Case Quizes Clinical Cases

Revisiting: Headache, Worse Yelling and Cheering!

Written by Elaine Lewis

Headache ruins softball game, did you guess the remedy? Scroll down for the answer.

Hello everybody, and welcome to the Hpathy Quiz!

Well, Mom… it has come to my attention that you have never seen “The Little Mermaid”.

I haven’t? And this is going to matter to our Quiz audience because……????? (and P.S., no one cares!)

This actually has some relevance to the Death Report.

Oh.  The Death Report!  Well, that’s different.  Never mind!

Last month I was saddened to read that a voice actor named Samuel E. Wright passed away.  He performed the role of Sebastian the Crab in “The Little Mermaid”, best known for the songs, “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl”.

So you’re saying that Sebastian the Crab died.  Well, that is a shame.  Is that it?

We also lost another member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as “The Swampers”.  This time it was drummer, Roger Hawkins, who Jerry Wexler (Atlantic Records exec) called “the greatest drummer of all time”!

Oh, wow!

He was 75.  He played on so many great songs that it would take ages to name them all but a few of them were: “When a Man Loves a Woman” (Percy Sledge), “Respect” (Aretha Franklin), “Mustang Sally” and “Land of 1,000 Dances” (Wilson Pickett), “Tell Mama” (Etta James)…

I loved “Tell Mama” by Etta James!

What was the name of that famous studio in Muscle Shoals where all those great songs were made?  Was it FAME?

The Swampers

 

Oh, and apparently Roger Hawkins played on three of Glenn Frey’s solo albums.

Oh for heaven’s sake!  More updates on Glenn Frey’s death?

It’s just an observation I thought worth mentioning.

Well, don’t look now, but, those albums went nowhere!  And P.S., no one knows who Glenn Frey is!

Maybe Linda Santini?  But I do miss him.

He’s been dead for 5 years!!!!

The Eagles aren’t the same without him.

They’ve got his son, Deacon!  Do you have anymore deaths to announce?

Remember when I announced the passing of Diana Rigg (‘Lady Holiday’ from the “Great Muppet Caper”)?  Well, last month we lost her co-star, Charles Grodin, who played her brother Nicky Holiday.

 

Charles Grodin, Diana Rigg

(“He’s an irresponsible parasite with categorically nooooooo prospects!”)

RIP, Charles Grodin! 

Who’s in the Quiz this month?

It’s Toni Tortellini again.

Toni Tortellini????  Did you say “Toni Tortellini”?  (I just like saying “Toni Tortellini”)

Yes, it’s Toni Tortellini!!!!  This time she’s got a headache.

____________________________________

Elaine, you might appreciate this happening from yesterday.  I was developing a headache yesterday afternoon.  It started in my left temple and across my forehead and eyes.  At my daughter’s softball game, it got windy and chilly.  I was bundled up, but every time I yelled and cheered, my headache got worse.  By the time I got home, it was pounding and was in both temples.

It sounds like an unmitigated horror!

I rested on the couch, bundled up in blankets, recovering from the cooler weather, trying to visit with my family.  “Rotini” was here for the weekend!

Yay!!!

I thought I was getting better, but by 8pm, I needed to go to bed and lie down.  My head was throbbing and I was nauseous.  I was at the point now where I really couldn’t move, and the family was all at the other end of the house.  Then I was in tears.  Finally, I got the attention of “Ravioli” who had gone into the kitchen.  I was kind of pathetic by this point, so she went and got everyone else.  “Vermicelli” got me another cool headache “pillow”.

What’s a cool headache pillow?

This is the idea.  https://joybileefarm.com/diy-lavender-eye-pillow/  We have three of various types and keep them in the freezer to use for headaches.  Some are made with elastic so you can strap them around your head.

Sounds very useful.

“Calzone” wanted to take my temperature even though we told him I had cold on my forehead, haha.  “Rotini” offered me an Advil, but I said, “No, not yet.  Go get the homeopathy book and start reading under ‘Headache’.”  I told her to read up on a certain remedy:  ___________________.

I was going for that too.

I couldn’t really think, but I told them that one.  “Mezzelune” gave me a dry dose of ________________ 30C.  In just minutes I felt relief!

No kidding!  Wow!  That’s amazing!

I calmed down…

Note how the mentals always come first!

…then the throbbing and nausea stopped.

Well, looks like we got a quiz for June!!!!!

___________________________________

OK, everybody, that’s it!  Do you know what the remedy was?  If so, write to me at [email protected].  The answer will be in next month’s ezine.

Bye-bye!
————————–

Votes:

Hepar sulph.

Aconite-2

Phosphorus

Bryonia

Belladonna-2

Coffea

Sepia

________________

I didn’t think this quiz would be so hard!  OK, who wants to go first?

Hi Elaine, I thought I might as well make an educated guess at the Quiz this time.

Yes, by all means!

I think the remedy is Hepar Sulph.

Reason: Headache from exposure to cold wind (ACON, CAUST, HEP, NUX, RHUS-T)

Worse: dry cold winds; cool air (CAUST, HEP)

Better: Wrapping warmly, Warmth (HEP)

So, Hepar sulph seems most suitable.

Best,

Guru Charan

Guru, you left out “throbbing”, a keynote of Belladonna.  Hepar is only a 1 under “Headache: throbbing”.  Belladonna is a 4!  There aren’t that many 4’s in the Repertory, so, when you see a remedy that’s BOLD and underlined, you gotta figure it’s REALLY highly indicated!

 

Oh look, it’s the ever-popular Linda Santini…!!!!!

Hi Elaine,

I happily read your column about Toni Tortellini.  🙂

Yes, I saw your vote in the Comments section.

And, hahahahaha– it’s funny to see you referenced me not once, but twice!

Linda, there aren’t too many people who know what the heck Shana is talking about!

Mike didn’t understand the first joke – he figured everybody knew who Glenn Frey was!

He and Shana will get along just fine!  I saw your vote for Aconite (ailments from cold/dry winds) in the Comments section.  Well, good guess, Linda, but, we’re really not sure that that was the cause of her headache.  She said she had been developing a headache that day and that it got worse at the softball game because of both the yelling and screaming and possibly the cold weather as well.  Once she got home, she actually thought she was perhaps recovering; but then, suddenly, everything went bad, she had to go to her room and lie down and at that point her headache was throbbing!  Well, only 2 remedies score highest for that (Bold/underlined): Belladonna and Glonoine, and the way you tell the difference between the two?  Glonoine is actually better for the cold, and worse for warmth.  Toni, on the other hand, wanted covers.  See an old quiz of mine called “Christmas Headaches” to see a Glonoine headache:

 

Revisiting: Christmas Headaches!

 

So, “throbbing headache” is a keynote of Belladonna, it should be your first thought, just as it was Toni’s first thought, even though she said she could hardly think at all, but she knew enough about Belladonna, apparently.  And the other thing is, Belladonna headaches are extreme.  No one with a Belladonna headache can go about his or her normal routine.  Usually the people who are with the Belladonna patient are frightened by how bad it is, just as the daughter in this case went to get the whole family after seeing her mother in bed.  If you want to see another Belladonna headache?  Click below:

 

Revisiting: Homeopathy in the Middle of the Night

 

Thanks for voting!!!

 

Oh my goodness, it’s my soul brother from Italy, Peter Dunseith!

Hi Elaine! It’s your old friend Peter.

Peter, where have you been??????

I’m now living in the land of pizza and pasta, so I really enjoyed the names you chose for this quiz case!

Grazie.

La Signora Tortellini has an acute pounding (pulsating) headache in both temples, accompanied by nausea.

I’m not sure how much to make of the nausea, Peter.  It’s called a “sick headache”.  Very common.

The headache came on rapidly, aggravated by exposure to a cold wind while cheering on her daughter’s softball team.  On repertorising, these symptoms indicate Belladonna, Phosphorus or Bryonia. I could not find any symptom in the repertory about an aggravation from cheering and yelling.

I couldn’t either, so I picked “worse talking”.  It was the best I could do, though I’m not really sure it’s the same thing.

But all three remedies are aggravated by noise.  With Belladonna (the obvious choice), I would expect to see some other keynote symptoms like fever, hot head and cold extremities, aversion to light or thirstlessness.

Well, wait a minute, Peter, hold on!  She didn’t fill out my questionnaire!  If she had…she might have answered my Thirst question with “No thirst”, might have answered the modalities question with “worse from light” and I would have to assume that she might well have had cold extremities since she was wrapped up in a blanket.

So, here’s the thing, patients don’t know what we want!  It would never occur to the average person to say, “I have a pounding headache with no thirst and cold feet!”  Who talks like that?  Who would say that except another homeopath?  So when you see stuff missing from a case?  You can’t assume that it’s not there!

In the absence of any other confirmatory symptoms, I don’t think this is a case for Belladonna.

But this was the mistake you made!  Because in the absence of a questionnaire, and the person just rattling off their symptoms, they may not notice that they’re not thirsty, or that their feet are cold or that we’d even care about these things!

Bryonia is a seductive choice, because Ms. Tortellini needed to lie down and ‘really couldn’t move’.

Well, don’t look now, but, Belladonna is worse motion too!

HOWEVER the factor that really decides the remedy selection for me is her emotional state.  She is ‘at the other end of the house’ from the rest of the family.  This reduces her to tears.

Whoa!  Wait a minute. That’s pure speculation.  We don’t know why she’s crying.  I assumed she was “crying from the pain”.  Do we really know which one it is?  Ideally, a homeopath would have asked, “Why, exactly, were you crying?”  Since we don’t know, we should probably just skip over that symptom.

She is clearly feeling isolated and missing the company of her family.  The worst part of the headache is that it has forced Toni to leave the company of the family and go off alone to her bedroom.  Finally, she gets everyone’s attention, and she loves being made a fuss of.  THIS IS NOT BRYONIA, who wants to be left completely alone.

I agree, probably not Bryonia; but, I’m not sure that we have any evidence to suggest that she’s missing her family or enjoys being fussed over.  After all, the whole family came because “Ravioli” saw her mother, panicked, and called everyone!  The headache is overwhelming, so overwhelming that she could no longer stay in company and had to go lie down in her bedroom and ultimately, she couldn’t even move!  The nausea itself is overwhelming.  When you’re nauseous, it’s hard to think or care about anything else–about your family, how much you love them, how much they love you, and so on.

Phosphorus desires company and consolation.  After taking the remedy, she first and foremost ‘calms down’ – the emotional state is most important to her.

No, “calming down” is what everyone does after the correct remedy is given, it’s what you expect to see, that the patient has calmed down; it tells you that you’ve given the right remedy and all will be well.  Since healing takes place from the inside out (Hering’s Law), you expect to see the mental/emotionals return to normal first.  Then didn’t she say the nausea and throbbing resolved next?  Perfect example of Hering’s Law in action.

So this looks to me like PHOSPHORUS!  I can really imagine a Phosphorus constitutional type keeping cool headache pillows in the freezer.  It reminds me how Phosphorus likes to drink freezing cold water.  So, my choice is Phosphorus.

You know, she didn’t ask for water when the family was there, which kind of puts us off of Phosphorus.  I should also add that desiring cold compresses on the head during a headache is another common headache symptom and therefore, we can’t use it.  So, Peter, when you said that Belladonna was the obvious choice?  You were right!  Remember that Belladonna complaints are extreme and intense.  You can’t go about entertaining guests, etc., with a Belladonna headache; you just can’t do it.

Thanks for the quiz and your ever-encouraging lessons in homeopathy.

You are soooo welcome!!!

Big hugs to you and Shana,

Same to you.  And come back soon!

Peter

 

Who’s next?

Hi Elaine and Shana!

Hi Maria!!!

For this month my vote goes to Bryonia.  If I am wrong I will try again.

You’re wrong so try again!

Ok, my second guess is Belladonna.  I am terrible at guessing headache remedies!

Yes, Belladonna is it!  All you have to remember is, “throbbing”.  Throbbing is a Belladonna word.  Just like “tight” is a Rhus tox word.  And Belladonna is worse motion and also worse cold dry winds; however, though Glonoine also has throbbing headaches, Glonoine is not worse for cold!  In fact, Glonoine is better for cold, worse for heat.  Bye, Maria, thanks for voting!

 

I think I see the gang from Slovakia!

Hello, Elaine and Shana,

Hello Miroslav and Jitka!

Here are our regular answers to your quiz.

OK, I’m ready if you are.

Miroslav votes for Aconitum and says as follows:

So I looked at it, but somehow more and more I got tangled up in three remedies:

Acon., Bell., Glon.  The last two have severe pounding pain in temples, they are also ameliorated by cold compresses.  I therefore focused (according to Elaine’s advice) on the etiology: exposure to cold wind and I was left with  Aconitum.  So…that is what I am voting for.

Oops!  You know what?  Belladonna is in BOLD under “cold winds agg.”!  So, you can’t use that to settle the issue.  But here’s the other problem, we really have no etiology!  Look, here’s what she says:

“I was developing a headache yesterday afternoon.  It started in my left temple and across my forehead and eyes.  At my daughter’s softball game, it got windy and chilly.  I was bundled up, but every time I yelled and cheered, my headache got worse.  By the time I got home, it was pounding and was in both temples.”

“Developing a headache yesterday afternoon.”  What does that sound like to you?  It sounds like a headache was “developing”–we’re not sure why!  No reason is given!  But, once out in the cold windy weather, it got worse; meaning … what you thought was an etiology was actually a modality: “worse cold/windy weather”.  She implied the weather was a factor; but what she was really sure about was that every time she yelled, the headache got worse!  Now, unfortunately, there’s no rubric “Headache: worse yelling/shouting”.  So, this forces us to think!!!!!  What is it about yelling that’s so aggravating?

I think that a person would experience yelling as a “vibration” in the head.  Do you think so too?  If you’re alone, you can try yelling and see what that feels like in your head and imagine you were in pain at the same time.

I can remember back to Robin Murphy’s lectures.  He said Kent would come into the sick room and bump into the bed to see if that made the patient worse!  What was he trying to see?  To see if the patient was worse for “jarring” or “worse a jar”, as they say in the Repertory.  What is a “jar”?  It’s like a “vibration”, as Robin explained it.  So we go to our “Headache” chapter in Murphy’s, and we scroll down to “jar”, and that eliminates Aconite because it’s not there; but, we’ve still got Belladonna and Glonoine, but Glonoine does not want to be covered!  In fact, Glonoine is NOT worse for being cold!  That is a good differentiation between Belladonna and Glonoine!  So that means we can eliminate Glonoine as a possibility.  So what are we left with?  Well, I think Jitka’s got it right, see below.

Jitka votes for Belladona and says as follows:

In this case, there were three significant symptoms: suddenness, exposure to cold, and excitement. I have on my mind two remedies for the sudden onset of complaints caused by the cold: Aconite and Belladonna.  In my notes I found such comment as follows on Belladonna that convinced me to vote for this remedy.

Belladonna is a remedy characterised by great intensity and vividness.  Great emphasis is placed on the suddenness of conditions.  They are emotive more than anything else. The headaches are rarely mild and nagging but severe, throbbing and bursting.  This remedy may be induced by numbers of different factors, especially heat or cold or excitement which may cause ill symptoms to appear.  Also in the chapter, a rubric: Headaches: pain, temples, stretching from temple to temple, there is only remedy in bold –BELLADONA.

Jitka, you are right about Belladonna.  That’s a great rubric you found, I didn’t see it!  Headaches: pain, temples, stretching from temple to temple.  Excellent!  So, she actually had a Belladonna headache right from the start, even before going out in the cold or yelling at the ballpark!

 

Hey everybody, Vamsi’s in the house!!!!!

Dear Elaine,

So I went in the Repertory under

Headache – > Temple to Temple – I see Belladonna in Bold.

Incredible!  That’s what Jitka just said!  Wow, good for you for finding that rubric!

And the following also go along with it

– Sudden and Violent

– She Rested on the bed and could not move (motion aggravates)

– Bundled in blankets ( Cold aggravates )

I would vote for BELLADONNA .

Pls let me know.

You are correct!!!!

Elaine, I did select Belladonna at first instant, but really wanted to see how to go about the Repertory.

In truth, you don’t necessarily need the repertory for this case.

“Throbbing” = Belladonna

Especially if they’re worse cold and motion and want to be kept warm.

If you were there with her, you might have checked for confirmatory Belladonna symptoms like cold feet, hot head, dilated pupils, glassy eyes (assuming she could even open her eyes, and, I’m guessing she couldn’t), worse light and noise, thirstless.  You might have checked to see if the bedroom was completely dark and her position–Belladonna is better sitting up, worse lying flat; so, maybe she was propped up by pillows.

Awaiting for your next quiz as always.

Cheers

Vamsi.

 

Hey everybody, look what I found on youtube: a fun lecture on Belladonna for those who might be interested:

 

 

And one more thing, you have no idea how many hit records Roger Hawkins and his fellow Swampers played on, but, to give you an idea, here’s an interview with The Swampers, including Roger, that took place…oh geez…quite a few years ago, it looks like.  (I’m thinking Mike Santini might want to see it, not to mention Peter Dunseith!)

And now, it’s time to say Congratulations to our two winners:

Vamsi and Jitka, come on down!  You won the June Quiz!!!!!

Good-bye!  See you again next time!


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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