Homeopathy Papers

Tidbits 72: Pain-Free After Heart Surgery

Written by Elaine Lewis

Thanks to homeopathic remedies, our 17-year-old patient, with a congenital heart defect, breezed through heart surgery!

We have a special guest with us today!  You may remember Laurie from the many Quizzes she’s been in, including:

Revisiting: Head Injury!

and

Revisiting: Inept Nursing Leads To Screaming!

 

Laurie had read my article “Pain-Free After Surgery”

 

Tidbits-18: Pain-Free After Surgery With Homeopathy!

 

so she was ready when her son was diagnosed with 3 holes in his heart!

Laurie, welcome to the fabulous Hpathy Space Station and Salad Bar!

You’re right, Elaine, it is fabulous!  (Though I had some trouble finding it.)  It’s great to be back at Hpathy.com!  My son, “Vladimir”, at age 17 was recently discovered to have 3 holes in his heart that needed surgical repair.

What were the symptoms that led to the discovery of the 3 holes?

They were picked up on an abnormal EKG.  So, having read your article, “Pain-Free After Surgery”, and having used many of those remedies in prior procedures, I felt as prepared as ever going into the surgery.

The only remedy I gave prior to surgery was Gelsemium 200C. 

 

I knew my son would respond well to this remedy for the anxiety he was experiencing because we had used it prior to the many tests he needed leading up to surgery.  I had to give it the day before and repeat it the morning of surgery too.

Laurie, what indicated the need for Gelsemium?

Lots of anxiety as he anticipated the procedure and he has a fear of doctors anyway.

Say no more, say no more.

I have tried Aconite in this case before and it didn’t help at all, so when he had to have all his tests leading up to it, I tried Gelsemium and he was much calmer.  I really needed a 1M in this case though.  The 200C was really not enough.

Pay attention to this, folks.  A 30C Emergency Kit is nice to have but it’s really not going to cut it in extreme cases.  Plan on ordering your Emergency remedies in higher potencies.

In spite of the pandemic, his father and I were allowed in the recovery room and to be with him until he was released from the hospital, thank goodness.  I know that can be a huge challenge right now as families are not allowed to be with their loved ones in every case.

No kidding!  I haven’t heard of any exception being made to this.

I think it was only because the surgery was done in a children’s hospital.

Oh, a children’s hospital!  Well that’s different.  Never mind!

One other thing I will add is that there must be “stealth” involved in giving remedies in a hospital.  My husband was often a look-out and he would sometimes block the view of staff in recovery when it is much more challenging to administer them.

OMG!  You’re right!  I’m surprised you were allowed in the recovery room at all!  And yes, there are always people milling around, no privacy.

I never, ever let a medical professional in the hospital see that I had remedies or see that I was giving them.  This was not the time for me to argue the virtues of homeopathy.

Absolutely, they’d have taken the remedies away from you!

I was there to give my son what I knew to be the best choice to help him heal and to not be questioned or maybe even sent away during his recovery.  You really never know these days!

As soon as we saw him in recovery, I gave him a dose of Phosphorus 200C. 

I know the primary indications would be for nausea and bleeding, but I find it also lifts anesthesia very quickly for my children.  I can literally watch them coming out of the stupor within minutes!  It’s amazing!

So that’s Phosphorus, huh?  Good to know!

After about 15 minutes, I gave him Arnica 10M. 

For pain, this is my go-to after surgery.

In this case, the devices used to repair the holes in his heart were implanted via heart catheterization.  There were no sutures on the two incisions in his femoral vein and artery, so he had to lie flat and not move for 6 hours.  I gave him Calendula 200C to help speed the healing of the incisions.

His first complaint was his throat hurting from the breathing tube.  I repeated the Calendula 200C and he no longer complained of that.

Laurie, what does that tell us about Calendula?  Since Calendula is famous for “cuts and scrapes”, can we assume that the breathing tube “scraped” his throat?

I think we can assume that, yes.  He was having a lot of trouble at this point with urinating as well.  He couldn’t seem to go very easily.  I had this same problem after surgery a few years ago, so I brought Causticum 200C with me.  I gave him a dose and this problem went away.

How quickly?

I’d say in half an hour.  At the end of the 5 hours we had a complication as his venous incision began bleeding.

Let me guess, they gave him an anti-coagulant!

Definitely.  After 45 minutes of pressure (I could not give a remedy then as the place was swarming with staff), he was starting over lying flat until morning.  After the crowd dispersed, I gave him another dose of Phosphorus 200C to help stop the bleeding, then a dose of Nux-vomica 200C when I learned that they had given him Heparin to prevent clots.

What made you land on Nux vomica to antidote Heparin?

It’s known to clear other drugs and anesthesia from the body, so why not Heparin?

Why not, indeed!

It seemed like the best choice since I couldn’t get my hands on Heparin to make a remedy out of it.

Great information about Nux vomica!

His other chief complaint that first evening was the pain at his IV sites.  There were THREE of them.  This is common in major surgeries, but as long as he was in ICU, they would not remove them.  The first remedy I gave was Ledum 200C.  This did not seem to help, so I switched to Hypericum 200C and that helped the most with his pain at those sites. 

I will add that he never complained of pain at his incision sites or anywhere other than the IV sites.  He was not sore or otherwise in pain.

Was he offered a morphine drip?

Not morphine, but pain meds, yes.  They really were almost trying to push them on him, but he said he was fine over and over again.

There ya go!

Another new development was that he began to experience an irregular heart beat with double hits and wild variability between 75 and 105 beats.

Yikes!

The doctor explained that they have found this to be rather normal as his body works to “reset” from a lifetime of his heart not working effectively.  I was not satisfied with this answer and reached out to you (Elaine) wondering about the best choice.  You mentioned Spongia and it came back to me that this had been very effective for me with some heart palpitations I had experienced.  I gave him a dose of Spongia 200C and they were gone after 30 minutes.

Wow!  Do you remember how I landed on Spongia?

You found it in the Repertory under “double strokes”.

Oh yeah, I remember that now!  I’m so lucky to have found that rubric!  People don’t know Spongia as a heart remedy, they only know it for dry coughs.

Early the next morning they believed he was bleeding out again, but it turned out to be a bit of “old blood” from the last bleeding episode that the body forced out.  The interesting thing is, if that blood had remained, it would have formed a sizable hematoma.  I credit the Arnica with having dealt with that issue.  The doctor wanted my son to remain flat and not moving until another 6 hours had passed.  He was actually mentally in pretty good spirits at this point, especially considering he had not been allowed up for over 24 hours.

Had he only had the one dose of Arnica 10M?

He had only one dose of Arnica 10M.  I had not seen a reason to repeat it.

Wow, just the one dose!

They did keep asking him about pain and one nurse commented that he must have a high pain tolerance.

Laurie, you and I are living in the space age while the rest of the world is slogging through life on Planet Earth, pointlessly suffering.  I feel sorry for them.

Things remained much the same with him being allowed to sit up at around 30 degrees around lunch on day 2.  I repeated the Hypericum for his IV sites and Calendula for the healing of those incisions.  They looked great and there was no bleeding.

Finally late on day 2, he was allowed up.  He felt fine and was able to go to the bathroom and walk around with no bleeding.  He was discharged by noon the following day.

We returned home, where he immediately complained of feeling constipated.  This is definitely common after surgery.  I gave him a dose of Nux vomica 200C and that was the last I heard of that issue.  He didn’t even need a stool softener.  He went to lie down and sleep since it is so difficult to sleep in the hospital.

Tell me about it!

When he woke, about 5 hours later he told me part of his left hand was numb.  It was not his entire hand and he could feel pressure and would have pins and needles, but no sensation.  I thought it was nerve related since sometimes nerves can be pierced with an IV needle and I gave him another dose of Hypericum 200C.  This did not help.  I waited as we contacted the doctor since there was a risk of a clot and stroke.

Why was there a risk of clot and stroke?

It has to do with implanting the device.

OK, that sounds weird, but I’ll let you go on.

After 15 minutes I tried Nux vomica 200C thinking maybe it was a leftover medication they had given him.  Another 15 minutes, and we were on the way back to the hospital and his leg also had some numbness.  I had reached out to you (Elaine) and you suggested Ledum 200C.

Do you remember why I thought it was Ledum?

You didn’t say but I assumed it was because the problem might have been caused by the IV stick/ puncture wound.

OK, that makes sense.  Ailments from puncture wounds–Ledum.

I gave him a dose and waited.  While we were in the ER waiting, the numbness began to dissipate.  He was evaluated by the physician and we were sent home.

Thank goodness!  Otherwise, I anticipate another night in the hospital, another battery of tests, and in the end, what could they have done for him anyway?

After another 2 hours at home and one repeated dose, his hand and leg returned to normal.

Wonderful!  That was really an unexpected curve thrown at us.  Didn’t see that coming at all!

He experienced no other complications and his incisions healed quite quickly.  The last scab fell off after about 10 days and his check-ups have been perfect.  I did not need to repeat any other remedies.

Well, Laurie, a great success story!  A few glitches (ailments from puncture wounds, ailments from Heparin, pain from IV’s, constipation, trouble urinating, erratic heartbeat–not necessarily in that order) but homeopathy handled them all!  This will be a companion to my “Pain-Free After Surgery With Homeopathy” article.  It’s a real-life example of what you can do to facilitate a good outcome if you ever need surgery!  Thank you for writing this up!

And be careful on your way out, it’s a long drop!

———————————————
Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom

Elaine takes online cases. 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

3 Comments

  • Thanks for sharing Laurie’s story Elaine! Her son was lucky to have a mom open to this. I wonder if Laurie realizes she’s privy to a healing method that’s light years ahead of what conventional doctors are practicing. They’re still scratching their heads about dilution levels.

  • What a great article!!! For some reason, it really resonated with me, even though I haven’t had any heart surgery.

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