Revisiting: I Feel Like Hell

Mom, it’s time for the quiz.  I’m very excited to report on the James Taylor…

…debacle…

I was going to say concert!  Where’s the picture I took of James Taylor?

Shana, I can’t find it; plus which, it was the worst picture I’ve ever taken.

We’re lucky to have a picture at all when you consider how hopelessly lost we were!

It’s not like we didn’t stop and ask for directions!  Unfortunately, it seems that no one in New Jersey speaks English!  Certainly not the proprietors of Dominos Pizza and 7-11.  We might as well have been in Calcutta!

I hate to miss things.  I know you think we didn’t miss much but you’re not me.

I’m not?  Are you sure?  Because people say we look like twins.   

Which one are you? 

Anyway, I think, for me, the highlight of the concert was “Shed a Little Light”.  There’s just something catchy about how gospel-y it sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKTzFwv16w

Plus, “Only a Dream in Rio”, “I Will Follow” (with Arnold McCuller’s solo) and “I was a Fool to Care” were also stand-outs.  Unfortunately I can’t find any footage of “Only a Dream in Rio” from the recent shows.  I also enjoyed his jokes before starting each song.  At some previous shows, he did songs I would’ve loved to have heard, like “Lo and Behold”.

I would like to have heard that also.  Is that the end of your report?

Yes.

Good; thanks for the audience warm-up, and now it’s time for our feature presentation!   Lights please!  Curtain, and…. ACTION!

****

In a message dated 7/3/2015 12:51:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:

Hi Elaine,

I feel like hell

OMG!  Maybe you should see a homeopath!

do you have time to help me?

Me????  Well, I was just about to board a plane …

I started filling out the acute case questionnaire while I was still having severe pain and was very nauseous.  I’m stable now, but I worry about the pain coming back…maybe you could look at this and tell me what you think the best course is…please forgive the spelling errors and grammar – the pain was a 10 on a scale of 1-10.

Did you say “spelling errors and grammar”?  Well, I’m sorry!  I’m not sure that I can take a case with spelling errors and grammar!

1. Chief complaint: Severe menstrual cramps – started about 9 this morning.

Oh, cramps, I should have known!

started having cramps yesterday, but they were the regular amount of pain.  Monday and Tuesday, I had really bad burning in my stomach area- took phos. 30c on Monday (one dose) – this helped the burning pain and gave me energy.  Wednesday was fine- some bleeding from period.  also, I am very nauseous- threw up in one sitting about 9 times – all liquid orange, felt like acid.  Concurrently, i have the urge to go to the bathroom- mostly mushy poo, that’s now subsided.  pain persists in the lower abdomen, about six inches below belly button – same area where i always feel cramps.  on and off feeling very hot, could not get comfortable – usually laying down with heating pad is better, but this time standing and walking around was better, but i was doing it in between pooping and feeling like I was going to throw up.

i spent the morning crying and wailing a little, praying “please help me, please help me’. this is the worst menstrual pain i’ve ever experienced; i took two doses of 4 ibuprofen (800 mg) twice yesterday, once this morning; my parents gave me one dose of ultram because i was in so much pain- the pain is much better now but still present; severe nausea comes and goes, but i only threw up the one time around 10:30am.  I also took 2 doses of colocynth 30 c around 9:45am, and one dose of rhus tox 30c around 10:15am. Took the ultram around 10:30am; it’s taken all this time for the ultram to completely kick in but the pain is still dull and i’m worried about it coming back; also, the pain made me feel like i was going to pass out; also, this morning, i couldn’t calm down.  i’m finally calm now- i started to calm down after i threw up; that was the turning point where i started to feel better.

2. Etiology: my boyfriend was sick with a stomach ache yesterday – i wonder if this is menstrual cramps plus a virus?  I just don’t know.  I will tell you that i’ve been very upset the past two weeks – I guess everyone has.  I’m in South Carolina, Charleston is a very special place to me – the church shooting plus the confederate flag issues- these are all so personal to me – i used to visit my friend in Charleston all the time – she lived minutes from that church – there are two older black ladies who I’m very close to – my grandmother’s friends – to think that it could have been them, plus gay marriage.  i’m a social liberal and very sensitive; my brother is gay, and i take in the conservative critisicm very, very personally and deeply; it’s not easy to be a liberal in the south

It’s getting harder and harder being a liberal anywhere!

– i have liberal friends, but i often feel so lost in the south; it’s been very upsetting – maybe it affected my period this time around – been very upset.

3. often during my period, my body feels like it’s trying to expel something; today, i felt like with all this pain, i was pooping, having to pee, throwing up- just felt like my body needed to expel things; maybe it was trying to get out all these pent up feelings – i get very upset, take in a lot of collective feelings because i am empathetic.  i don’t cry easily – i need to, want to, but i just can’t get it out.  it all comes out at one time finally when i can’t hold it in any longer.
4. Appearance: face pale, dark circles under eyes (dark circles worse than usual, I’d say)
5. Location: lower abdomen – center – that’s where the menstrual pain is
6. Modalities: better from cool air – i’ve had the fan on; better from walking around, although i’m tired and i can’t do that much.  i left my house and came to my granny’s.  my mom is here with me.  they are downstairs – i don’t want them up here with me, but i don’t want to be completely alone.  i just want them nearby.  no appetite – ginger ale is helping.  got in the bathtub with warm water and the fan on me – that helped for awhile.  i’m finally getting comfortable sitting up on the floor.
7. i’m feeling better as I type this, but I want to tell you everything that happened this morning in case it all comes back when this ultram wears off.  i was restless, anxious, couldn’t think straight at all – couldn’t think of which remedies to take- took the colocynthis for cramps and rhus tox because of restlessness.  when i took colocynths, my spirit felt better – a little relieved – i’m not sure it helped me physically, but it helped me emotionally – had i been in my right mind or had someone nearby who knew homeopathy, maybe it would have helped more?  finally cried because of the pain.  didn’t want to be touched, though.
8. red menstrual blood, vomit was orange liquid
9. What have I been saying?  I’m better now – I’m okay.  this morning, “I’m not okay”, “I might need to go to the hospital (I NEVER say that!), “Please help me, please help me, please help me”….I begged God, my mom, my boyfriend (I don’t usually ask for help unless I really need it)
10. Mentals: anxious, confused, couldn’t think straight or focus, panicked
11. “please help me, please don’t leave me”…my mom and granny were supposed to go visit my uncle in the hospital and I wouldn’t let them leave…that never happens!  I was really, really in a lot of pain to deny my family the chance to go see my poor uncle in the hospital – i feel awful just typing this – i usually don’t ask people to go out of their way on my account
12. What have I been doing?  pacing, back and forth from the bathroom to the bed
13. Thirst: not thirsty, not hungry – food would have made me gag sooner or later probably
14. Fever?  i don’t know if i have a fever- my granny said i felt hot, but i had what seemed like hot flashes coming and going
15. none
16. none
17. The most striking thing – the level of pain (10) and the fact that i don’t want to be alone, the fact that i might have gone to the emergency room had i had insurance – in my normal mind, i don’t want to be within 2 feet of a doctor or take drugs and here i am begging for pain medicine- “thankfully”, my dad has a bad back pain and had something greater than ibuprofen
18. Diagnosis?  i might have endometriosis, my last doctor talked about it, but i think I’m now going to go get the test to see if i have fibroids the pain is so bad
19. I’m okay right now, tired.  before, very restless and tired
20. tongue normal
21. no cough
22. still take phosphorus – took 30c on Monday- took 200c about three weeks before that and I had a lot of old problems come back with a fury – felt better after a week, but it was too deep – i couldn’t go through it again – will stick to 30c – it’s the best remedy for me.

OK, so, after reading your whole case, my first thought is ______________ 200C, do you have that?

Yes, I’ll give it a try, thanks.

In a message dated 7/3/2015 7:49:36 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:

Elaine, I’m feeling much better!  hopefully it will last.

______________________________________________________________

OK, everybody, do you know the answer?  Write to me at [email protected].  The answer will be in next month’s ezine.  Bye for now!

Mom wait!

You’re still here?

Yes!  To play us out, here is “I Was a Fool to Care” by James Taylor, live from Columbia, South Carolina:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57_oykmY1k0

——————————

Votes

Mag-phos.

Ignatia-2

Pulsatilla

Chamomilla

Sepia

Ipecac

Colocynthis 200C

OK!  Who wants to go first?

Hi Elaine,

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

Another brain-teaser quiz from you.

Yeah, read her case.  I feel she is quite upset and depressed for quite some time.

Quite emotional, hysterical, desires to be alone, fear, anxiety, weeping

throughout the case.  Cramps due to emotional reasons.

Reading through the etiology, I feel she would have been given IGNATIA.

Please suggest.

Well, Vamsi, the first thing we have to do is make a list of the Elements Of The Case, all the things that are the most striking, strange, rare, peculiar or characteristic, all the things we would want to repertorize; look for words like “very” or “extremely”, or anything to indicate that a certain symptom was a big part of the case or very unusual, given the facts of the case… So, one of the first things we find is that she describes her pain as a 10 on a scale of 1-10; so, that’s quite extreme, don’t you think?  So, the first thing I would put on our list is:

1. Mind: pain, unbearable

Next, she says she was very nauseous!  So, number 2 would be:

2. Stomach, nausea, menses, during

Then she says she’s worried that the pains will come back, so I picked:

3. Mind: fear, pains, fear of the

We could also pick “vomiting bile”:

4. Stomach: vomiting, bile

She says she vomited 9 times in a row, which is quite extreme in my book; so, we could pick:

5. Stomach: vomiting, constant

She was indicating that she was having diarrhea and vomiting at the same time, so we could pick:

6. Stomach: vomiting, diarrhea, during

Now, here’s something peculiar.  She said that normally she’d be lying down with a heating pad during her period; but, this time she was better from standing and walking back and forth despite how sick she felt!  In fact, she said she was pacing back and forth from the bedroom to the bathroom.  Very striking, in my opinion!  So we could pick:

7. Mind: restlessness, pacing back and forth

She said she’s crying, begging and praying; so, we can pick:

8. Mind: crying, pains, with
9. Mind: begging
10. Mind: praying

She’s thirstless:

11. Food: Thirstless

She says the fact that she’s afraid to be alone is striking, not typical for her, so we could pick:

12. Mind: fear, alone, of being

So if we repertorize these things, what do we get?  Well, I tried posting my chart but it didn’t stick; so, you’ll have to take my word for it that Arsenicum covers the whole case!

What about all that stuff about how upset she was over the racist shootings in that South Carolina church and how sympathetic and empathetic she is, etc., etc.?  It’s all meaningless, it has nothing to do with the case.  If we were taking her constitutional case, it would be very important!  But this is an acute case, a case of extreme pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fear during menses, and our job is to pull out all the elements of the acute case, add them up, and see what remedies come up for that.  This was a perfect example of “Totality Of Symptoms”.  There was no etiology to over-rule the totality, there was no peculiar symptom that made us have to think twice about using the totality because even the peculiars and the mentals–everything in the case–all went for Arsenicum!

Of course, the first thing you have to do, if a case has mentals, is make sure the remedy covers them!  Well, no problem there, because all the mentals went for Arsenicum:  fear, crying, begging, praying, pacing, needing company–it’s an Arsenicum album extravaganza!!

Elaine, that was a fabulous explanation.  I really loved it to the core.

Thanks for all your time.

With deepest Regards,

Vamsi.

Alright, will our next mystery challenger enter and sign in please!

Hello Elaine.

It’s Wayne from Australia!

This case was a long-winded one!

Oops!  Sorry about that!

I repertorised the following:
Grief, sorrow, general; ailments, from

I realize she said that she was very upset about the ignorant, racist shootings in South Carolina; but, what is the likelihood that that would lead to something resembling food poisoning?  And then she said she wondered if this was a stomach virus on top of her period?  That seemed like a reasonable possibility to me.

Isolation, feelings,

She said she didn’t want to be alone, but “isolation feelings” misses the mark.  She doesn’t want to be alone out of fear.  The illness is making her afraid.

Walking; general; air, in open air, amel.

No, not open air, she wasn’t walking in open air, just pacing back and forth.

Heat; flushes of

Anxiety; menses during

I would prefer, “Anxiety about health”.

Vomiting, general; menses, during;

Cramping; pain, genitalia; uterus; menses, during

It’s better to use the “Female: dysmenorrhea” rubric because then you have access to all the sub-rubrics.

Company, general; desire, for

Top score was Pulsatilla.

I did get Pulsatilla in second place when I repertorized.

It seems to fit all the symptoms.  Phosphorus was second, a bit lower on score and seems to have been tried without success.

Well, what you want to repertorize in this case, or any case, is anything that’s extreme or unusual for the patient, like if the patient says, “I’m normally not ________” or, “I never do ___________”, those are very important words!  So in this case, what does the patient say is extreme and what does she say she’s doing that she never does?  She says the pain is extreme, a 10 on a scale of 1-10; so, I picked “Mind: pain, unbearable”.  She says the nausea is extreme, so I picked, “Stomach: nausea, menses, during”.  She says that at one point she vomited 9 times in a row, so I picked “Stomach: vomiting, constant”.  She indicated that she was vomiting and having diarrhea at or around the same time, so I picked “Stomach: vomiting, diarrhea, during”.  (By the way, this really is hell, is it not?  Yeesh!)  Anyway, she says that normally when she has her period, she’s lying down with a heating pad, but this time, she was up pacing back and forth between the bedroom and the bathroom; so, I picked “Mind: restlessness, pacing back and forth”.  There’s a lot of fear in this case, a lot of mentals that she says aren’t like her, and they are: begging, crying, praying, needing company (“Please help me, please help me, please don’t leave me.”)  Well, ta-da!  There’s the whole case for you!  That one sentence: “Please help me, please help me, please don’t leave me.”  That’s ARSENICUM!  When you hear that?  The case is over!  That was all you needed to hear!

But meanwhile, everything else in the case is Arsenicum too!  It’s under unbearable pain, vomiting and diarrhea at the same time, pacing back and forth, crying, begging and praying, it’s all there, it’s all Arsenicum!

Now, all the things you brought up about grief, etc., that’s information for the constitutional case, which we’re not interested in here.  This is an acute case, so, we’re interested in all the ways she’s DIFFERENT from her constitution.

Elaine, thanks for your detailed reply and your time spent in replying.  I love reading all this stuff, and learning from your experience.
I normally prescribe Arsenicum for food poisoning, especially for burning stomach, diarrhea and vomiting.  You feel like dying.
I think I got onto the wrong etiology.  I have never had a case with a period at the same time.

I don’t think there’s an etiology that will help us this time.   She had her period so you might have thought all she needed was a cramps remedy like Mag-phos., and she made such a point of talking about the South Carolina shootings in that black church that you could have thought it was a case of Ailments From Bad News.  But when she, herself, said, “Maybe I have a stomach virus on top of having my period,” that should move you away from those theories; at least it tells us that no one knows why she’s so sick.

I chose “Isolation” because she feels as if she does not fit in with the social beliefs of her community…

That’s right, but, that’s the constitutional case.  You have to learn to separate the two out.  Feeling like you’re surrounded by yahoos and morons, though exasperating, can’t possibly cause the kind of violent symptoms we see here.

And she seemed to bring them up as concerning to her.

Right, she did bring them up, and that raises an important point:  Just because a patient says something during an interview doesn’t mean it’s worth repertorizing.  Why might we ignore a symptom?

1. It’s not part of the acute case.
2. If it’s a common symptom of the disease, like if a flu patient reports having a headache, that would mean nothing to us, unless he had something more to say about it, like if it was a very severe headache and he had to lie perfectly still, unable to even open his eyes, it might confirm Bryonia for us.
3. The symptom makes sense under the circumstances, like if our patient said, “I was so sad during my illness.”  How would that help us?  It’s normal to be sad during an illness.  But if she said, “It’s strange, but, despite everything, I was feeling very calm and peaceful through the whole thing!”  That would be very peculiar, and we would definitely want to choose “Mind: calmness” and it would surely rule out a lot of the anxiety-ridden remedies like Arsenicum, Argent-nit and Aconite!

So when our patient says, “I have been so upset about the shootings…” and she’s going on and on about it, we can be thinking to ourselves, “She’s very empathetic, sympathetic, emotional…”; but, at the same time, we have to discern if any of what she’s saying is relevant, especially when she’s giving us one Arsenicum keynote after another; at some point, we have to admit that the center of gravity in the case lies in all the Arsenicum mentals piled high to the ceiling.

Thanks again, Elaine.

Hello, is the caller there?  You’re on the air at Hpathy.com.

Hi Elaine,

Hi, Anurag; sorry I kept you waiting.

I think the remedy shall be Ignatia.

Etiology: Grief

No, see, this is where a lot of people got tripped up.  Her grief over the shootings of 9 innocent people in a South Carolina church is a constitutional symptom.  It tells us, “Maybe she’s a Phosphorus, maybe she’s Carcinosin…”  I realize it threw a lot of people off.  When she said, “My boyfriend had a stomach ache yesterday, maybe I have a stomach virus…” that should make us straighten up and change the direction of our thinking.  If she had said, “I have been in tears, sobbing at the slightest provocation, ever since I heard about the shootings,” that would be a case for Ignatia.   But we have to say to ourselves, “This case looks an awful lot like food poisoning or a gastro-intestinal flu” and, does that lead us to consider Ignatia?  No, it doesn’t.

Rubrics: Contradictions

For rubrics, you have to look at everything in the case that’s extreme, and everything that she said was unusual for her, as in, “I never act this way, I never want to see the doctor, I never want to go to the hospital, I would never tell my family not to visit a relative in the hospital, I felt terrible about that!” and so on.

Regards,

Anurag

Who else wants to speak?  Step up to the microphone.

Hello Elaine and Shana.

Oh look!  It’s Miroslav and Jitka!

Here is our contribution to the August quiz.

Miroslav´s choice – Sepia

At first I was thinking about Pulsatilla, because of her demand to have people close around her.

But who else wants people close around them?

But Pulsatila would certainly have wanted to be touched, caressed, massaged … There was also her desire for cold air, but ultimately the patient was improved by warm bath.  Also Pulsatilla is tearful, but the patient writes that she does not cry easily.

Wait a minute, I thought she was crying. “I spent the morning crying and wailing a little, praying ‘please help me, please help me’.”

Pulsatilla would probably not have dark circles under eyes …

I have excluded Mag-phos. due to her desire for movement and the patient refused poultices … I was also thinking about Chamomilla, but apparently she wouldn´t be praying, but cursing and raging if she were Chamomilla.  She would be capricious and people should avoid her presence … So still Sepia remains, actually it came out best from the repertory.  Most of all I was captured by the fact that the female patient had a strong urge to expel something from inside at all levels.  So my choice is this mostly female polychrest – Sepia.

Sepia is a big remedy in menstrual cramps; but, it doesn’t fit the mentals, and if there are mentals in a case, the remedy has to match them!  Crying, begging, praying, wanting help, insisting that people stay with her even though they had planned to visit an uncle in the hospital; also, there’s the restlessness and pacing back and forth.  Plus, we have a case that looks like a stomach virus on top of the usual menstrual cramps.  Would Sepia cover a stomach virus?  No.

Jitka´s choice – Ipecac

As for me this an acute case was a hard nut to crack.  From most of all nominee-remedies I was comparing Pulsatilla and Sepia.  I excluded Pulsatilla because she didn´t want to be touched or because she has not bright red blood in her picture, on the other side for me it was odd that Sepia wants to be fanned by cold air, she is not thirsty and so on.  Although the most similar remedy came out Sepia on the base by my selected rubrics:

Genitals, female; dysmenorrhea; severe pain, crying and yelling: cact., coff, COLOC, cupr, CHAM, ign, mag.p., plat, sep

Genitals, female; dysmenorrhea; nausea and vomiting – IP, kreos, sars, sep, verat-v. (4 remedies)

Genitals; female; menstruation, bright red – IP, kreos, sep, (+ many rem.)

Genitals; female; cramps during – puls, SEP; (+many rem.)

Nevertheless, I would opt for another similar remedy and it’s Ipecac.

Genitals, female; dysmenorrhea; nausea and vomiting – IP is there

Genitals; female; menstruation, bright red – IP is there

– blue circles

– restless like Ars

Did you say, “Like Arsenicum”?  Why didn’t you pick Arsenicum????  When a case has mentals, and this case has plenty of them, you have to match them!  What remedy says “please don’t leave”?  What remedy begs and pleads for help, is restless, wants the doctor to come?  What remedy is restless and paces back and forth?  Arsenicum!!!!!

– thirstless

– mushy stool – nausea, vomiting, fainting

Maybe this is not a remedy that you prescribed for your patient, but I would probably chose it.  I think it is quite similar.

It might have helped.

Ouch!  I messed it up.  I remember your scheme for “acutes” – sensation-location-modalities-concomitants- but I simply wasn’t able to evaluate her feelings because I eliminated Arsenicum immediately at the beginning of solving just for her troubles which started at 9:00 am, not at 1 a.m.

Oh dear.  You know, I think the “aggravation time” only has true meaning if a pattern is set; for example, “4-8 p.m. is always my worst time of day”–Lycopodium.   “My asthma attack always come on at 1 a.m.”–Arsenicum.  “I always wake up between 2-4 in the morning”–Kali carb.   I’m sure there could be exceptions, though.  For instance, I remember one time I had some sort of digestive problem, I had an attack of diarrhea with a concomitant symptom of fear, which I thought was very strange!  I looked at the clock, it was midnight!  I said, “Oh my God!  It’s the Aconite aggravation time!”  I took Aconite and it worked!

You should read my “hierarchy of symptoms” article:

https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/acute-vs-chronic-remedies-the-hierarchy-of-symptoms-and-the-kitchen-sink/

I would never eliminate a remedy because the illness started at 9 a.m.  You can’t make the time more important than the mentals, the peculiars, keynotes of a remedy, etc.; so, do read the above article on the hierarchy of symptoms, you have to know that to solve cases.

I had a bad day yesterday, I realized that I made too many grammatical and wording errors in my response to the quiz.

Oh my goodness!  More grammar and mistakes in wording?  Well, that does it!  I quit! 

Maybe your quiz should have a sub-heading “Quiz for grammatical illiterates only”… 🙂

I’ll give it serious thought!

Best regards, Jitka

I think we have time for one last contestant.

Hi Elaine and Shana 🙂

Hi Maria!

For this month’s quiz I vote for Colocynthis 200C because she tried it in 30th potency, it helped mentally but wasn’t sure about physically.  If I am right, that tells us that it was correct remedy but needed higher potency.
So Colocynthis is my vote, if I am wrong I will try again.

Maria, could you copy and paste the part where she says she took Coloc. and it helped her mentally?  Cuz I can’t find it.  I found where she says she took it, but I don’t see it saying that it helped.  I saw that she said she took Phosphorus and the stomach burning went away and she got more energy.  But I don’t see her comment about Coloc.

Here it is: “when i took colocynths, my spirit felt better – a little relieved – i’m not sure it helped me physically, but it helped me emotionally.”

OK, I see it.  Now, here’s the thing, Maria.  In the scheme of things, you landed on a small, insignificant piece of the puzzle (that she was helped somewhat by Colocynth) and ran with it, while ignoring HUGE keynotes of a remedy that were total give-aways!

Two of the most important questions in my questionnaire are, “What are you doing?” and “What are you saying?” because look what she revealed here; she says she normally NEVER says these things—and that’s a big red flag, if a person says that—she says she was BEGGING people to help her, PRAYING and PLEADING with people not to leave her, and even wanting to go to the hospital, which is totally unlike her.  She says that normally when she has her period she’s lying down with a heating pad, but THIS time, she was PACING back and forth from the bedroom to the bathroom!  So what are the rubrics for these things?

1. Mind: helplessness, feelings
2. Mind: begging
3. Mind: fear, alone, of being
4. Mind: company, desires, while alone agg.

Now, what’s the rubric for “wants to go to the hospital”?  The closest I could find was:

5. Mind: impatience, behavior, cures him at once, the patient insists that the doctor (in other words: impatience, wants to be cured, insisting for the doctor to cure him at once)
6. Mind: restlessness, pacing back and forth
7. Mind: praying

And I should probably throw in one more very important symptom in the case:

8. Mind: pain, unbearable

And when you repertorize this, what do you get?  Arsenicum!

Oh! 

What a pity, I thought of Arsenicum actually immediately.

I believe you, it’s hard not to think of Arsenicum.

But as I mentioned above, this mental amelioration trapped me 😛

I know, and if the rest of the case had been vague, that might have been a good place for us to start; but, as it happened, it was literally buried by an avalanche of symptoms that went for Arsenicum, including ones we didn’t even mention like vomiting and diarrhea at the same time!  And what’s missing here for Colocynth?  Do we really feel comfortable giving Colocynth when the patient says she’s in terrible pain but never mentions being bent over double, which is the grand keynote of Colocynth?  Abdominal pains that force the patient to bend over double; in fact, if you EVER see a person bent over double in abdominal pain, just give Colocynth right away without even thinking about it!  If that doesn’t work, you can try its twin, Mag-phos.

You know, it’s funny, I have to tell you, Shana got her period yesterday, and by last night, it was awful, just awful!  She was so sick!  Terrible pain, nausea, vomiting, frequent bowel movements, headache, moaning and groaning…she just looked SICK!  I said, “You know what?  You look an awful lot like this month’s Quiz!”  And with that I gave her Arsenicum 30C, though I never think of Arsenicum in menstrual cramps!  But guess what?  It worked!  The headache went away, the nausea, the trips to the bathroom, the whole thing got better and she was able to go to sleep and wake up fine the next morning!  But that is the Arsenicum picture–really sick!  And the moaning and groaning, it just suddenly clicked with me!  In fact, there’s a rubric: We always say, “You know what’s a useless phrase to a homeopath?  ‘I feel sick’!”  But, guess what?  That’s in the Repertory!   “Sick Feeling”.  It’s in Murphy’s “Clinical” chapter.  There are only 41 remedies and Arsenicum’s in bold! 

So, I hope everyone’s learned something about Arsenicum today.

See you again next time!

——– ———————-
Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.

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

Visit her website: elaineLewis.hpathy.com