “was attacked by Chickpeas.”
These are chickpeas and the patient felt like they had attacked her:
We’re not sure if this means that she ate too much chickpeas,
It just means that the chickpeas didn’t agree with her for some reason. Maybe they were bad or maybe they just cause a tremendous amount of gas, I don’t know.
it is very unusual to eat legumes at a New Year’s Eve party,
Yes, very unusual!
at least here it is, definitely. Or is “attacked by Chickpeas” only a colloquial phrase…?
It’s not even a colloquial phrase, I simply made it up! Clearly, the chickpeas clobbered her!
Based on other information in this case, we solved the case of “Wonder woman” as follows:
Miroslav´s opinion:
Etiology – probably food poisoning,
I agree to a possible diagnosis of food poisoning but “food poisoning” is not really an etiology; it’s a diagnosis. For etiology, we would say, “ailments from fat” or “fat agg.” or “salt agg.” or “chocolate agg.”, or “fish agg.”, etc. and since you’re not going to find chickpeas in the Repertory, there’s no “chickpeas agg.” rubric for us to go to; so, we should just consider “food poisoning” as the diagnosis, and as such, it’s not going to be very helpful.
intensity/severity of the case, painfulness and great restlesness suggest ARSENICUM.
Yes, I can see how the restlessness would throw you off, but, it wasn’t Arsenicum. I interpreted the restlessness as an expression of the fact that no matter what the patient did, she couldn’t get comfortable, and remember what I always say, “If a symptom can be explained by the ‘disease’, it’s not a symptom”–at least not to us anyway. So, if the illness forces you to change position constantly, then we can’t call that “restlessness”. Every position she takes is painful, and it forces her to move to some other position in hopes of getting out of the pain; but Arsenicum is restless out of anguish and anxiety, it’s a mental state. For Wonder Woman, it’s a physical state.
Jitka says:
My first impression of the case was Arsenicum, also when I checked selected rubrics they mostly pointed to Ars.
But the patient seemed to me only a little restless and not scared enough to be Arsenicum. I turned my attention to Antimonium crudum.
Some sources report that it is indicated often for a state of overeating. But I was not satisfied even with this choice.
If it was the right remedy you would surely have asked the husband if she had a thick, white-coated tongue.
So I turned my attention back to legumes. In a Murphy´s “Food” chapter, I found only beans, no peas or so, but I´m going to risk this choice for etiology: “beans agg.” There are only two remedies with Bold letters: Bryonia and Lyc. Bryonia covers the case better than Lycopodium, so, I am voting for Bryonia.
Wow, Jitka! You hit the jackpot! You figured out that even though chickpeas wasn’t in the Repertory, something similar might be, and you set out to look for it; and, as it turns out, you were actually able to come up with an etiology–“Beans agg.” Excellent! I am impressed! And the amazing thing is, the remedy that cured the case actually is in BOLD in that rubric! And yes, Bryonia is correct!!!! It was Bryonia!!!!! Jitka, you get the Gold Star! You have earned it! (Now what did I do with the gold stars….geez! Wait a minute…. Dr. Beeeeeeeeee!!!!!!) Oh, here they are!
Congratulations to our two lovely winners: Jitka and Dr. Mukesh Patel.
See you again next time for another great and fabulous Hpathy Quiz!
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Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine takes online cases! Write to her at [email protected]
Visit her website: elaineLewis.hpathy.com
