There Was Nothing I Could Do!

Date of consultation: 26 March 2004

14 year-old, Ms. YA came to me with the problem of asthma.

D: Tell me about your problems?

P: I am having on and off cough and cold problem since past two years. If cough is not controlled with allopathic medicines then it leads to an attack of asthma. This started since last one year and gradually increased. I get tired because of cough, I look sick.

Worse on sitting and lying down.

Everything is going wrong in my body.

All these started when I had gone for a school camp. The food and the drinking water provided to us were not proper. We could not even have proper sleep there were lots of mosquitoes.

There I fell ill, I got very high fever. They (teachers) used to beat us if we didn’t work. They used to give punishment and to avoid getting punished, I used to work in the camp even with the high fever. It was very bad, I got really very weak; I vomited every five minutes, with any type of food I used to feel nauseated, even with the sight of food. I didn’t feel like eating or drinking anything. I looked very much sick. I was then diagnosed suffering from jaundice. I also had pain in my stomach and chest especially right side of my chest.

[Her main problem is asthma, which starts with bouts of cold and cough. In her narration, she spontaneously takes us to an incident of her life after which it started. There, she avoids getting punished. Why? Will examine later.]

D: Tell me more.

P: I get scared of taking injections, and getting punished.

D: Tell more about fever?

P: I used to get pain in my legs, was not able to stand well, as if I will fall down, like as if no control over my legs. I was not able to maintain my balance; I was so weak, I could not even hold any object, as if no stamina is left in body.

I would get goose pimples if I forced myself to lift or hold anything.

When my nails touched anything, I felt as if an electric current passed in my body.

I got goose pimples with pain. It was as if pricked by something, it was as if while working, if by mistake you burn yourself and you get a scald, how you feel? – you know, how one feels if any hot object in the hand, how it pains? – that kind of a pain I used to experience. That lasted for half an hour. I felt constant burning.

[From fever she moves on to pains, which she experiences – as if being burned and scalded!]

D: Tell me more about pain?

P: Like that only, when my nails touched anything, I used to get pain like as if I have touched a hot vessel.

D: Tell me more?

P: –

D: Tell me about fear of getting punished?

P: In the camp, they would beat us if we didn?t do our assigned work. I was really scared of that, but couldn’t do anything. I did not tell them that I was not well. But finally, they came to know when I got very high fever. Then they gave me some medicines and I was then brought back home.

[She thinks for some time then says]:

As a child, I hurt myself over my knees after a fall; doctor put some Dettol (antiseptic) out there, it burnt a lot, you know as if after an ant bite, how would you feel? – that kind of a burning I experienced there. So when my teacher punishes, she slaps on the face or she hits with scale [a ruler] on the hand. Once she punished and hit me with a scale on my hand, my entire hand turned red. I felt as if somebody hit me with stones. Like how you get swelling and redness after that (Hand gesture) pain – as if somebody is beating me from inside. I am not able to tolerate that but you can’t do anything. (Miasm) It used to get aggravated on slightest touch. I felt now she will stop hitting me but she didn’t. She would go on and on hitting.

[It is interesting to note the way she connects different incidents of her life to describe her inner experience. Also to describe her experience, she spontaneously puts up explanatory imaginations “as if”. Her level of experience appears to be at Delusion.

Her sensitivity to punishments leads to her sensitivity towards beatings. And her

experience with pain is also like as if being beaten or as if being burned/scalded.

Her reaction to this experience is “I can’t do anything”, which points towards the

Sycotic miasm.

Let us see her experience of “as if being beaten” a bit further.]

With jaundice, I used to get stomach pain, that pain was like as if someone has beaten you, as if being punched (Hand gesture: hitting with a fist). Very severe, unbearable pain on right side of my abdomen – with pain I used to feel that I would fall down. Pain as if two rats are fighting inside my abdomen, as if a punch hits me over that area (Hand gesture: hitting with a fist).

[With different incidents of her life like being punished, beaten by teachers, injury after a fall or pain with jaundice, her sensation remains same: “as if being burnt /being beaten”. This experience she defines further as if being punched, and with this there is a hand gesture.

She could not define it further, so I moved on to her chief complaint and its effect on her.]

D: Tell me about your asthma attack?

P: It starts with cough, which gets aggravated on drinking anything, even water and then gets into asthma. I feel as if someone is pressing hard on my chest. It gets aggravated on lying down or on sitting. It builds up tension inside my mind.

D: Tension?

P: I want to work in air force once I grow up, for that I need to score high.

With these attacks, I get tensed about my exams, as I can’t concentrate well with it. I feel something happening inside.

D: What’s the tension like?

P: What if I fail in exam?

D: So what will happen?

P: Then no one will be my friend; I will be all alone; I’ll feel sad. It is shameful if no one makes friendship with me. It feels insulting.

D: Tell me more?

P: When I feel insulted, I get very angry. This happens with friends. Then I just feel like hitting the opposite person hard, but I can’t do that, so I cry. (Miasm)

[Her issue here is being insulted and her reaction is to hit the opposite person hard. This reflects the same sensitivity that we have got so far. What she perceives, what she is sensitive to and the way she reacts leads to one and the same inner story.

I move her to one more uncompensated area of her life, dreams, in order to understand her experience there and confirm with the rest.]

D: What are your dreams?

P: I dream of :

– My sister’s wedding.

– I passed with highest grades and first rank

– Of my mother hitting me or getting angry at me or not talking to me.

D: How are you with plants?

P: I love plants, nature and greenery. I love flowers; I like roses- pink, light pink/ green colored.

O/E:

General: Emaciated, sunken cheeks, pallor++,

Chest: Rhonchi+ (more on middle and lower lobes bilaterally)

Throat: Congestion+

Understanding:

Her entire sensitivity revolves around the issue of being beaten from scale, stones, injury, fall, bite, getting punished, etc. The sensation that she experiences is as if beaten hard, like a punch or as if burnt or scalded, where there is redness, swelling, and pain and there is aggravation from slightest touch.

Her reaction with anger also reflects her sensation of being punched, she wants to hit the opposite person hard and this is again expressed through the same hand gesture that she used to describe her experience of being beaten and punched.

Her fears and feeling of being insulted also ultimately lead to “hitting”.

In dreams she also sees herself being beaten by her mother for her mistakes.

Kingdom:

The issue here is her sensitivity towards a particular sensation (phenomenon) that she experiences deep within. This experience that we identify as a core/central/vital experience/vital sensation in varied circumstances stops at her being sensitive towards it. It has no further turns that either lead to structural concerns (mineral kingdom) or survival/hierarchical concerns (animal kingdom). This points towards the plant kingdom.

Levels of Experience:

Level 1, Name:

Asthma, cough, cold

P/H: Jaundice, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, fever

Level 2, Fact:

Cough < sitting

< lying

Chest pain < right side

With fever, pain, burning < slightest touch

Nausea < sight of food (common symptom with jaundice)

Level 3, Feeling:

Fear of being punished

Fear of being beaten

Fear of injections

Insulted

Shy

Friendless

Level 4, Delusion:

As if electric current passed through the body

As if pricked by something

As if touched by a hot vessel

As if burned /scalded

As if hit by stones

As if beaten from inside

As if constantly pricked by many needles

Level 5, Sensation:

Hit, Beaten, Blunt Injury (Punch), Fall, Burnt, Scald, Insult

Slightest Touch <

Active Reaction:

Hits with anger

Passive Reaction:

Weakness,

Tired, can’t hold herself, falling down

Severe lassitude

Family: Compositae /Asteraceae (Beating, Blunt Injury (Punch), Insult, Burn, Scald)

Miasm: sycotic:

Avoids getting punished

Avoids being beaten

I can’t do any thing!

Remedy: Senecio aureus

Senecio aureus from Complete Repertory:

Remedy given: Senecio 200C, one dose

(In the initial years of my practice, I was not familiar with the idea of potency selection according to the level of experience of a person. Hence I prescribed 200C potency. Her level of experience being Delusion, she could have received 1 M potency.)

Follow up: 16 April 2004

Better.

No asthma attacks.

Appetite is good but not proper in the last day.

Plan: Placebo

Follow up: 30 April 2004

No problems.

No cold/ cough/asthma.

No weakness.

Plan: Placebo

Follow up: 28 May 2004

Good.

No problems, no asthma attacks.

Dream: going out of station for educational purpose.

Dream: of attending wedding.

Tension: about studies as her lesson and homework is incomplete, scared of teacher but intensity of fear is much less.

No irritability, feel like working hard.

Plan: Placebo

Follow up: 2 August 2004

Cough last two days, headache from tension regarding exams.

Plan: Senecio 200C, one dose

Follow up: 16 August 2004

Now better.

No cough, no headache, no dreams.

Pain in (Rt.) hypochondrium

Plan: Placebo

Follow up: 24 September 2004

All well. No problems.

No colds/no asthma all these days.

I feel energetic.

No mental tension or worries.

Plan: Placebo

Follow up: 29 October 2004

In between had little cold and cough that lasted for two days and then recovered.

Fungal infection over hands.

Plan: Placebo

Last follow up: 18 November 2004

D: Tell me how are you and how do you feel after medications?

P: Previously there was a lot of cough. Also there was lot of burning sensations in my stomach, which is no more now. I do have a little bit of cough at present but no more burnings now. Asthma does not occur with cough even if it lasts for more days. Previously prolonged cough would lead to attacks of asthma.

D: What used to happen in asthma?

P: There were problems with breathings, but now no such problems.

D: How frequently did you get that?

P: Like that time, with cough lasting for more than two to three days, asthma would start. But now even if cough prolongs, there is no asthma.

D: How often did you get that problem? What was the frequency like?

P: It used to be like once the coughing starts, I would get two to three episodes of asthma in a weeks time and I had to take some medicines to get well.

D: What medicines you used then?

P: Some tablets my family physician prescribed me that only. But even with the medications, there was no relief in cough, so then he suggested your name, and after your treatment, there is no such problem.

D: So, what was the frequency of cough and asthma then?

P: It would start with cough leading to asthma.

D: And then last for a week and then you had to under go medications but still it didn?t go?

P: Yes.

D: So, how is that now?

P: Now I don’t get it that often. I get cough only when I have cold drinks, but that also improved with your pills and no asthma attacks.

D: It’s now almost six months that we have started your homoeopathic treatment, how many times did you get the attack of asthma?

P: Not a single time; even cough also must have happened only two to three times in last six months.

D: In what other ways do you feel difference?

P: My mood, which was very irritable, now it’s not that ways. I was very lazy then, kind of no keenness to do my homework or any other work but now I am not like that, now I feel very fresh and enthusiastic.

D: What other changes?

P: There was fear also, now I am not scared.

D: What was your fear like?

P: Like teacher will bit me, scold me, any body will scold me like that.

D: Explain more?

P: Meaning, before, if I would do some mistake, I used to feel very scared that what if teacher would bit me like or scold me, but now I don’t have that fear in my mind like. Now, even in my dreams, no such fear.

D: What used to happen in dreams?

P: That some one is beating me or scolding me like that. But now no such dreams.

D: Now how are your dreams?

P: Good, happy dreams (smile on her face) like I am passing with good marks.

D: How is your laziness?

P: Previously, I really used to feel very much lazy to do my homework as I almost always suffered with cough, so there was no desire only to do any work. But now I do my homework with interest as now no cough is there.

D: You told me about irritation, what used to cause that?

P: If anybody wouldn’t listen to what I said, I would get irritated. I got angry also on my mother if she would not listen to me. (Laughs)

D: And with anger, what you used to do?

P: If, it were my mother, then I would answer back and argue with her in anger, but if it was my brother then I used to feel like giving him a slap or hit him hard. (Laughs)

But now, no such anger even if some one does not listen to me / agree with me.

D: Any fever episodes in between?

P: No.

D: How is your energy level overall?

P: Previously, because of my problem, my appetite was very bad, like I didn’t eat many things that I disliked. So I was very weak but now I eat every thing. I feel hungry also so now no weakness. I feel full of energy now.

D: How was the weakness like?

P: I could not lift anything like even if I had to lift a table; I couldn’t – that much weak. But now I can lift it without any problem.

D: At present, how are you?

P: I am fine. Only little bit of cough I have otherwise I am good. I am waiting for my results.

Plan: Placebo.

I asked her to stop the medications (since she had no Problems) and see me only if she has any more problems.