Revisiting: COVID Case #2

Hello everybody, and welcome to the hpathy quiz!  We’ll get started right away; but first…well, you guessed it, it’s my daughter Shana with her earth-shattering announcements.  Take it away, Shana!  And keep in mind we have a train to catch!

We do not!  OK, everybody, we have quite the Death Report this month!  Did you ever think we’d be living in a world without Charlie Watts?

No, I never thought about it.

He died last month at age 80.

Shana, don’t look now, but, no one knows who Charlie Watts is!

He’s the drummer for the Rolling Stones!

We should have known it had something to do with the Rolling Stones!

Who is “we”?

Me and the listening audience!

He was expected to sit out the makeup dates for the Rolling Stones tour that was cancelled due to covid.  Apparently he had some sort of procedure involving his heart and the next thing I knew, he was dead!

I wonder if he was vaccinated?  It wouldn’t surprise me.  The vaccine is causing a lot of cardio-vascular issues.  See this month’s “Tidbits”.

I can’t imagine the Rolling Stones without him, but they have a pretty interesting choice of drummers sitting in for him.

Were you aware that Steve Jordan was a member of the Saturday Night Live band and the Letterman band?  He’s also already affiliated with the Stones in a way.  He was a member of X-Pensive Winos (a side project of Keith Richards’ and other solo work of his.)  He also played drums on their 1986 album “Dirty Work” along with another guy when Charlie couldn’t be there.

Don’t look now, Shana, but, no one cares about Steve Jordan.

This year also happens to be the 40th Anniversary of “Tattoo You”, a new edition of the album is being released next month with 9 never-before heard songs.  “Start Me Up” was the big single from that album and here it is now!  (You can really hear Charlie’s drumming good but that might be because this song got remastered.)

No one cares, Shana!

This year was also the 50th Anniversary of another Stones album “Sticky Fingers”, which is notable for the track “Brown Sugar.”  It was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound in Alabama, you know, the studio we’ve been writing a lot about lately where so many great songs were recorded, like “Respect” by Aretha Franklin?  I’d play it but I’m trying to keep my announcements short and it’s one of their more scandalous songs, anyway. “Brown Sugar”, not “Respect”.

You’re trying to keep your announcements short, did you say?  Is that what you’re doing?  Half our audience is gone already!  They left when you launched into Steve Jordan’s extra-curricular work for Keith Richards!  There’s no one here now but Alan and Linda Santini!

What about Maria?  This is her case after all.

I’m pretty sure I just saw Maria leave with her niece, “Patty Pepperoni”, which is really unfortunate because we also lost one of the Everly Brothers!

Yes, Don Everly, at age 84.  He was the last surviving of the Everly Brothers after Phil passed away in 2014.

You know what’s interesting?  They didn’t really get along and didn’t speak to each other outside of collaborating over music.  But their distinctive voices were rock ‘n’ roll legend!  Everything they did was a hit, so much so that I don’t even know which one of their records to play!

Play the one Carole King wrote. “Crying In The Rain”.  By the way, Don is the one on the right.  He always sings the solo part in all their songs:

Bye, Don and Phil, we love you.

Last month we also lost Ed Asner, “Lou Grant” from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

He played Mary’s boss at TV station WJM.

They worked in the newsroom and were saddled with a conceited and incompetent anchor man named Ted Baxter.  Ed also provided the voice of a Newspaper editor in a Simpsons episode, the one where Homer becomes a food critic.  Apparently the character was tailored after “Lou Grant”.

Here is Ed Asner as Mr. Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which happens to be a comedy classic and one of my most favorite shows ever!  In this clip, Mr. Grant bemoans the drop in the ratings of their 6 o’clock News show, intimating that Ted is the reason why.  (Who else?)

Good-bye, Ed, we will miss you!

We’ve got another covid case for you to solve this month, courtesy, once again, of Maria!  This time it’s her niece, “Patty Pepperoni”.  Maria, are you there?

_________________

Hi Elaine, yes, we’re back!

I am writing to inform you about my other case of “covid”.

Yay!!!!

My niece, “Patty Pepperoni”, 23 years old, called me and told me that she tested positive (self test) for COVID 19.  She was feeling mild weakness, heaviness in head, pain in left lung, no cough, very dry inside of nose, thirstless, sleepiness, nausea.  She could eat only toast (just the bread with nothing on it) otherwise she would vomit.

Good lord!  Another covid case presenting as a stomach flu!  This is why I cannot go along with all the articles I’ve been reading claiming to know what the remedy is for COVID 19, “The remedy for Covid is Bryonia!” … “The remedy for Covid is Camphora!” and so on.  As you can see, the only way you can tell what the remedy is, is by taking the case!

I gave her _____________ 200C in a bottle of water (she knows how to dose).  The next day she was feeling great and tested negative 🙂

Wow, tested negative!  There’s proof for you!  You hit it out of the park again, Maria!

Her boyfriend, they are staying in the same house, also tested positive, had the same symptoms and took ____________ too and he felt great the next day, and tested negative also.

This will make a great quiz!

I wasn’t very sure about _______________ but thankfully it worked like a charm!

______________________

Thanks, Maria!  Alright, everybody, do you know which remedy Maria gave?  Write to me at [email protected] and let me know.  The answer will be in the October ezine.

Bye-bye!

---

Votes

Gelsemium-2

Belladonna

Phosphorus-2

Pulsatilla-4

Lachesis-2

Nat-sulph.

We’re back!  Who wants to go first?

Hi Elaine,

My guess for Patty Pepperoni’s remedy is Gelsemium.

You’re right!!!!!

It fits with weakness, head heavy, no cough, dry inside of nose, thirstless, and sleepiness.

Yes, quite so!  I simply saw:

1. Influenza, stomach (there’s no covid rubric so this is as close as we can get. They’re both viruses.)
2. Heavy head
3. sleepiness and
4. thirstless

Making Gelsemium the easy and most obvious choice.

The pain in the left lung and the nausea/vomiting are not outstanding in Gelsemium’s picture but I chose it because it fits 6 of the 8 symptoms so well.

Thanks for voting!

Thanks,

Mary K.

We have another new participant with us today.  Cavr Rao, come on down!

Hi Elaine,

I think it is

BELLADONNA

Cavr, we have a very sparse case here:

She was feeling mild weakness, heaviness in head, pain in left lung, no cough, very dry inside of nose, thirstless, sleepiness, nausea.  She could eat only toast (just the bread with nothing on it) otherwise she would vomit.

Let’s list the elements of the case:

1. head, heavy
2. pain, left lung
3. nose, dry
4. thirstless
5. sleepy
6. nauseous

What would we expect to see in a Belladonna case?

1. Head, bursting/throbbing
2. thirstless
3. agitated

Belladonna is in bold for nose, dry; nausea, and in italics under thirstless and head, heavy; but these symptoms are not sufficiently characteristic.  If I said to you, “OK, everybody, guess the remedy: dry nostrils, heavy head, nausea, thirstless.  What is it?”  No one would be sure, it’s a vague remedy picture.

But if I said, “OK, everybody, guess the remedy: heavy head, thirstless, sleepy.  What is it?”  Everyone knows!  It’s Gelsemium!

Here is Murphy’s Materia Medica under Gelsemium:

<MEDICAL>

Gelsemium centers its action upon the muscles and motor nerves. In muscles it causes overpowering  aching, tiredness, heaviness, weakness and soreness  especially felt in the muscles of the limbs. General prostration.  Dizziness, drowsiness, dullness and trembling.  Complete relaxation and prostration.  Apathetic and dull . Slow pulse, tired feeling, mental apathy.

There you have it.  And of course, Gelsemium is our famous remedy in thirstlessness.  Why did I leave out nausea?  Every remedy has it!  500 remedies!  Pain in left lung?  50 remedies.  It’s not characteristic—except for Phosphorus!  But since our patient is not thirsty, we have to reject Phosphorus.  Dry nostrils is also not characteristic with nearly 150 remedies.

Thanks for voting!

Hi Elaine,

Hey it’s Lori D from NYC!

Based on Patty’s symptoms my guess is Phosphorous.

If I’m wrong, I will try again.

Hi Lori!  It can’t be Phosphorus because Maria was very clear that Patty was thirstless.

Ah yes, no thirst. It would have to be Gelsemium then.

Yes, it is Gelsemium.  You know, “thirst” is very important information for us.  None of us should ever be satisfied until we’ve gotten to the part about the patient’s thirst, because a thirstless patient puts us in one category while a thirsty patient puts us in another.  Remember that quiz show, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”?  Remember their multiple choice questions: A, B, C and D?  If you didn’t know the answer, you could ask for a “life line”.  You say you wanted to see which answer the audience picked, you could phone a friend, or you could have half the answers eliminated.  This is what “Thirst” does for us.  It eliminates half the answers just by knowing whether the patient is thirsty or thirstless.  And even then, we may want to dig a little bit deeper if the patient is thirsty and say, “Thirsty for what?  How often?  For sips or gulps?  Do you want ice?”  If they say they’re thirstless, is it that they want to drink but they’re just afraid to?  Find out why.  Our rabies remedies, like Belladonna, can be thirsty but have an aversion to water, or the sound of running water.  And we might also want to know if their present level of thirst is the same as normal; in which case, their thirst won’t help us.  So, lots to think about regarding thirst, but we have to know it.

Thank you so much. This was so helpful and to be honest, Gelsemium was my first guess but I somehow talked myself out of it. I remember one of my teachers said that gels was the “drowsy, droopy, dull” presentation picture but I could not remember the thirst aspect. I can see how that question alone can eliminate so many remedies right off the bat.

Yes, very much so.

Could you also say that someone (I’ll use myself as an example) who is always warm to hot would most likely never be given a remedy for someone who is chilly?  Just curious but wouldn’t that also eliminate half the remedies as well.  And then you could hone in on 2-3 other symptoms or concomitants that would give you the best remedy in a quick amount of time?

Go to my website

https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com

and click on “Acute Case Questionnaire”.

You’ll see the question that asks about body temperature, also if there are any body parts that are particularly warmer or colder than usual.  The whole point of my questionnaire is to whittle down the remedy choices based on thirst, temperature, appetite and so on until you’re left with only a few remedies to choose from.  However, remember that etiology can over-rule all of this.  For example, “ailments from fright”–Aconite.  “Ailments from blunt trauma”–Arnica.  You scarcely need to know anything else.

The thing with body temperature is, you have to make sure that you’re not prescribing on their normal state.   If they’re always hot, and they’re also hot during their acute illness, then looking for hot remedies like Sulphur isn’t really going to help you.  But if they’re normally chilly people and now they’re hot?  You sure wouldn’t want to give them Arsenicum or Gelsemium, both of which are very cold.  So body temperature does play an important role, just be sure it’s not their normal state–unless you’re taking a constitutional case, in which case it would definitely matter.

Wow, thank you so much. I really appreciate all your expertise!!

You’re welcome, bye Lori!

Another new quiz participant, Dr. Rupali Nimje Waghmare!  Come on down!

Hello, Elaine; my answer is Phosphorus 200 C.

Hello Dr. Rupali Nimje Waghmare.  It can’t be Phosphorus because Patty is thirstless.  Phosphorus is a very thirsty remedy!  Thirsty for ice cold drinks.  However, sometimes you’ll find Phosphorus not drinking in a case and you will make a mistake and prescribe a thirstless remedy; but Phosphorus knows that if he drinks he will vomit as soon as his cold drinks turn warm in the stomach.  So be sure to ask your thirstless patients, “Why aren’t you drinking?”  You know, Baptisia is a very thirsty flu remedy; but, like Gelsemium, they are very apathetic.  They want things but don’t ask for them!  They’re in kind of a stupor.  So if you were to ask Baptisia, “Do you not want anything to drink?”  They’ll say, “No, I do, I’m thirsty, thanks!”  You may think they’re hot because they’re uncovered.  It turns out that their cover fell off and they were too apathetic to reach for it and pick it up.  So, remember to always ask “Why?”  You just can’t assume anything.

Don’t look now but I think I see the gang from Slovakia coming!

Hello, Elaine and Shana,

Hello Miroslav and Jitka!

We send our contributions to the September quiz:

Miroslav´s solving  – Pulsatilla

Well, again, an interesting case where I was most interested in the symptom: no thirst.

At first I thought of Gelsemium, also because of the pain in the left side of the lungs, but I thought that fatigue and weakness would be much more intense in this remedy.  Plus, she doesn’t have a problem with eating, Phatak writes that he has no appetite, but can eat. That’s why I choose another drug – without thirst—Pulsatilla.  It is also in the rubric: Diseases, influenza, stomach, even in bold.  She has an aversion to food with nausea, a severe head and most importantly she is not thirsty.

Jitka´s solving- Pulsatilla

Although this time I do not hope at all that I decided on the right remedy, I will at least try.

According to your indications, I had to chose among two most important symptoms for me – Diseases, flu, stomach flu and Lungs, pain on the left side of the lungs.

Based on these two symptoms, I should choose between Phosp and sulph, because these two remedies are in the Chapter:  Lungs; pain, left side,  unfortunately both remedies are thirsty.

That’s why I had to choose between other stomach flu remedies that aren’t thirsty; the most well-known, which are Puls. and Gelsemium.  I thought for a long time which of these two drugs it could be, but i decided on symptom that the patient could only eat dry toast, and as I know, Pulsatila has problems with a fatty and rich diet.  Gelsemium is a left-sided medicine and Pulsatilla has pain while lying on the left side.  I thought for a long time and decided on Pulsatila because she could only eat plain toast.

Ok, well, your second choice was right: Gelsemium.  What are the elements of the case?

Thirstless

Sleepiness

Heaviness

Stomach flu

Doesn’t that look like Gelsemium?  You know, if she’s got a stomach flu, she’s bound to be throwing up, we can’t make too much of an issue over what she’s throwing up and what she isn’t.  It’s a miracle she can eat anything at all.  And the lung pain rubric seems to favor Phosphorus, but since she’s thirstless, we know it can’t be that.  So, I decided that the lung pain rubric was not going to help us.

And besides, just between you and me, if someone’s got the flu or flu-like illness, and you’re between Gelsemium (our most famous flu remedy) and Pulsatilla, which I’ve actually NEVER given for the flu, which one is it more likely to be?  Sometimes we just have to use common sense.

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

Dear Elaine..

Happy Navaratri, the 9 Days of Goddess worship…

Wow, is it Navaratri again already???  Where does the time go?

Back to your interesting Quizzes….yahoo….!!

It’s soo nice to read back your explanation of the last quiz and try out a new one.  So much of learning with fun…

I think learning is fun too!

Yeah!!  Let me try this out

–  Heaviness of Head

– Pain in left Lung ( left sided symptoms)

– Very Dry inside Nose

– thirstless ( a key symptom )

– Nausea

– Eat only Toast and nothing on it else would vomit

Here the Thirstlessness , Dryness , Pain in left lung ..hints at Pulsatilla

Eating only Toast and nothing on it else would vomit, this also proves that Fatty food disagrees and eating would induce vomiting.

SO I feel this is a pure Pulsatilla Case.

You landed on Pulsatilla becuz you left out “sleepiness”!

Nausea’s not gonna help us becuz it’s a stomach virus, and as such, nausea is inevitable.  It’s common, in other words.  Not characteristic.  If you take the rubric, “Clinical: influenza, stomach” (Murphy’s Repertory), nausea is understood.

Heaviness of the head, yes, that’s good.

Left-sided symptoms might be of help.

“Fatty food disagrees, therefore, it must be Pulsatilla”: She’s got a stomach virus, Vamsi, every food is gonna disagree!  It’s a miracle she can eat anything!  You can’t make an issue out of “which” food is disagreeing, and we don’t even know what that is!  What if she puts jam or jelly on her bread?  That might suggest that sweets disagree.  We weren’t told what was being left off of her bread.  People put all kinds of things on bread and call it a “sandwich”.  Maybe that’s what she was referring to, we don’t know.

Now, basically, Vamsi, we need a “Flu” (stomach virus) remedy that’s:

Sleepy, heavy and thirstless.

I don’t think the lung pain or dry nose do anything to clarify the picture.  If anything, left-sided lung pain points to Phosphorus, but, we can’t use Phosphorus because the patient is thirstless.  Dry nose is not a characteristic symptom.  It’s a local symptom and is not going to over-rule the Generals we’ve collected anyway: Sleepy, Heavy and Thirstless.  Remember the Hierarchy Of Symptoms!

Your Genius thoughts please..😊

Well….what do you think now?

Yes, understood!!  Generals Rule!!!

Sleepy, heavy and thirstless. –

it prompts me of GELSEMIUM

Is it ??

Yes!!!!

Cheers,

Vamsi.

We have another new contestant: Monika Mukherjee, come on down!

Hi, Elaine.  I’m voting for Gelsemium: heavy head, no thirst.

Heavy head is very good and so is no thirst.  The one Gelsemium keynote you left out was sleepiness.  But yes, it was Gelsemium!

Oh yes!  Forgot to mention sleepiness and lethargy that comes with it!!  Yay!!  Thanks so much 🙂

Monika

Alagesan Kuttiannan says Lachesis, probably because of its left-sidedness, but, Lachesis is not a flu remedy and especially not a stomach flu remedy, so, we’re kind of put off of Lachesis right from the start.

I think we might have just enough time for one more quiz answer.  Yael from Israel, come on down!

Yes, I would say Nat-Sulph since I have NO other lead, the only key in the game is the pain in the left lungs, the other ones are either mild or too common….

Yael

Yael, Nat-sulph. is not a flu remedy.  So right away we are disinclined to choose it.  The remedy is Gelsemium.  First of all, Gelsemium is the only “4” listed under “influenza” in the Repertory.  4 means it’s bold/underlined, the highest score you can get!  So, it should pretty much be our first thought whenever we hear that somebody has the flu or a flu-like illness.  But basically, we should be saying to ourselves, “I need a flu remedy that’s sleepy, heavy and thirstless”:  all confirmations for Gelsemium.  There are no keynote symptoms for any other remedy in this case.  For example, we don’t see the “worse least motion” of Bryonia, or we don’t see the severe bone pains of Eupatorium perf.  or, we don’t see the fear of death and desperate need for company of Arsenicum and we don’t see the burning thirst of Phosphorus; so, although there are other symptoms in the case, none of them are keynotes of remedies that would make us say, “No, it can’t be Gelsemium, because the patient is restless and has to keep moving whereas Gelsemium just wants to sleep.”  You see?  There’s nothing to contradict Gelsemium.

Thanks for voting!

I think we have to call out our winners now.  Monika Mukherjee and Mary K, congratulations, you’re the big winners of the September Quiz!!!!!!

Bye everybody!  See you back here next month!

____________________________

Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom

Elaine takes online cases. Write to her at [email protected]

Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com