Case Quizes Clinical Cases

Revisiting: “Wonder Brother-In-Law” Has The “Aussie Flu”!

flu image  Feb quiz

Remember “Wonder Woman”? Well, her brother-in-law has the flu! Were you able to guess his remedy?

 

Mom, last year the most wonderous thing happened.

This isn’t going to be stupid, is it? OK, let me guess. What could it be, what could it be….Hmm…. James Taylor? Elton John? The Brave Little Toaster? The Muppets??????

Mom, you are completely wrong! It’s The Rugrats!

Oh, the Rugrats! (I was so close!) Well, that’s different! Never mind!

In May, Nickelodeon and Paramount teamed up to release official DVD’s of “The Rugrats” seasons 1 and 2.

You do realize this is the Hpathy Quiz, right? People are reading this expecting to find a homeopathic case!

Hold on, Mom, I’m getting to that! You see, before now, fans could only get these Rugrats episodes through Amazon’s CreateSpace service, which means they manufactured the old DVD’s and they probably weren’t as good as these new releases.

Shana, might I remind you that we just lost half our audience???!!!!

In fact, Amazon dropped the ball …

They’re not the only ones dropping the ball!

I mean they dropped the ball when they released seasons 2 and 9 by labeling it “Best Of” and didn’t put all the episodes in!

That is tragic. And you want to know what else is tragic? We just lost the other half of our audience!!!!!

They fixed it later but still Amazon lost points with a lot of people for that.

Unfortunately, none of those people read the Hpathy Ezine!

Anyway, on February 6th Nickelodeon/Paramount put out official copies of seasons 3 and 4.

Shana, at this point we’re talking to ourselves–again, as usual!–which means there’s no one here to read our very important Death Report this month!

Mom, we’re getting to the Death Report, don’t worry. What this translates to is, we should get these official DVD’s (for a reasonable price of course) so Nickelodeon will see that nostalgia sells and maybe finally figure out that people want more official releases of their shows.

So wait a minute; we’re supposed to buy a Rugrats DVD to send a message to Nickelodeon?

Actually, it’s more than one DVD, Mom.

This is starting to sound expensive!

I’m still waiting on “Drake and Josh”. But yeah, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network should take a page out of Nickelodeon/Paramount’s playbook.

And crumple it up into a nice round ball and throw it up in the air!

So, I don’t even know why I’m bringing this up…

Neither does anyone else!

…because its so sad, but you know how I’ve said over and over again what a sin it was that Glenn Frey died?

Is this another update on Glenn Frey’s death?

Well, his wife is suing the hospital for wrongful death.

Oh good. Have we stopped talking about The Rugrats now?

She is accusing a physician of negligence and failing to properly treat and diagnose her husband.

So in other words, just another day in an American hospital!

I guess I’m mentioning it because, well, it only proves my point.

Would that you had one!

So all I’m saying is, good for Cindy Frey!

Hear, hear!

Also Elton John …

I knew it! I knew we’d get to him sooner or later!

…has announced his farewell tour. Apparently he wants to retire to spend more time with his husband and kids.

No one cares, Shana!

But I’ll be sad to see him go even though he deserves to retire. (This tour is apparently going to last three years and ends in 2021).

Three years???? That’s not a retirement, that’s a new career!

Anyway, he’s calling it the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, which I think is a clever name.

It should more aptly be called “The Tour That Never Ends”!

He will be performing at the Wells Fargo Center in September. It’s a shame how it’s during the school year but how often do you get to see Elton John perform?

Apparently every day for the next 3 years!

I mean, he is a great piano player. I gotta see the show, since I’ve never seen him and this is my one chance.

Oy vey!

Also Reginald Dwight (his real name) should fire the person who misspelled Australia on the tour schedule.

I’m sure Wayne agrees with you.

Anyway, here is Elton John on the Muppet Show…

The Muppet Show??????? I knew it, I knew it!!!!

…singing the tour’s namesake, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (yes I know, he looked kind of silly in the 70s.)

He looks even sillier now in that hair piece!

Now, can we possibly move on to The Death Report? I told you it was very important! And tragic!

The last original lead singer of The Temptations, Dennis Edwards, died!

You know, Mom, one of Dennis’ songs appeared in an episode of the X-Files! “Don’t Look Any Further”.

OK, I won’t.

That’s the name of the song! Click below:

Dennis Edwards on Soul Train

And Mom, there’s one more death. The actor who played Marty Crane, Frasier’s dad, on “Frasier”, John Mahoney, died. Here’s a brief clip. Frasier is all upset because he bought a painting that turned out to be just a copy of the original. He says to his father, played by John Mahoney, “I’m calling the police!” Then he asks his father, who’s an ex-cop, “Who do I ask for?” His father says, “The Fine Arts Forgery Department”. Frasier, on the phone, says, “The Fine Arts Forgery Department, please.” His dad starts laughing and Frasier realizes there’s no such department!

Anyway, rest in peace, John Mahoney.

Who’s in the quiz this month?

Remember “Wonder Woman”?

Wasn’t she attacked by chick peas on New Years Eve?

Good memory, Shana! Well, her brother-in-law has the flu–he’s had it for 12 days! See case below:

 

***

 

Re: Acute Case – Wonder Brother-In-Law

Tue, Jan 30, 2018 9:45 pm

Elaine Lewis ([email protected])To:you (Bcc) + 2 more Details

 

—–Original Message—–

From: Wonder Sister-In-Law <****[email protected]>

To: Elaine Lewis <[email protected]>

Cc: di… <[email protected]>

Sent: Tue, Jan 30, 2018 7:17 pm

Subject: Acute Case – Wonder Brother-In-Law

 

Dear Doc,

Hope you are doing good.

Yes, I’m pretty good and finished dinner and the dishes and ready to get back to work!

I would like to open an acute case for my husband who has been suffering from flu for the last 12 days.

Egads! 12 days of the flu? And it ain’t over yet? I had it for about 4 days, just got over it a week ago. Shana had it for only one day.

Please see the form below and the payment has already been paid to your paypal account. Please check.

Yes, I got it, thank you. Next time someone gets sick, please let me know before 12 days have gone by?

Hope to hear from you soon!

OK, scroll down for follow-up questions.

————-

Name: Wonder Brother-In-Law

1/30/18

Age: 37

Male or Female: Male

Weight: 76kilos

Height: 5ft 9 inches

Email Address: ****[email protected]

  1. Describe the complaint:

Wonder Brother-In-Law has developed flu and has been suffering from it since Friday, 19th January 2018. He has tried some home remedies, homeopathy (gelsemium 200 & 1m) and has also consulted the allopathic doctors here. They gave it the name of Aussie flu and said that it could take 2-3 weeks to get better. They also mentioned that there are no antibiotics to cure the flu but they prescribed a few medicines that could help him in relieving congestion.

And one of them is an antibiotic! Doxycycline! Geez! This won’t help you, but, here it is!

The list of the medicines is as below:

– Co-codomol Effervescent Tablets 8/500mg (contains Paracetamol 500 mg & codeine phosphate 8mg) – thrice daily

They gave him narcotics??? Tylenol with Codeine? Three times a day? Give me a break!

– Doxycycline capsules 100 mg – once daily

– Sudafed Decongestant liquid – thrice daily

He has been taking these medicines since yesterday (29th Jan 2018).

The symptoms of the complaint keep varying as the day progresses.

Keep in mind that drugs can alter the appearance of the illness and I need to know his condition before he started drug “therapy”.

The below is the list of symptoms that he has been having on and off across the whole duration:

– Headache from time to time in the forehead (eyebrows to upper forehead)

– Temperature upto 39F

– Barking Cough with greenish- yellow/reddish phlegm. Possibly red due to blood.

– Sneezes with greenish- yellow/Red phlegm. Possibly red due to blood.

– Difficulty in breathing easily due to congestion

– Vomiting sensation at times

– Feeling bloated and belching at times

– Muscular body pain particularly in back

– Shivering at times

– Not feeling very thirsty

– Feels better inside in warmth. Cold air makes him worse

– Feels better during shower. Shivering at times after shower.

– Feels like lying down.

 

  1. Etiology–

It started on Friday 19th Feb in the evening when he came home and mentioned that he wasn’t feeling too good. He slept well and was looking better the next morning. He then went for his Body Pump class ( high intensity 30 min exercise which he is irregular on) and we immediately dressed up to go to a birthday party for a little boy who is the son of our family friends. The drive was long and there was heavy traffic on the road (both ways – going and return). He drove all the way and since it was a splash party for kids to be in the pool, he accompanied our son inside the pool. They both had a lovely time. He looked ok in the party hall too. It’s only in the drive that he started complaining of body aches and the fact that he was feeling feverish. We came home and all of us were tired and so we all slept over immediately after having dinner.

Sunday was also sluggish. He took Gelsemium 200C 3 times on Sunday in an interval of 3 hours. He went to work on Monday and was pulling himself at work. He came home really tired and he took Gelsemium 200C and slept off. On Tuesday, he woke up early morning with high temperature and took Gelsemium 200C again.

He then checked his symptoms online and felt they were matching better to Bryonia.

After three hours, he took Bryonia 200C. Since the symptoms started resembling Gelsemium again, he took that after 1 hour and repeated the doses quite frequently. By mid-day, he developed a severe frontal headache.

Looks like an over-dose. I’ve noticed a tendency in your family to go over-board with the 200C’s. You really only need to take a 200C once. And if there’s no improvement, it is most likely the wrong remedy. If you take a 200C, get an improvement, and then the improvement starts to go away, you are justified in redosing after succussing your remedy bottle five times. Do you think the aggravation is gone now?

After discussing with Wonder Woman, we thought that he had been aggravated

Wonder Woman is right, as usual!

and so we did the aggravation zapper in the night which improved headache drastically.

Alright! Now that’s more like it!

However, next morning old symptoms started appearing

When you say “old symptoms”, do you mean symptoms of the aggravation? Because if so, you only needed to repeat the aggravation zapper. So let’s say you did the agg. zapper in the 12th cup. You would simply stir the 12th cup with a straw or plastic spoon and take another sip.

with a strong complaint of pain in the eye. After consulting Wonder Woman, I gave him Cocculs 200C which did not help.

I’m not sure why Wonder Woman picked Cocculus.

He moved to allopathy later that day which gave a little relief. He continued allopathy (over the counter medication) until yesterday, 29th Jan. He visited the doc yesterday morning and got the prescription as described above.

Is that pain in the eye still there?

Today, he also took Gelsemium 1m hoping that it would solve the whole case but the backache started reappearing. Consequently, we quickly did a zapper (12th and 24th cup) to relive aggravation. With the allopathic medicine, now he is getting very bloated and belching.

Going with Gels. 1M was definitely a bad idea since he may have been aggravating on it already but, did the zapper work? And are you saying allopathic drugs are making him bloated and belching? Definitely stop the drugs. Oy vey!

  1. Sensation–

A constant heaviness on the whole head. Bloating

But that’s from a drug, right? Probably the antibiotic which the doctor even said wouldn’t work! I can’t use symptoms that drugs are causing.

– tummy feels very full in spite of not eating much. Muscular pain in the spine as if its due to the cold weather.

  1. Appearance– anything remarkable about how you look?

Droopy eyes, in the morning he feels his throat is full of phlegm deposit and he feels like clearing it straight away by salt water gargles. Throat feels sluggish. Throat is painful with swallows.

  1. Location–where on the body is your complaint located?

It’s throughout the body!

  1. Modalities–

Worse cold air but better for fresh outside air. Better warmth.

Better due to:

– Back and chest massage

– Refreshing drinks like fresh orange juice or lemon water

– Warm showers

– Outside when it not very cold winds

Worst due to:

– Noise

– Motion or day to day activities

– cold winds

  1. Concomitants

Described above. He is constipated as well from the last couple of days.

Probably from the drugs he’s on, which he should stop immediately!

  1. Discharges–

Described above.

  1. Generals–

– I’m irritated.

– I’m sluggish

  1. The mentals:

NA

  1. What have you been saying? For instance: “I’m fine, leave me alone.” “Don’t leave!” “I wanna go home!” “I want ice”, “I want quiet!”, ”Turn that music off!”, “I need help!” “I don’t need any help, OK?” etc.

A- “ I want quiet! I want to nap!”

  1. What are you doing? For example, tossing and turning, pacing, fidgeting, moaning and groaning, calling people on the phone for support, just lying down and not caring about anything, keeping busy, putting off what has to be done, etc.

– moaning

– pacing

– Tossing and turning

– calling people for support

  1. Describe your thirst and appetite–

A- Not thirsty. Able to have cold or warm drinks in sips.

Food – Fresh orange juice/ watermelons/ cucumber etc.

  1. Fever?

– Fever comes and goes. Generally comes in the night with perspiration. Worse in warm rooms and in the night between midnight – 4pm.

  1. Sweating?

– Entire body sweats in the night at onset of fever.

  1. Odors?

bad odour in the mouth in mornings.

  1. What is most striking, peculiar or identifying about your condition?

n/a

  1. Is there a diagnosis?

the doctor says its Aussie flu

  1. Describe your energy–

drowsy, dull, quiet, dopey

He’s not really “quiet” if he’s tossing and turning and moaning.

  1. What does your tongue look like? (color/coating/pattern, crack/s, shape, etc.)

white heavy coating in the middle with deep dark pink line in between.

  1. If you have a cough, please tell what it sounds like

It’s a barking cough with phlegm.

  1. If you haven’t already said if you’re hotter or colder than usual…

Described above.

He’s cold, right? OK. I repertorized the information you’ve given me, and the remedy comes out to be ______________ with ___________ in second place. Give a dose of _______________200C and tell me what happens. But do answer the questions above in case ___________ turns out to be the wrong remedy.

***

Hello doc,

It’s me, Wonder Brother-In-Law. Thanks for the remedy. It has helped quite a lot and I have felt relief since this morning. I took dry pellets at 4.40am of _____________ 30C (as i could not find 200 and my wife was in deep sleep) and the muscle pain across the spine that was catching up got immediate relief! Then at about 6.40 am my wife gave me wet remedy of _____________ 200C and I slept for 1.5 hrs after taking it. I have just woken up and am much better. i still have a mild sensation across the spine. The cough has reduced, headache is milder too.

***

OK, everybody, what do you think the remedy is? Write to me at [email protected] and tell me what you think. The answer will be in next month’s ezine.

****

Going out, Shana has requested “I Wonder Who She’s Seeing Now?” by the Temptations, featuring Dennis Edwards on lead. Good-bye Dennis, we love you!

See you next time!

______________________________

Votes:

Rhus tox-5

Arsenicum-2

Phosphorus

Pulsatilla

___________

 Is anybody here today, per chance?  Who wants to tell us what remedy cured Wonder Brother-In-Law’s 12 day flu?

 

Hi Elaine.  Happy Valentines day!

Hi Sarah from Jordan!

I love you for all the hard work you put into hpathy every month.  You truly are one of homeopathy’s heroes…

I is?

…selfless and for the good of humanity.

Well, if you say so!

So, coming off of last months win, I am tackling my enemy–the complicated acute case–and doing it with renewed ambition!

Sarah, it only LOOKS complicated because you’re not thinking about the hierarchy of symptoms!!!!  Remember, if you’ve got “mentals” in the case, they’re going to over-ride whatever local symptoms are underneath them, right?

This case was a mess of symptoms!

But not all of them count!

In my attempt to focus mostly on the more unique symptoms, I looked into the fever for its perspiration and being at night.

And that might be very important IF there were no mentals in the case!

And also it being after midnight to 4am.  That along with blood tinged discharges, better for a shower, worse for cold, yet better for refreshing drinks, I was stuck between Rhus Tox and Phosphorus.

See?  This might all be very interesting, IF there were no mentals in the case!!!!

I am thinking Rhus Tox because of the pronounced dislike for cold, even shivering after showering.  Phosphorus was still a possibility because he really wanted those cooler drinks (fruit drinks etc), but to me, it seemed that the chilliness was much stronger and Phosphorus tends to be on the warmer side.  So, Rhus Tox it is.

Sarah, go back and read “Repertory Round-Up, part 4” and then answer the quiz again:

Tidbits 50–Repertory Round-Up, Part-4

 

Thanks Elaine for the second chance.

Alright, he is irritable, moaning, doesn’t want any noise, very tired, sipping drinks, and “calling others for support”.  Calling others sounds like he doesn’t want to be alone.  All of these are making me think of Arsenicum.  Also the after midnight aggravation!  I think I might have got it!  Hoping.  Thank you Elaine.

Yes, it is Arsenicum!  And don’t forget “tossing and turning” in bed and “Pacing”.  Look up “Mind: restlessness, pacing”; and see what you find, I think you’ll be surprised to see that there are only 2 remedies and one of them is — ta-da!–Arsenicum!

Yippee!  I think I am getting better at this. 😀  Thank you for giving me the chance to figure it out and showing me the way.  The pacing and tossing and turning, is classical Arsenicum restlessness, and I didn’t even catch that!  I saw it earlier when I was thinking of Rhus tox and thought it was better for continued motion.

You might have thought that but, Arsenicum never feels better from motion; it’s anxiety that makes them move about and walk from place to place, pointlessly.

Quizes are more fun when you get them right. 😀  Looking forward to next month.

Thanks for voting!  Is anybody else here?  Hello!  You’re on the air at hpathy.com!

 

Hi Elaine ,

Hi Neil…

This month I think Arsenicum is indicated…

Yes, you’re right!

…worse cold, shivery, better warmth, worse cold but better fresh air, tired wants to lie down but seems restless too, drinks in sips.  Not sure about the green /yellow discharges though.  mmmm…

Neil, remember the hierarchy of symptoms?  If a case has mentals, they over-ride local symptoms like green/yellow discharge.  What about “calling around for support”?  What does that suggest to you?  Fear?  Anxiety about health?  Despair of recovery?  Desire for company?  What about pacing?  Look up Mind: restlessness, pacing.

Thanks Neil.  Is anybody else here?  Hold on, I think I see Wayne from Australia off in the distance.  Waaaay off in the distance!  Speak up, Wayne, I can hardly hear you!

 

Hi Elaine, can you hear me now?  This flu quiz is a hard one.  Coming from Australia is probably what did it.

Right, the Aussie Flu; well, you should be an expert on this!

The remedy picture and all the symptoms haven’t coalesced for me.

I repertorised the following:

Night; fever perspiration with

White; tongue, center, red stripe

Ice, general; desires

I didn’t see “desires ice” anywhere.  What I saw was that he was thirstless but occasionally took sips of cold or hot drinks.

Warm; temperature, general, desire for warmth

Thirstless. general, chill during

Noise, general, aversion to

Company, general, alone, amel; when

He actually wanted company.  He was calling around for support.

Fruit, general; desires; acid, sour

Melons, general, desires

OK, wait a minute.  What do all these fruits that he desires have in common?  They’re all “refreshing things”.  That’s the inference to be drawn here.  There can’t be only 2 remedies that desire melons!  Just Pulsatilla and Tellurium?  Really?  No way!  That’s unrealistic.  Better to take the rubric “Desires refreshing things”.  It’s in the “Food” chapter in Murphy’s.

Barking coughs

Mucous discharges, general, yellow green

Moaning, groaning,

Motion, general agg

Now, I’m asking you to think.  The patient has the flu.  Flu patients are famously prostrated.  They have no strength, probably no appetite, haven’t eaten in days, and you have to expect that they’re going to move as little as possible.  Even getting up to go to the bathroom is something they dread.  Now, can we call this “motion agg.”?  No, this is a common symptom of the flu.  In homeopathy, common symptoms won’t lead us to remedies.

Forehead, headaches, pain, general frontal eminence

Even here, nothing is quite so common in the flu as a headache.  I don’t think this is going to be of any help to us.

The two leading remedies were Phosphorus and Thuja and I would give the patient Phosphorus even though there were some gaps 6 in the 15 categories.

I will be interested to see the answer in this one.  Phosphurus is not normally an influenza remedy.

(Sigh)  Wayne.  Did you read my article on the hierarchy of symptoms and how to select rubrics in a case?

  https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/tidbits-50-repertory-round-part-4/ 

Read it again and tell me if you still think it’s Phosphorus.

Hi Elaine,

Thank you for your willingness to help me (and the rest of the homeopathic community) with my repertorising.  About the ice – I misread your statement.  You asked the patient if they want ice – I mistakenly wrote this down as the patient wants ice – must have got excited with such a clue.

Yes, that would have been a dynamite clue!

So we can rule out Phosphorus.  I am surprised that Phosphorus is a flu remedy, but in Murphy’s Disease chapter, it is mentioned in black type.

Phosphorus is a polychrest, which means you’ll find it in practically every disease!  BUT, you will find it with the usual Phosphorus keynotes and confirmatories: desire for ice cold drinks, great thirst, desire for company, better for sympathy and consolation; and, you might find that the worst part of the case is the chest, lungs, and cough.  This is why we see it so often in Pneumonia and Bronchitis.

I think I can now understand your hierarchy and I will endeavor to use it to find the remedy.  Starting with the etiology, the patient didn’t feel well and went on a long drive, to a pool party.

A long drive in slow traffic–both ways!

He participated in the swimming and drove a long way home again and fell down with the flu.  I think the cause was already in existence, so you can rule out belladonna, arnica or baptisia.

OK, wait a minute.  I think you’re confusing two issues.  We can rule out Belladonna and Baptisia because there’s no “sudden onset”, but we can’t rule them out based on “etiology” (which means “the cause”).  I actually couldn’t find a cause, such as “jumping in a cold swimming pool on a hot day”, which might have made us think of Rhus tox, but we got no information on that.  It might have been an indoor pool for all we know.  It just seemed to me that he tried to do too much.  Too much stress, too much activity, not enough rest, and I’m sure too much party food too.  There’s no single remedy tied to all that, that I know of.

Looking at common flu symptoms, we have: fever and chills, exhaustion, aches and pains, coughing – dry coughing hopefully, congestion, shortness of breath, headache, and possibly diarrhea and stomach flu.  (I hope you like my effort to spell the American way.)

Ha!

We have cough with bloody sputum , possibly a clue.  The symptoms given are pain in the eyes, droopy eyes, drowsy, dull, intermittent fever…

Be careful, that’s the word for Malaria–intermittent fever.  Maybe you mean “remittent fever”?  In an intermittent fever, the temperature alternates between fever and normal.  In remittent fever, the temperature goes up and down but never reaches normal.

sneezing, sore, throat, irritated, sluggish, perspiration, moaning, groaning, noise aversion to; all common symptoms.

Very good, but wait a minute because some of these symptoms are valuable to us.  Perspiration shows it’s not Belladonna.  Sensitive to noise might help confirm certain remedies like Phosphorus and Nux vomica.  Moaning and groaning… as a matter of fact, as soon as I hear “moaning and groaning”, I immediately suspect Arsenicum, though it could go for Nux vomica too.

Possible uncommom symptoms are, thirstlessness in a general fever, thirstless in a chill, likes warmth, nervous fidgeting, pacing, but also likes lying down.

Pretty much all sick people like lying down.  It’s significant to me that, as a sick person, he’s up pacing back and forth!

He likes fresh orange juice and melons, worse at 12 to 4am, fever better warmth, fever better shower.

I can’t find “fever better shower”.  You’d have to go to “Generals: bathing, hot bathing, amel.” 

The tongue was a specific clue, being white with a pink stripe; couldn’t find anything conclusive here except to back up a remedy.

Looking at the above, it seems like Arsenicum could be the remedy.

Yes!!!  That’s it!!!!  Now look, if you go to “Mind, restlessness, pacing”, there are only 2 remedies and one of them is Plantain (Plantago) which is in plain type, and not even a flu remedy, and the other is–Arsenicum!  So now all you have to do is ask yourself, “Is Arsenicum better warmth?  Is Arsenicum worse after midnight?  Does Arsenicum have moaning and groaning?  Is Arsenicum sensitive to noise?…And don’t forget the biggest tell-tale symptom of all: “calling around for support”, which means anxiety about health and desire for company, and you come to realize that Arsenicum covers pretty much everything in the case!

Phatak has arsenic at 12 to 4 a.m. aggravation.

Arsenic is better warmth, better showers, thirstless in a chill, thirstless during a fever, wants to move around, blood in sputum, has a white tongue.  It is also better for lying down in some circumstances and is noted for small sips of water, all of which are in play here.

Sorry about the Phosphorus diagnosis, but I’m glad you got me to look at your method more closely.

Yes.  And why?  Because we have MENTALS!  And they over-ride everything below them in the Hierarchy!  We no longer have to care about the color of his tongue or his desire for orange juice and melons and all the other stuff because we’ve got MENTALS– desire for company, anxiety about health, moaning and groaning, pacing… nothing else matters!  You see?????  Now, if the case had no mentals, no etiology, no sudden onset and no diagnosis, then we’d be all about the color of the tongue and the desire for orange juice, the kind of cough he had and so on; but, thank goodness we had a perfect image of the Arsenicum mentals; consequently, we had an easy case!  Do you see how complicated you made this case?  All the rubrics you took?

I hope I have done better this time, but if I’m wrong, I’m sure you will put me straight.

The biggest mistake people are making is they think they have to repertorize everything and the right remedy will be the one that covers all the symptoms, meaning each symptom is given equal weight, and that just isn’t true; that’s what The Hierarchy of Symptoms is all about!  Now, if we had a strong etiology, for instance “Ailments from jumping in cold water on a hot day”, we wouldn’t care what else was in the case, we would go straight for Rhus tox!  And we would expect to see the following in the case as confirmation: stiffness, better motion, better hot showers, worse at night.  And if we found that, we’d be done!

But we don’t have a reliable etiology here.  So we move down to diagnosis–gastrointestinal flu.  So already we’re thinking maybe it could be Arsenicum or Nux vomica or maybe Phosphorus… but we move down to the mental/emotionals, and there it is!  All our Arsenicum symptoms are right there!  So we don’t have to move down any further, got that?

Thank you again for your willingness to help me.

There are not many people like you, who are prepared to help others, the way you do.

You are an exception.

Well…if you say so…

You helped me greatly to understand things in a different light.

Regards, Wayne

P.S. What do you repertorise for drooping eyes? 

“Eyes: open, eyelids, half open, hard to keep open”

But, you might want to go to the Face chapter and see:

“Face: expressions, facial, besotted”–and when you see that, you want to think of Gelsemium and Baptisia.

Who else showed up here today?

 

Hi Elaine!

Hi Maria!

For this month’s quiz I vote for arsenicum.  If I am wrong I will try again.

You’re not wrong, so don’t try again!  Hey everybody, Vamsi’s in the house!!!!!

 

Hi Elaine,

This is really a Wonder quiz altogether.

The over-dosing on remedies by Wonder Brother-In-Law was quite alarming.

I know!  Thank goodness Wonder Woman told him about the Aggravation Zapper!

I somehow feel that people think that since homeopathy has no side-effects, they’re free to experiment with it.

Big mistake!  There is not enough education about proper dosing of homeopathic remedies.  I imagine a lot of people have destroyed their health by overdosing with remedies in high potency.  And even sometimes low potencies can do the same. 

ANNOUNCEMENT: If you get worse after a remedy, stop taking it! 

One dose of a 200C is enough, in most acute cases, to get a response within an hour or so.  If nothing happens after you take a 200C in an acute case, it is probably the wrong remedy, don’t keep taking it! 

Finally, if you feel really well after taking a remedy, STOP DOSING! 

Repeat only if a relapse ensues. 

And now back to Vamsi in the studio.

Thank you, Elaine.  The Net has become a source of all kinds of mis-information, ultimately helping to ruin people’s health, and it becomes an uphill task for the doctor to treat them.

But coming over to the quiz….

Wonder Brother-In-Law’s etiology is the key here.

  1. He went for a high intensity exercise ( he is not regular )

Yeah, and I have to say, I see a lot of people “working out”, going to the gym, etc. and they have no idea that such strenuous work-outs have to be supported with super-nutrition–raw foods, raw juices, high protein smoothies and Vitamin C, etc.; otherwise, it’s just another form of stress to the body! 

He also had a splash in the pool.

( Overexertion, exhaustion and body aches) – Muscle Pains

  1. Better from warm showers , massage, and warm drinks
  2. Worse noise and cold winds
  3. Anxiety and Restlessness.
  4. Mind : Irritated
  5. Desires rest.

 

This calls for our most famous remedy RHUS-TOX.

Vamsi, just about everyone thought it was Rhus tox, based, most likely, on the dip in the pool, the restlessness and better heat.  But actually, I couldn’t find a firm etiology.  To me it looked like he just did way too much out of the ordinary.  He had a long drive in heavy traffic.  Went swimming which he doesn’t normally do.  Had to keep an eye on his kid which is stressful enough without adding anything else to it!  His whole schedule was thrown off, and come to think of it, that’s probably why Wonder Woman told him to take Cocculus!  He went home and went right to bed.  Since I couldn’t find a clear etiology, I moved on to the mentals, of which there were many.  You got some of them.  But you missed “pacing”, “moaning”, and “calling around for support” which means “desire for company” and “anxiety about health”.  What do you think it is now?

Yes !!  I got it.  Its Arsenicum!

That’s it!  Well, you know what?  I lot of other people wrote but I’d just be repeating myself; so, I think I should wrap it up now.  Congratulations to our two winners–Neil and Maria!  Bye!!!  See you again next time!

————————————–

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.

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

About the author

Shana Lewis

Shana spices up the Hpathy Quiz with her timely announcements and reviews on the latest in pop culture. Her vast knowledge of music before her time has inspired the nickname: "Shanapedia"!

1 Comment

  • Thanks for helping us understand the importance of the mentals above everything else, Elaine, (when those symptoms are present). Also, I wonder if it would have helped to antidote the allopathic drugs by turning them into isopathic remedies. Would that have helped him with the bloating and itching? And I wonder if he’ll ever regain his healthy microflora after the antibiotics.

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