Plantar Wart on a Woman of 23

On 11^th November 2020 a 23-year-old unmarried girl presented with complaint of a wart on plantar surface of left great toe. She had wrapped it up with a piece of gauze since it was extremely painful. She had this complaint for the last 3 months and had taken homoeopathic treatment from another doctor (Antimonium Crudum) which had failed. The wart would itch, worse by touch and worse in winter. It felt very hard and horny while examining it. A closer look revealed it to be like a cauliflower and it pained like needles.

Thermals- Chilly patient

Appetite- good, desires for spicy things and pickles

Thirst- good

Eliminations- good

Sleep- refreshing

She was sensitive to damp weather which made her sad. She also had a tendency for growths e.g., styes on eyes, lipoma on back and scalp. Her mother had suffered from depression and had been on psychiatric medications until she expired from a myocardial infarction at age 48. Her father suffers from warts on his body. He remarried and lives separately but provides monetary support to his two daughters.

She lives with her sister. Most of the housework is done by her sister since she has to travel a lot (53kms one way). She is extremely quiet, serious look on face and avoids eye contact. When she lies down and closes her eyes to sleep, she feels there is somebody else in the room watching her. She could not identify if it was some robber or ghost or something else.

11^th November 2020

This is a one sided case. I referred to Kent’s repertory

1)Warts horny

2) Warts painful

3)Warts sensitive to touch

4) warts itching

5) Delusion specters, ghosts, spirits, sees.

Prescription: Thuja 200, 3 doses were given. November 11^th, 2020

Follow up on 30 November 2020– After taking 3 doses of Thuja pain in the wart reduced on the 3^rd day and after that she did not need to tie gauze for cushioning. . Itching stopped by the 5^th day and the wart turned hard.

On the 7^th day it began turning black. She also was developing another little wart on her right ring finger medial aspect which she had forgotten to mention before, and this wart disappeared.

So within the first week the whole external cluster of the wart dropped off. She appeared thrilled with the progress of her wart and eye contact improved, face was full of smiles. She began to mix more with her colleagues at college.

30^th November 2020

Follow up on 11 December 2020– She came very excitedly to show me that there was no sign of plantar wart left. Her faith in homoeopathy deepened.

11^th December 2020

Warts can be psoric, sycotic or syphilitic/tubercular. Psoric warts are itching, sycotic ones are flat, hard or cauliflower-like and syphilitic/tubercular warts are hairy and bleed easily. Hahnemann classified warts under local affections, not caused by traumas (Aphorisms 189-190).

Suppressing sycotic warts is also known to give rise to organic heart disease. Removing syphilitic warts can lead to serious complications as happened to my other patient who had surgery for a bleeding wart from his back and shortly was detected suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The aim of therapy is not in first instance to make the symptoms disappear but to understand what happens inside.

We are told that the Thuja tree loves to abide in wet, swampy places, and its habitat extends from Pennsylvania northwards to Canada. It is not by accident that the symptoms and conditions of this drug are brought out on or made worse by exposure to wet and dampness.

Grauvlogl listed Thuja in his hydrogenoid group which contains remedies like Calc, Dulc, Nat-s, Rhus-t., all having aggravation from cold wet weather. Thuja is generally a left sided remedy and patients may seem very serious by appearance.                                                                                                                                                                                                     They live a secluded, mysterious life, preferring to live alone and afraid of marrying. Seasonal depression in winter is also a well known aspect of this remedy. The feeling of being watched is described in Kent’s materia medica as well as the idea that the soul and body are separated.