Ghana Diaries: Homeopathy in the Field (Part Two)
by Richard Pitt
January 2009
An English volunteer Rob and I are now in Kumasi, about 150 miles from Accra, the capital. We are here to do some teaching of homeopaths in the region and have been joined by another English/Israeli homeopath. There are a number of practitioners here, but mostly they do combination remedies. So we are here to bring the good word of Hahnenmann and the single remedy.
We had an interesting case today. A 68 year old man with intense shaking of both hands and a severe stitching pain in his sacral area, making him walk bent, and more recently pain in the coccyx after having a herbal enema by a local herbalist. He also has diabetes and is taken tablets for it for the last 10 years. The shaking is worse when he is hungry and much better after eating. He has been informally diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease . That was the case. We could not get any other information from him. The shaking is the same whether he is holding something or not. In his life he worked as an anesthetist in a hospital. He had no significant medical history or other general factors. So based on the information we had, I could see no other remedy than Plumbum, which has the shaking very strongly, has paralytic type pains (which the back could indicate further neurological damage occurring and also is a remedy for diabetes and is worse fasting). We asked him to get his blood sugar and urine level checked again in case it needs adjusting. We had to go on the major keynote in the case and let’s hope it works.
We had a case come back that we had given Stannum to one month ago. She came with this chronic cough which was worse for exertion, bending forward, walking at all. She would hold her chest when coughing and would get a headache from it. She could cough non stop it seemed for hours. She was extremely short of breath made worse by the least exertion and by coughing. The cough was dry, with little expectoration brought up. I suspected she had bronchiectasis. This was not just a simple cough and therefore the remedy had to cover the depth of the pathology. From this description I suspected Stannum and so asked a leading question. “Sorry, but I wondered whether you have a hollow sensation in the chest.” She said she did and that was enough. One month later, she is doing generally much better. She still coughs some but her breathing is better and she can walk further than before. I told her it would take six months to really make a difference and that she should come back each month for more medicine.
Some cases take a lot of work to get symptoms from. Mostly they are being translated for me so that in itself takes time. But often, people volunteer very little information and unless one strikes lucky early on with a few good keynotes, it is a relentless search until enough information is found. One woman came to the clinic recently. She was 52 and complained of trembling of the head with palpitation. She has 5 children but her husband died a long time ago. The palpitations only started in the last day and she also had nausea and vomiting. She said the palpitations would get better after she vomited. She said one week ago she had a fever, was tested for malaria, which was negative but then the fever continued all week. However, when her temperature was taken last week, it was only 36.9, so we weren’t sure it was actual fever. She said the palpitations only began in the last day when she was considering going to the hospital and how she was going to pay for it. She said that in the last days she has felt dizziness, with the feeling as if she’s drunk. She has nausea with the dizziness.
That was basically it and this took me about 20 minutes to get when including all the translating. (I learnt later that she is being pursued emotionally by a man who is already married, but who has left his wife and children and his wife is bringing legal action against him. But she is letting herself be involved with him.) The only other observation about her is that she seemed exhausted, sitting back in the chair with her head resting or leaning forward against a low wall.
There are times in cases where it seems all the questions that can be asked have been asked and yet it is really not enough. Some cases here simply do not offer the opportunity for more chronic or constitutional style of prescribing and one has to give a remedy based on what one has. Also, it is in these cases where some kind of intuition can kick in, however inconsistent this may be. In this case, I looked up the rubric: head, trembling and shaking and then vertigo, as if intoxicated and also with nausea. The remedy had to ideally have a couple of these symptoms in it and also cover her general exhausted state. Gelsemium came to mind initially but with the symptom: dizziness as if she was drunk, then I considered Cocculus, which was confirmed with the trembling of the head. I have often found Gelsemium and Cocculus to be similar and needing differentiation. Both have the weakness, heaviness, neurological conditions and an over emotional condition. Cocculus in particular can be impressionable to emotions, easily worried, becoming weak and worn out easily, as from nightwatching, a key symptom of the remedy. Maybe this is what is meant in the books by “sensitive, romantic girls and lighthaired, timid, nervous, persons etc.” They suffer easily from too much strain and in this case, her concern of going to the hospital was like the mental symptom “thoughts fixed on one unpleasant subject, sits as if absorbed in deep and sad thoughts and observes nothing about her.” Both remedies have the dizziness but Cocculus in particular has the vertigo as if drunk and in Phatak, it states it has dizziness, with nausea and with palpitation. So Cocculus was given.
Another case came to us. A 40 year old woman who was holding a cloth to her left eye. She said she had eye pain, as if the eye would come out of the skull. She said nothing went in the eye, no injury or anything. This has been happening 6 days now, not all the time but in the last 24 hours it has been fairly constant. The pain is bursting and a feeling of the eye coming out. She also has a pain above the left eyebrow. The pain is also sharp. Even though she puts pressure on the eye, it doesn’t relieve. There is no lachrymation or and the eye is not bloodshot. She has some blurred vision in the left eye. Again, that was it. It didn’t seem connected to a chronic headache, to any other condition and was more likely a case of ciliary neuralgia. Based on this, my main differentiation was between Spigelia and Prunus Spinosa. Spigelia is found in the rubric, eye, pain, pressing outward, and Prunus in the rubric eye, pain, bursting although Prunus in the materia medica has the pressing outward pain. Spigelia has more affinity for the left and Prunus for the right. However, I chose to give Prunus spinosa. I wanted more sharp, stitching pain for Spigelia and she distinctly said it was a bursting feeling.
An 85 year old man came to us with vertigo. A farmer, he seemed in remarkably good shape for his age. But 3 months ago, he developed vertigo which is worse if he sits up in a chair. He can go blank and fall sideways to the ground. It is worse in the morning if he’s hungry or forgets to eat much. It first began one year ago, at a funeral, where he drank some liquor and didn’t eat. He suddenly fell to the ground and since then has had these symptoms, but only every few months. His wife died some years ago and he now has responsibility for everything. He used to drink a lot of liquor, especially at funerals. The vertigo is also worse lying on the left side. He has no other complaints.
So, I looked up the modalities of the vertigo, especially being worse from hunger, from lying on left side, with tendency to fall, especially to the side and nausea with vertigo. I also used the rubric, generalities, fasting agg. So, based on the aetiology of fasting and alcohol and the falling to the side, I decided to give Nux vomica. No other medicine seemed indicated.
One other case which was rather difficult was a 25 year old woman who came with a dry, scaly skin eruption which is on her arms, back and chest. It is very itchy and is worse from hot water and bathing in general. The skin feels very dry. She also gets body pain, with itching and burning. She got one boil on the arm from scratching which got infected. This is all she could give us. But when I asked about her general situation, she told us that her husband has married another woman and she doesn’t agree with this. She has six children with this man and he is now living with this other woman. She is feeling angry with her husband about this. Even getting this much information was hard. She didn’t want to tell us anything about it and after telling us this much, she basically didn’t have more to say. But at least we had something to go on. The skin symptoms alone were not enough to lead us to a remedy but the last information made us consider Staphysagria for her. It covers the skin symptoms and obviously is indicated for the type of personal situation this woman finds herself in.
We had another case today of an 18 year old man who had come the week before with a fever, abdominal pain, a headache which he had for 3 days and some joint pains. A malaria test was done on him but it tested negative. At that time we were not around so he wasn’t treated homeopathically. He was given malaria medications anyway, just in case. The malaria test only tests for one type of malaria, which although the most common form here – and the most serious type of malaria – is not the only form of malaria. However, nearly one week later, although some symptoms seemed better to begin with, he now has a recurrence of his symptoms. He has an intense abdominal pain, which is > lying and < standing. He has joint pains and overall aching and a low grade fever. He answered our questions with some difficulty. I was not sure if it was weakness or that he simply didn’t want to answer our questions. I know it’s not easy to answer a homeopath when you’re feeling really ill and you’re being bombarded with questions! He had a headache for 3 days before the other symptoms began. When the fever came, he was weak with it and he had some chills. It came on two days around 5-6pm. The fever only returned today. He has had no diarrhea and now has no appetite. He had some nausea but that has been OK since yesterday.
At this point, I was considering Nux vomica, thinking that it may still be malaria and I couldn’t see any other remedy. I then wondered if he may have typhoid and as he was looking so ill, it was agreed that he should have a typhoid test, which was done at the clinic. It tested positive! This is important news. Typhoid is not always easy to diagnose. The classic abdominal symptoms and diarrhea do not always show up and it can be a very serious and life threatening disease if allowed to progress. So I asked more questions and all the time differentiating between the main typhoid remedies. He confirmed that his joints were aching and that he wanted to lie down a lot. He said he was feeling tired and sleepy and also that he prefers to be alone and be quiet. His headache is coming on and off and tends to come suddenly. I spoke to his auntie who brought him and she said that he has been in terrible pain in the abdomen and was always lying down and was restless with the pain. So, here I am now deciding between Bryonia and Gelsemium. Both are big typhoid remedies. I asked a leading question as to how irritable he felt and he said he did and again that he wanted to be left alone. This is partly how I felt from him when asking him questions. But still, both remedies came up strongly. However, Bryonia seemed the stronger remedy here and has more of the intense abdominal symptoms with typhoid. So I gave Bryonia 1m, in water, to be repeated twice in the evening and four times tomorrow. I shall check in with him in 24 hours to see how he is doing.
Emperor, our Ghanaian homeopath had this case yesterday, of a 15 year old girl who came with an intense skin condition. Someone had sprinkled some powder on the skin, which comes from a bush with seeds that creates intense skin symptoms. She had such bad itching and she wanted to scratch herself naked. She was crying intensely. He gave her Aconite 10m and it stopped immediately. She immediately fell asleep and woke up 30 minutes later, feeling better. He gave it to her because of the fright she felt.
Today, I had a case come of a woman with an intense back pain. She was carried in by two people and was lying on the bed in the room, in terrible pain. She was brought by her husband’s brother. She had worked on the farm the day before, but nothing happened, there was no trauma. She said one week ago she bled and that she was 3 months pregnant. We suspected that she had miscarried. But there was no other symptoms. She said the pain was worse for motion but other than that she couldn’t say anything. The pain was obviously very intense. I gave her one dose of Bryonia 1m. Immediately she became restless and this continued for 15 minutes, but there was no improvement. I then gave her Rhus tox 200c, one dose. She continued to be restless and the pain seemed to get worse over a 15 minute period. She then started weeping with pain and was extremely restless. I looked over the two rubrics, weeping from pain and restless from pain and compared Chamomilla, Coffea and Colocynthis and also looked at Eupatorium perf. In the end I chose Coffea simply based on the severity of the pain and gave her one dose of 200c. Within one minute she stopped weeping and became quiet. Within another few minutes, she fell asleep and stayed there for about two hours. When she woke up, she was much better. We then took her temperature, which was high and did a malaria test, which was negative.
We saw the return of a patient, a 50 year old man who gets a recurrent bout of diarrhea, about once a month. It comes mostly at night and he will go many times in the night. If he doesn’t take medications it can continue for days, if not weeks and is like dysentery. He takes flagyl and antibiotics. It began 18 months ago. He gets frequent urging and the stool is watery, occasionally bloody, but not that offensive. He can have an urge to go even after going for stool. He has wind and gas with the stool. He used to have gurgling in the abdomen and then an urging to go. The stools at times can be explosive. His other symptom is a chronic headache that he gets most days. The pain is in the forehead. When the pain is intense, he says he can’t talk. The headache can come on worse at night and he will wake at 2-3am and take painkillers. There were no other modalities. He came across as a pleasant, easy going man. The most obvious remedy to consider here was Podophylum. However, given the history of drug use and my basic “instinct” about the man, I chose to give Sulphur LM1 which he took for 10 days. When he returned two months later, he said he only had two mild bouts of the diarrhea and didn’t need to take any medication. This is the best it’s been in a long time. The headaches are still there though, no change there. I decided to give Sulphur LM2 single dose daily for 2-3 weeks and then come back. It could be the headaches are connected to a history of malaria and therefore remedies like China, China sulph or Gelsemium could be considered.
A 40 year old woman came two months ago with bleeding from the rectum and vagina. It is worse when she has general body pains and has been happening for 10 years. She said the bleeding used to be profuse but not connected to the menses. The blood can be both bright and dark, with clots at times. She said the bleeding from the rectum comes in clots and is more profuse. When it comes it can last two weeks, whereas the bleeding in the vagina lasts only 3 days. She has piles in the rectum. The bleeding is worse when she gets a severe backache which she does before her period each month. She said it is bursting pain. The bleeding gets worse every two months, lasts about two weeks and after the bleeding, the pile disappears. She can also have a pain in the rectum like a knife, cutting. It can feel hot in the rectum and she can have an odor like rotten meat, which is worse when the blood is dark. She gets dizziness and severe headaches, which can be throbbing and her vision gets blurred, which is worse at night and she can fall down. Her menses can be irregular now and she has only had it three times in the last year. Her appetite is low and she is losing weight. This is worse in the last 3 months. Her appetite is worse in the last month since her brother died. It also got worse in the past when her mother died. She prefers the cold, rainy season. Her character is such that she is quick tempered. She says she doesn’t hold onto her feelings. She likes to be alone as she doesn’t like to speak with lots of people as they will talk about what she says inaccurately. When feeling stress, she will go on her own to cry. Her only worry is her sickness. She has 3 living children who are living at home. They have finished their education and she is waiting to see what they will do. She used to have a yellow leukorrhoeal discharge a while ago with an odor like spoilt milk. Her stool is such that she goes every 3-4 days, and it is often like sheep dung. She has to strain to go. She urinates 4-8 times a night and gets a pain if she can’t go immediately.
This case was very difficult to take. It was hard to get her to be precise with her symptoms, which is compounded by the translation issues. She came across as angry, embittered and generally unhappy. In many situations here I study the face of people and attempt to understand them by the impressions given by their face. This lady was not a happy camper. I was not clear exactly where all the bleeding came from, but I focused mainly on the idea of the piles, the bleeding, the knife like pains, her basic nature and the demeanor she gave off by her facial expressions. Based on that, it seemed clear that I had to give Nitric acid. I didn’t really bother to repertorize her symptoms although no doubt Nitric acid would have come up. So Nitric acid LM 1 was given.
One month later, she returned saying that for 5 days after the remedy, her pains increased in the rectum. After that the pains got much better and are still better now. She said she had tingling in the palms and soles which is also better. Her menses came 3 days after she took the remedy but the back pain didn’t come. Her appetite is better and her urination is much better, only going one time in the night. She had some old pains in the urethra return but they are now also better. That was it. A good case of an aggravation and then amelioration on all levels. So, I gave her a dose of Nitric acid 30c in water and we will see her in another month.
We heard from the young man with Typhoid that he was no better and was taken to hospital. I was disappointed to hear that. I was quietly confident that Bryonia would do more for him. We didn’t see him the next day and I was going to drive to his home but then we heard that he had gone to hospital.
We saw an old patient the other day, that had been given Trombidium by the visiting Indian homeopaths last November. It was given mainly on the keynote of Diarrhea immediately after eating. It had a miraculous effect for quite a while but then when I saw him in February, it had relapsed and he had chronic diarrhea and was looking emaciated. This is another case which we can suspect HIV infection but he had not been tested even though he had been to the hospital. Based on the symptoms at the time I gave Arsenicum album LM 1. Soon after that he went to a prayer camp for a few weeks. We recommended he return to the hospital for further tests, including a HIV test, if he does not get any better.
A 35 year old man came saying he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He told us he went to a doctor at a “computer” hospital who took a sample of hair and gave him this diagnosis. He was then given some small white tablets (making us suspect they were homeopathic remedies) which he took. This was originally one year ago. He subsequently went to the regular hospital and had an Xray which was negative. However, he still believes he has a brain tumor.
The 1st symptom he had was a sensation of heat all over the body and palpitations, which he felt in his veins. He felt as if worms were crawling over the body, like fleas inside his body. Every week now he has headaches, and takes painkillers. The pain is throbbing and is felt more in the occiput. He says he can’t read or concentrate with it and can have blurred vision. He said he can’t think that clearly a lot, and feels confused in his mind. He can’t think clearly. He says he can have palpitations with the headache.
He has had no particular medical history. Maybe a little malaria but wasn’t sure.
He said he’s not quick tempered, is patient and generous. He has had a nephew and cousin die around 5 months ago. He wasn’t working for a while but now has a job. He is not married as hasn’t had the money to do so. Both his parents died before he was 12 and he lived with an uncle. He sleeps well and he has one nightmare of being chased and people wanting to put him in a pit. He wakes up with it. It doesn’t happen that often.
He says that along with the fleas feeling on the body, he gets movement in the muscles, which I confirmed to be twitching.
Analysis: this was all we could get in the case. He was difficult to get information from. He seemed very passive and he kept repeating the question, as if he didn’t get the question. It was hard to get him to really say much or to know what he was thinking. The most important thing was his willingness to accept the diagnosis of brain tumor even though an Xray showed nothing.
He seems weak mentally. It was hard to know what he thought and he couldn’t explain himself easily. He said his concentration is difficult and was hard to think in general. The other physical symptoms were not that characteristic except for the feelings on the skin. It is interesting how many people here complain of feelings of heat all over the body.
The following symptoms were chosen:
Mind, concentration difficult.
Mind, confusion, headache during.
Skin, formication.
Generalities, twitching.
Mind, answering, repeats the question first.
Mind, impressionable.
From this analysis, it seems clear that the remedy Zincum metallicum is needed. It has the easy impressionability with the weakness of the mind. It is found in the keynote, confusion during headache and also in repeating the question before answering. It is suited for people easily suppressed by life, their constitution is not that strong and they are affected by their situation too much. It is one of the big remedies for twitching and is strongly indicated when formication is found on the skin.
He was told that it was “unlikely” that he had a brain tumor, but time will tell when the remedy works. Ideally he will drop this idea on his own. In situations like this, it is not good to insist that his delusion is wrong. It needs to happen by itself.
Zincum LM2 was given, 1 teaspoon to be taken daily.
A 39 year old man came with intense itching of the testes that began 2 years ago. It then spread to the whole body, including his head. Blisters form when scratching and scratching in general aggravates, especially on the head. Yellowish water comes out from blisters when scratching. It is worse in the open air and when he undresses. It is also worse at night and when in sunshine. The area of skin affected can turn blackish after scratching. Three years ago, he thought he was “jujud” (like a spell put on him) by workers. He had chills and threw up food. It lasted three weeks. Then the skin thing began a few months later. He has been to many hospitals but no improvement. It now begins in the head and moves to his back and other parts.
He has had some depression due to the death of his children. The last one died 8 years ago. The grief lasted a long time. Another child died 2 years before that. Both were miscarriages. They weren’t born yet but died at birth. He has two living children, one with each of his two wives.
The only medical history he had was a history of gonorrhea before he was married. He had pains with urinating and some discharge. He was given medicine for it.
Mentally he says he is quick tempered. He said when people don’t do things right, he doesn’t forget easily.
Analysis: This is not a detailed case. There was not a lot of information go on. However, there are some characteristic features.
The are of skin affected is interesting, as the scrotum, genitalia area is strong here. Ideally a remedy that has this area of affinity would be good. The yellow watery liquid from the vesicles is also somewhat characteristic. Mentally, I didn’t take the idea of being jujud that seriously. Many people here believe in this. It is part of the culture and therefore less characteristic. However, the depression is significant. Although the loss of two children at birth is indeed a traumatic event, in Africa it is not uncommon and many parents experience the loss of one or more of their children. It is mostly accepted and part of a broader fatalistic attitude toward life. His long term depression therefore does seem significant. The other mental symptom is that he does not forget easily when people do things that are not right. The other major event is his history of gonorrhea.
Rubrics chosen:
Mind, ailments, from grief.
Male, eruptions/itching scrotum; itching scrotum.
Skin, eruptions, vesicular, watery; yellow.
Mind, dwells on past disagreeable occurrences.
Generalities, gonorrhea suppressed.
Based on this repertorization and analysis, the clearest remedy is Natrum sulphuricum. It is found in the skin rubrics well as the mind symptoms and of course is found in the history of gonorrhea.
Rx Natrum sulph LM 2 1 tsp daily
Thuja, Medorrhinum and Natrum mur could be considered if the remedy doesn’t work as well as expected.
A 52 year old woman came with chronic back pain which extends to the thighs and which is worse from coughing and sneezing and the least motion. The symptoms developed gradually over the last year. She has some palpitations and hot flashes. Her menses have been regular but she missed it in April. Generally she would get abdominal cramps before her period. She was on Depo-Provera shots for a some years, but none for 6 years.
Mentally, nothing much was revealed although she admits to checking things when she comes back into the house.
Analysis: So we chose to base our prescription on these symptoms. One of the decisions to be made in cases here is when to go into a more constitutional analysis and when to prescribe on the presenting symptoms; also when to decide when a condition is acute or really chronic. Obviously taking a chronic case in most situations is more effective and gives more information to work on. However, in some cases there seems little to get and no real “energy” to pursue this avenue of thought. People come with a specific condition and are looking for a remedy for that. They are not primed at all to go into other areas and so often do not offer much information.
In this case, the immediate symptoms lead one to consider Bryonia but if one takes the rubric: Back, pain < cough, sneezing and extending down to thighs, it brings up other remedies. Also the fact that she is in menopause and having hot flashes and also the history of being on Depo-Provera makes us consider Sepia strongly, which is also found in the back pain < coughing and also extending down the thighs.
So given the information we have in the case, Sepia seems the best choice. Again, this is not based on a full constitutional picture but on the most characteristic symptoms revealed in the case plus taking into consideration the menopausal phase of life. Sometimes in homeopathy this is enough. Why continue to dig if symptoms are there. This type of analysis is interesting in light of the tendency in the “west” to always dig deeper, to seek the core level of consciousness in the case, the constitional analysis, the core sensation or delusion etc. Everything has its place but the beauty of homeopathy is that there are many ways to get the information and sometimes the most important information can be right in front of you. There is no need to make it too complicated.
Rx Sepia 30c BD for 5 days.
A 28 year old woman came in complaining of pain in the right eye and which has pus coming out in the morning. It has been reddish in the last 6 weeks. She was told by one hospital she had an injury in the eye and was given drops but the problem has continued. She gets lachrymation in the right eye and said it feels like there is sand in the eye. The pain is constant and she has difficulty sleeping at night. It can wake her up and then it’s painful to close the eye again. She has more photophobia, both for sunlight and artificial light. She also has itching on eye and says at times it feels as if she has a hair on the eye.
We asked when the pain started and was there anything else happening. One of the tendencies here is that people tell you just the minimum amount of information. One has to keep digging and digging until more information is forthcoming.
She said that the symptoms began with a general body pain. She had malaria with chills and then the pain in the eye came on. The malaria has been an ongoing chronic problem since she had typhoid 15 years before. Since then she has had frequent bouts of fever, every 2-3 months.
So now we have a better picture with more of an etiology. We need a remedy that covers chronic malaria as well as the eye symptoms. Two of the main remedies indicated are Cedron and Natrum mur. However, the eye symptoms of Cedron tend to be more acute and stitching in nature. Natrum mur strongly has the sand in the eye feeling and the photophobia. Also, it is one of the main remedies for symptoms that stem from malaria and where there is a strong periodicity of the attacks. It is also one of the main remedies to consider when headaches in general stem from malaria.
So Natrum mur 30c daily in liquid was given, for at least one week.
Another case of a 30 year old woman was a little similar. She presented with a headache that she has had for the last month and a back pain which she’s had for 7 years. The back pain comes with much stiffness and she has great difficulty straightening up after sitting. The pain is < sitting, standing and even lying down. She feels the stiffness from her neck down.
The head pain is around the eyes and the forehead. She has also pain in the neck. The pain is < moving the eyes, her vision is somewhat blurred and she has lachrymation in the eyes which is < from reading. This is < before the head pain comes on and the lachrymation is < when in a crowd.
She now gets her menses twice a month, lasting 7 days each and has profuse bleeding. She has some pain cramping in the abdomen during her period. However, she is on the birth control pill for the last 6 years, after the birth of her 3rd child. The same thing happened when she was on the BCP after the birth of her 1st child.
Her job was a farmer so she has had to do much physical work, which is very common here. Many people come with back problems due to the nature of the physical work they do, including carrying heavy weights on the head.
So this is all the information I had and initially I was thinking that a remedy for her back needed to be given and given her work history I was looking at the obvious chronic injury remedies. Of these Ruta and Rhus tox seemed the best. However, I also thought that the headaches could be due to eyestrain and interestingly Ruta is in the rubric lachrymation when reading. So I was thinking of Ruta when she told us that the headache has come on at the same time as she has had chills, which is most likely to be malaria. She has had malaria before, always with chills and tends to get headaches then.
So I reviewed the remedy and decided to give Natrum mur again. Here is a case with most likely two dissimilar diseases in place. One remedy should not be found for both conditions. The back problem in this case is mostly likely traumatic in origin and so Ruta may well be a good remedy for her, but first the headache and history of malaria needs to be addressed. So Natrum mur 30c twice daily for one week was given.
In another case of two dissimilar illnesses coexisting, we had an 84 year old man who came in with hip pain from a fall he had in 2005. He fell on his backside and his right leg was under his left. He most likely dislocated his hip. He spent 7 months in hospital, but no operation was done. It seems inconceivable to us from the west that a man with such an injury can spend so long in hospital. Often it is a way for the hospital to make money even if the patient doesn’t need to be there. So now, he gets an intense pain in the hip on standing, on rising and standing on the hip. It is always < when he first gets going and now he has lost strength in the leg.
His other problem is respiratory where he has insufficient breath when he gets up, which is < in the last 2 ½ months. His breathing is noisy and the difficult respiration is < from motion. He can have thick, yellowish expectoration. When he can’t breathe he will open his mouth to see if he can get more air. He has no breath to blow out the lantern. He feels no energy in his feet and trembles when rising from sitting.
When he mentioned about opening his mouth to get air, I suspected a remedy and asked if he wants to be fanned, and he said yes, he fans himself to get more air in.
So now I have two distinct remedies here. For the hip injury Rhus tox and ruta are indicated and I chose Ruta again. However, Rhus tox will probably work as well. For the respiratory problem, Carbo veg is obviously indicated. However, it may well be he is heading toward heart failure and as such Kali carb should mostly likely follow Carbo veg.
So I decided to start with Ruta and give it in 30c for about two weeks. We will then review his symptoms and most likely move to Carbo veg at that point and then see how far that goes before considering Kali carb.
An 18 year old woman came with asthma. She has had it for 4 years and it is worse every rainy season and when she catches a cold. In other seasons, it may come only once every 2 months but during the rainy season she will get it every 1-2 weeks. It nearly always begins with sneezing and then her respiration gets <. The breathing is always > when in open air and < in a warm room. It is also < around midnight to 1am. She also gets a head pain, a bursting feeling which is < in the rainy season and when cold. She has no other complaints. Her period is regular.
Mentally she is friendly, likes being in company. She has a fear of the dark and wants to the light on when sleeping. She is not keen generally on being alone. She has now finished school and wants to be a seamstress. Her parents have no money to send her to college.
So, in this case, we have the great etiology of being < in the rainy season. This is very nice to have in such a case and we have the modalities of the breathing being < in a warm room and open air. The only other symptom is the fear of the dark. So, the remedies to consider, especially for the agg. from damp and cold are Dulcamara, Medorrhinum. Natrum sulph and Pulsatilla. The modalities of the breathing are most clearly found in Pulsatilla and the fear of the dark also confirms this. Dulcamara could be a good bet simply on the aggravation from the damp and cold but all things considered Pulsatilla is a good choice here. Perhaps homeopathy can be easy after all!!