Clinical Cases

A Case of Headache, Stomach Upset and Thrush

Written by Sharon Foran

The author presents a case of chronic headache, stomach ache and thrush.

Presenting complaint: Headaches, Recurring Thrush & Stomach Upsets

First Consultation: 26/06/12

Female adult, age 42 – Appearance : Small, slim with black hair, conscious of her appearance, always flicking her hair back away from her face.

Presenting Complaint: A few headaches (due to sinus), stomach upsets,    recurring thrush.

Her stomach upsets started when she was 18 and so did the thrush. Her stomach then got better, but the problem returned four years ago. She feels nauseated a lot of the time and there is no set pattern. It’s like morning sickness but she never vomits. Aggr from wine in the last few years to the extent that she has practically cut out alcohol.  She can eat all types of food as this does not affect it. It usually starts in the morning and is always accompanied with headache. The stomach problem first started when she was dating a guy in college. He made her feel small and she now realises there was much mental abuse. It started when he would make reference to her being cross eyed. He used to say “Who are you looking at”. She even grew her hair so that it would cover her eyes. She says he humiliated her and she felt mortified by him. He once poured a drink over her head in front of friends.

 

Four years ago the stomach problems started all over again when she had issues with her neighbour over planning permission- to the extent that he used to spit at her if she walked near him. Now when she sees him she just smiles- she says that this shows him he is not getting to her.

She wakes up with a headache 90% of the time and feels tired. Pain is usually  over the right eye. She used to suffer from sinus problems but she got everything drained under general aesthetic (last February) and doesn’t have those pressure headaches anymore. She never had a discharge from the nose when she suffered from sinus problems and the surgeon told her he drained a lot of stuff when he did operation. The headache now stays all day, “It’s like a dull ache over my eyes extending to the top of my head.”  She takes paracetamol. She also suffers from migraines and the first one happened when she returned from USA (where she lived) 8 years ago.

The headaches got really bad six years ago during her second pregnancy, at around 20 weeks. They were so bad that she also got vertigo and ended up in hospital. Now she gets them 3-4 times a year and has to go to bed. She drinks plenty of water, and after an hour they usually pass. They are not as strong now as they used to be.

Other Complaints:

Thrush: this too started when she was 18. No pattern to it. Has tried different diets bit no change. Last year she had it three or four times and it lasted up to three weeks. She feels itchy, sometimes she feels swollen around her va-gina and sometimes when she urinates it stings. She very rarely has a discharge with the thrush, just the itch.  She used to get it around her period, but now there is no pattern. Sometimes it’s triggered if she takes an antibiotic.

Bowels: Not every day, maybe every 2-3 days but no disturbances.

Period: every 28 days. She has the Copper Coil.

Sleep: Sleep well, normally around 8 hours but wakes up feeling tired and has a fuzzy headache.

Energy: Low but she doesn’t let it get to her. She still goes to the gym and runs. She runs her own Montessori and is very busy with her children all week. She is constantly on the go with them. By Friday she feels exhausted.

 

Eyes: Had numerous operations .  It left her with chronic double vision and also left her with a squint. She has glasses now and wears them when she gets up and when she is tired.

Mental/Emotional: “ I am a worrier, my husband says I worry unnecessarily and that I’m a stress bag”. She says she worries about financial matters; they are under a lot of pressure at the moment. She feels she has to be at all of her children’s activities or else she feels guilty. Even if she is exhausted she will still go and support them.

Describe yourself: I am not a pushover. I have set up my own business from home and I won’t move because of my neighbours bullying. I push myself to the limit and sometimes I burn out- the last time was 18 months ago and then I had to take to bed for a week.

Food:  Fish, chicken, veg and fruit and berries.

Thirst:  Not really thirsty, but drinks water throughout the day. Coffee 4 cups

Vaccination: Has Flu vaccine last year and also for the last 10 years

Family History:  Mother – Arthritis, vertigo

Sister- Vertigo

Dad- Rheumatoid Arthritis, Asthma & Diabetic

Paternal Grandfather- Cancer, Stroke at 61

Paternal GrandMother- Asthma & Bronchitis

 

Other:  Patient has taken other remedies She takes Nux Vom 30c or 200c sometimes and this helps her stomach upset but not all the time.

Perception of the patient: Patient speaks freely of all problems but shows no emotion. Her stomach complaints started when she was 18 and then returned 4 years ago. When she spoke of how her ex-boyfriend humiliated her there was still no emotion – she stated this as if it was fact. She has had homeopathic treatment before but none of her problems have ever been resolved. This was one of the reasons she had the operation on her sinus, as she felt there was no other option. She is an extremely busy person but she loves this.  Her business is mainly around her children.  She doesn’t do much to relax except watch TV. Everything about her is suppressed even to the extent that when she has thrush, there is no discharge.

Methodology: In this case I am going to use the Miasmatic prescribing. My reasons for this are :

A)  Patient has had other remedies which were well indicated but had no effect.

B)   Patient has relapsed after taking the remedy which helped for a short time.

 

I feel the uppermost miasm in this case is cancer- due to the fact that all the issues she has have come about because of relationships that she has had in her life – her ex boyfriend and her neighbour. Her ailments all started due to mental and some physical abuse from her first relationship. Also she is always worrying about the future as this is specific to the Cancer miasm. There is also a family history of diabetes and cancer.

Symptom choice:

  1. Worrying constantly
  2. Humiliation
  3. Mortification
  4. Headache & Nausea
  5. Headache constant
  6. Thrush- no discharge
  7. Unrefreshing sleep

 

Repertorisation:

  1. Mind- ailments from cares, worries
  2. Mind- ailments from indignation
  3. Mind- ailments from mortification
  4. Head- pain acc by nausea
  5. Head- pain – constant, continued
  6. Female- leucorrhea- suppressed
  7. Sleep- deep- unrefreshing

Remedy differentiation:

Staphisagria scored the highest but this remedy does not cover the head pain which is felt by patient. It scored high because of the indignation and mortification .Also Staph is more angry and has angry outbursts. This patient is not an angry person. Also sleepless at night is prominent in Staph and patient has no problem sleeping. She has had Staph before when she had the thrush and it never gave any relief.

Natrum  Muriaticum would be more closed and less willing to give information about themselves. I did think of Nat Mur during the consultation as everything about the patient is suppressed- sinus no discharge and also the lack of emotion. But in Nat Mur the headache is bursting and hammering and neither fit the patient’s picture at the moment. And also the leukorrhea is not suppressed and Nat Mur patient is generally thirsty.

Nux Vomica – The patient takes Nux Vom sometimes when she is feeling very nauseous or if she has had a glass of wine, and it does help with this. And while some of the modalities of this case could easily fit Nux vomica, > lying down, > resting, <early morning, < alcohol, the generals do not fit- the patient is not quarrelsome, impatient, impulsive or irritable. And the patient does not have sleeplessness from rush of ideas.

Colocynthis-  there are no violent cutting or cramping pains with the nausea and the patients ailments are not caused from anger.

Prescription: Carcinosin Lm 2 .   5 drops every day in small amount of water.

Potency: I prescribed an LM as the patient’s energy is quite low. She is constantly tired and even though she is always on the go, this is all an effort for her.  Also because she has a constant headache “c” potency could cause an aggravation.

Follow up (1)                          02/08/12

General update: There has been a slight improvement with the headaches in that the patient does not have them every day. She says she is suffering from sinus but nothing is coming out. She feels a build up and pressure across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes. But she has no headache. No longer gets a headache every day. She says she doesn’t have a headache now only a fuzzy feeling.

 

She got vertigo (2nd week of taking remedy) but it was only for one day. She woke in the middle of the night and felt lop sided, but was able to function and when she woke up the following morning it was gone.

Last week she saw her neighbour – he stepped out behind her car and stuck his fingers up at her but she just laughed.

Nausea: This has subsided but not completely. She feels like it’s there all the time waiting to surface.

Energy:  Still low but she has been really busy running around trying to get everything organised for the family holiday- she also mentions that when on holidays she doesn’t have headaches or nauseous feeling.

Bowel: Now going every day- but when on holidays she won’t go for about a week.

Skin: She has a few spots on her forehead- started 2 weeks ago- they are red bumps under the skin. She never had spots before even as a teenager.

Perspiration: She never perspires – even when exercising.

Generals:   She loves salty food. When I asked her last time she didn’t mention salt.

Analysis

The patient is very vague about everything. She said her headaches had gone but yet she has a fussy feeling. Even her nausea is better but she still feels it there. The remedy has definitely helped as she doesn’t wake up with her headaches or have to take pain killers as she did before. And she appeared a bit more relaxed than before, even speaking more slowly. There was a slight aggravation with the appearance of the vertigo but this only lasted a day. The action of the remedy is very favourable and there have been improvement on many levels.

Prescription:   Carc LM3- to follow on from LM2. There is no need to change the remedy as it is working very well. However I also gave her Nat Mur 200 c to bring with her on holidays, as I feel that the Carc is now giving a better picture of the patient and from the consultation – her love for salty foods, suffering from prickly heat and no bowel movement for a week while on holidays- she might need it while away as an acute remedy.

Follow up 2    18/09/12

Patient contacted me on the 10/08/12- one week into her holiday. She had a cold sore , which she hasn’t had in years, and she also informed me that she had a touch of vertigo. Hadn’t had a bowel movement since being on holidays. I told her to take Nat Mur 200c and contact me again if it didn’t help. I also told her to stop the Carc LM 3.

Patient contacted me again on the 13/09/12 saying that everything had gone well on holidays- cold sore went, bowels moved, but she had woke the day before(12th) with the worst migraine in over a year and a touch of vertigo. I told her to put Nat Mur into water and succuss it and sip water until pain went.

18/09/12: Patient told me that her migraine went and that since then she has been okay. She hasn’t had any nausea except for when she had the migraine. She said it felt like morning sickness but with no vomiting.

Sleep/Energy : She says her energy levels aren’t great since she had the migraine. She is sleeping great and getting up ok but she feels tired in the afternoon.

Bowels: No pattern to it sometimes every day sometimes every second day.

Eyes: The problem with her eyes( being red) cleared up but she doesn’t remember when,.

Skin : The spots on her face cleared up

Generals: She feels guilty about the “state of her house”. Worries about financial issues. She says her Dad says she is a real worrier. I asked her how is her relationship with her father. Her answer “ I am super close with my Dad. I am very like him” . But then she says that he never says “I love you” and would not be a huggy person, but he is with her kids. She then goes on to tell me that she is really affectionate with her kids because of this.

Analysis: The patient was full of contradictions during consultation. For the first time she talked about emotion- in the form of guilt and also how she loved her sons and was affectionate with them. I get the feeling that there is a lot more emotion to surface but there is something about her that is hidden and I feel that she herself isn’t even aware of it. She said to me “I told you I was a difficult case”.

 

Nat Mur 200c, one pill in water , succussed and to be sipped till her headache passed– the same as the week before when she had the migraine. It has definitely shifted something in her but it’s work is not complete.

29/09/12 Phone call from patient. Her head was banging, she felt floored, she had no energy. She said it felt like a flu, everything was heavy, even her eyes , she couldn’t keep them open. She also had an ache in her back and all she wanted to do was lie down. I prescribed Gelsemium 30c, one dry dose and after that, one in water to be sipped till her symptoms passed. She was feeling much better later that night.

 

Follow up 3:     07/01/13

She rang me on 02/01/13 to say that she hadn’t been doing well for the last couple of weeks and could she see me.

Sinus:  From 10/12/12 she had a bit of a head cold which then turned into sinus infection which was really bad on Christmas Eve and she took Nat Mur 200c in water which relieved it a little. Her appetite had not been great.

Stomach: Said that her stomach is doing much better since the Nat Mur and she even managed to have a glass or two of wine. She had bad cramps around the 21st and felt nauseous. This lasted for two days. She is only eating a light breakfast, sometimes she forgets to eat lunch and then a light dinner in the evening.

Energy: Her energy is low at the moment. She is really tired.

 

Cough: Coughing a lot at night. When it starts its non stop. Worse for breathing in deep. She says it sounds dry, sometimes she feels as though there is stuff moving and she feels as is she is choking. The cough has been going on for nearly 4 weeks. She is getting some expectoration through both mouth and nose. She describes it as being bright green, nearly luminous, and thick and lumpy.  Expectoration is not as bad now as it was 3 weeks ago.

Throat: Felt like she had swollen glands last week but not anymore.

Thirst: She says she is fairly thirsty but not drinking enough. When she does its hot drinks she looks for.

Head: Headaches are not too bad at the moment, a little bit of what she calls pressure but she feels is due to the sinus. Nothing like before.

Mental Emotional:  I asked her if anything had happened before Christmas that upset her, and she went into a rant about her husband and how angry she was with him that he had invited nearly 30 people from his side of the family to dinner, without really consulting with her.

Analysis: Patients symptoms appeared after anger. While the Nat Mur alleviated some of the symptoms they have still continued. Her anger is very predominant now and her state of illness has been caused from vexation.

 

Prescription: Staphysagria 200c

Follow up 4:    28/01/13

Patient was not due for follow up for another week but she contacted me to see if I could see her sooner. After the Staph, most of her symptoms cleared up except the sinus. She felt a lot calmer in herself. She now felt the sinus problem was returning.

Analysis:  The fact that the Staph worked to an extent led me to the conclusion that there was a blockage which needed to be addressed. Also, she had been taking botox injections. I prescribed botulinum to eliminate the toxins from those botox injections. (Monera Kingdom Bacteria & Viruses by Frans Vermeulen)

Prescription: Botulinum 30c. Twice a week for two weeks.

Follow up phone call: I had asked the patient to ring me in two weeks time to let me know how she was doing. She said her sinus had cleared up completely and that she was doing much better.

I still have contact with this patient and she is doing rather well. She was so closed and vague in the beginning. But after the Carc there were many improvements and also I got a clearer picture as to what needed to be addressed next.

The case management went from miasmatic prescribing to the layers method. It was also very interesting for me to see my research on Botulinum come into use again and I have a feeling that there will be many cases where this remedy will be necessary due to the increased use of Botox. The patient was so happy with her treatment that she now brings her two sons to me.

 

About the author

Sharon Foran

Sharon Foran : I started using homeopathy when I lived in Italy, nearly nineteen years ago. I am a recent graduate of the Irish School of Homeopathy. I have four healthy children who are all being brought up on homeopathy and have not been vaccinated (I am very proud of this fact). I have just received my license to practice homeopathy from ISH. I am about to finish my Reiki Masters Level 3, and I am also looking at Chinese Chi Energy. Over the past year I have built a firm reputation in my homeopathic practice.

1 Comment

  • DEAR DR,
    YOUR CASE HANDLING WAS VERY GOOD. IN FACT THE PROBLEM WITH AN HOMEOPATH IS THAT THE PATIENT NEVER REVEALS MODALITIES IN CORRECT WAY. RATHER HER REVELATIONS ARE SO CONTRADICTORY THAT DR GETS PUZZLED. THE PROFESSION IS SUCH. CAN’T HELP
    THANKS

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