Case Quizes Clinical Cases

Revisiting: It’s Morgana Again!

Written by Elaine Lewis

No sooner does Morgana get rid of one cold than here comes another! Did you guess her remedy?

Hello everybody and welcome to the first Hpathy Quiz of 2020!  Could this be our 17th year?????

I want to start by showing what my mom got me for Christmas:

Meet Basil, the stuffed hamster!  See, here’s why this is funny.  There’s an episode of “Fawlty Towers” where a rat named Basil gets loose in the hotel.  The problem is, it’s Manuel’s pet.  He bought it from a pet store and was told it was a very special breed of hamster from Siberia.  The problem is that the hotel inspector is due to arrive at any moment!

Here’s a clip from this hilarious episode:

 

Moving on to the Death Report, Lee Mendelson, who produced the Peanuts specials, died at 86.

Also dead at 72 is Allee Willis who wrote two hit songs for Earth Wind and Fire: “September” and “Boogie Wonderland”.

Allee Willis and Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire

Wow, she wrote 2 of their best songs!  Mom, where are you?  Who’s in the quiz this month?

It’s Morgana again!  I asked her mother to fill out the Questionnaire:

****

Questionnaire

Name: Morgana

Age: 9

Male or Female: F

Weight: 53 lbs

Height: 53 inches

Date: December 30th, 2019

Email Address: ****@gmail.com

  1. Describe the complaint.

It happened gradually.  First she lost appetite and was not drinking water would forget water bottle at school.  Then started noisy breathing at night can’t keep her mouth closed.  Then she got scratchiness in the throat which developed into a nasal cold and fever.  The fever and scratchiness resolved – she was on vitamin c and lyc 30.  But breathing difficulties in sleep and nasal congestion remained. Then she was on Rhus tox 30 it didn’t help.  Then was on kali bichrome it opened up her nostrils thinned the mucus but made tonsils big and scratchiness was back.  She slept quietly with her mouth open.  She was very irritable.  It did not produce further improvement with further dosing.  Then we gave nux vomica she had dryness and fever by now it did not help anything.  Then based on symptoms we gave belladonna 30.  The fever went away dried up the nostrils and brought back some inflammation got her appetite back.  But breathing in sleep was worse.  She was very calm and happy with belladonna.  Further dosing didn’t help the tonsils.

  1. Etiology–

It could be loss of sleep.  During one of the weekends she slept late and woke up early.  That sometimes gets her sick.  To add up the washing hair during winter doesn’t do good.

I am not able to think of anything else.  She won’t wind up her day early at night and wants to be early to school.

  1. Sensation–

She has no pain anywhere.

  1. Appearance–

Lips are red.  Throat the tonsils are pink.  Yesterday for a few minutes it was like pinkish patches on her hands like skin water translucent.  Hard to describe and it was gone.  Some whiteness on the tongue.  She looks very weak and lost 4 pounds.  She says she feels very weak.

  1. Location–

Throat and nose.  Nostrils obstruction alternates now left and right.  One is open at all times mostly.

  1. Modalities–

Motion makes her feel bad.  She’s just laying in bed.

She can not tolerate cold water on the body makes her feel bad.

Both hot and cold liquids make her feel worse.  Room temperature is good.

Taking naps makes her feel good.

No urge to eat or drink anything.

  1. Concomitants

At times some chills ( brief)

Generally burping after drinking water and liquids and eating food ( but she says it was always there).

She’s calm and complying.  Today she is feeling very weak like doesn’t have energy to do anything. Feels hot because of fever.  It’s now 103.4

  1. Discharges–

No.  But I think saliva is sticky.  No discharges.

  1. Generals–

Most of the time “I’m hot.  I feel weak and I am not that sad only a bit.”  She’s very quiet and complying and not her talkative self.

  1. The mentals:

Dullness very dull she feels.  A little worried as things aren’t getting better.

  1. What have you been saying?

I feel weak and I am hot.

  1. What are you doing?

Just lying down and not caring.

  1. Describe your thirst and appetite–

Likes drinks to be room temperature.  Just sips infrequently.  Not thirsty or hungry.

If asked if she can have anything what would she like to have?  Fruits, she says, except banana.

  1. Fever?  Can you describe it?

Constant non stop fever of over 101.  It is very dry.

  1. Sweating?

No sweat.  A slight drop in temperature causes the forehead to sweat.  Sweat may smell sour I am not sure. But has a very faint odor.

  1. Odors?

No odor

  1. What is most striking, peculiar or identifying about your condition?

The fever, breathing difficulties in sleep.

  1. Is there a diagnosis?

Viral tonsillitis?

  1. Describe your energy–

Dull and very weak.

  1. What does your tongue look like?

White tongue but it’s down after the 2 doses of ant tart 30.

  1. If you have a cough…

No cough.

  1. If you haven’t already said if you’re hotter or colder than usual, or if there’s an issue with your body temperature, like hot feet or cold feet, cold hands, shivering, etc., say it now.

(no answer)

You didn’t answer the last question.  Does she have hot feet?  Does she stick them out of the covers?

YES!

Thank you.  I am going to recommend ________________30C.

*****

Good morning and thank you so much.  I can’t thank you enough and thank god!

Morgana is better, has energy and fever is at 99.6.

She is back to being herself and playing.

The wheezing is gone.  I guess that was from dehydration and not from the remedy.  She was not drinking water only had a glassful when I forced her before bed.  With mouth open and sweating out so much water she must have been very dehydrated.

__________

OK, everybody, what do you think the remedy is?  

__________________

Votes:

 Sulphur-3

 Pulsatilla-3

 

Who wants to go first?

Hi Elaine,

Hi Wayne from Australia!

I think the remedy is sulphur.

You’re right!

The lips are red and any orifice which is red, indicates sulphur, further a peculiar symptom of kicking off the covers is also an indication of sulphur.

That was pretty much all you needed to know.  When I saw the red lips, I was anxious to see if she threw the covers off, and then when I saw that that particular question was left unanswered?  I was, like, Oh no!  So I had to ask her point-blank, “Does she stick her feet out, does she throw the covers off?” and she actually answered in all CAPS: YES! 

Now, the other thing is, fever with hot feet?  Your first thought should be Sulphur.  Fever with cold feet?  Belladonna!

I used the following rubrics, although some have too many remedies to be of a specific use.

Covers, blankets, general; kicks off

Thirst general; small, quantities ,for

Tonsillitis infection

Dullness, mental; children

No, that’s taking you down the wrong road.  It’s gonna turn up remedies like Baryta carb.  And if you went to Mind: dullness, there would be too many remedies there to make it worth your while.

Heat; sensation; internal

Light, sleep

Forget about that.  Nobody sleeps well with a fever.

Obstruction, nose, alternating sides.

Yes, that was very interesting.  But, you know, your average person doesn’t have Lac caninum, but they might easily have Sulphur, and there are two keynotes for Sulphur–actually 3 if you count “fever with hot feet”; so, that’s really quite enough to prescribe on.  Thanks for voting!

Who wants to go next?

 

Hello Doc,

Oh look, it’s Shweta, aka: “Wonder Woman”!

I think the answer is Sulphur because her feet are hot.

You are correct as always!  And the red lips are important too.  Thanks for voting!

Oh look, it’s the gang from Slovakia!

 

Hello Elaine and Shana,

Hello Miroslav and Jitka!

We respond to the continuing case of poor Morgana as follows:

Miroslav:

She is hot, has stuffy nose

That’s true, but, don’t trouble yourself with unimportant symptoms like “stuffy nose”.  The stuffy nose rubric (nose, obstruction) has hundreds of remedies in it, why even bother?

– breathing through her mouth at night,

If you had a stuffy nose, you’d HAVE to breathe through your mouth, so, it’s not really a symptom.

quiet and soft/weak,

“Weak” is another huge rubric that’s not gonna help us.  “Quiet” and “soft” aren’t even in the repertory, so, why bring it up?  You have to think about what the mother means by this.  Is the child just so weak that she appears “soft” and “quiet”?  If so, we should just ignore it and move on.

sticking her legs out of the blanket – Pulsatilla

This is probably the only helpful symptom you’ve picked—“sticks her feet out of the covers”.  Why is this a helpful symptom?  Because it’s a small rubric and applies to only a few remedies so, from 3,000 remedies, we’re suddenly down to just a few!  But, how are we going to determine which one it is?  You mentioned Pulsatilla, but, how can we confirm it?  Is she in need of company and sympathy and reassurance?  No, she’s not.  Is she weepy and whiny?  According to her mother, she’s just lying there in bed, not complaining.  Does that sound like Pulsatilla, not to complain?  They’re usually very pitiful looking, weepy, and in need of comfort and support.  So, we really need a way to confirm Pulsatilla and we’re not happy with the fact that she’s not asking for comfort and reassurance from her mother.  Let’s see what Jitka had to say.

 Jitka:

I hope I understood well that the turning point to define a remedy for Morgana was that she was sticking feet out of under the blanket.

Yes, Jitka, very important clue!

In the chapter “Feet” I found a rubric: Hot; with a subrubric – :hot feet, uncovering them; . There are 11 remedies out of which three are “big”: CHAM, PULS, SULPH and only Pulsatilla is not thirsty. Pulsatilla have nasal congestion that is worse at night, especially when lying down, which leads to mouth breathing during sleep and nasal congestion tends to alternate sides, so I vote for Pulsatilla   

Well, here’s the problem, Jitka.  You got the one big keynote–sticks her feet out–but there’s another one that you both missed:  RED LIPS!  What remedy has RED LIPS and sticks her feet out?  There’s only one that it can possibly be, do you want to try and guess?

Sulphur.

Right!!!!!!

Is anybody else here today?  OK, I see Maria from Greece has landed!

 

Hi Elaine and Shana!

Hi Maria!!!

I missed the last quiz, but I am here now!

It’s such a relief to know that I’m not talking to myself!

For this month’s quiz my vote goes for Pulsatilla.

Thirstless and sticking feet out of cover are keynotes.

If I am wrong I will try again ?

Well, here’s the thing, Maria.  There are actually 166 remedies in the “Thirstlessness” rubric.  And roughly 40 of them are either in bold or italics.  So what does that mean?  It means there are more thirstless remedies than we might expect; so, we need more information.  The fact is, you over-looked a very important clue:  Her lips were red!  So, we’ve got two super keynotes of a remedy here:

  1. sticks her feet out
  2. red lips

Now, if we think we know the remedy, we can try to confirm it by seeing if it’s also in the “thirstless” rubric.  Do you know what it is now?

Don’t tell me its Sulphur!

OK, I won’t tell you.

I thought of it at first because of the many remedies that failed to act.

It should be your first thought in “fever with hot feet”.  Thanks for voting as always. 

Should we congratulate our winners now?

Dr. Salma Afroz from Pakistan, “Wonder Woman” and Wayne from Australia, come on down!  You’re our winners for our first quiz of 2020! 

In your honor, here are The Impressions in a very rare TV appearance from 1967 with:

“We’re A Winner!”

 

See you again next time!

__________________

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.

Elaine takes online cases and animal cases too!

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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