Sixth chapter HOMEOPATHIC EXAMINATION Veruska A mother with a daughter came to me. Or rather, as normally happens in such cases, the whole family had arrived, including the father, who also wanted to be present at such a consequential event, as giving the helpless child into the hands of a homeopath. It is very useful to have the whole family present, as it increases the chance of someone remembering the various details concerning the present state of the young patient and the history of his or her health. The eight year old Veruska was what we might call a delicate child. Throughout her life she would have visited a doctor on the average about twice a week. Her troubles had begun at six weeks of age, with an eczema under her arm, on the ears and on her tummy. After a period of aggravation, the eczema had stagnated, while never quite disappearing, but in addition there came an inflammation in both ears. The pain would usually set out in one ear, then move to the other. Later came the recurrent bronchitis. The troubles had always begun first thing in the morning, or during the night. At the same time there was an allergy, coming during the pollen season, manifesting as colds, sneezing and burning in the eyes. Three years ago she had the first bout of pneumonia. Since then, until the homeopathic examination, she had it ten times, the frequency of its occurrence was now down to four each year. The early bouts of pneumonia were accompanied by a high fever, around 40° C, however lately they had passed almost without any fever. Her mother quite correctly had interpreted it as a bad sign, pointing to the overall weakness in her daughter's organism, which was no longer able to mount a reaction. At the same time the parents noticed that during her illness she looked dull, losing all interest, not eating, and that this condition was partially being transmitted into the periods of relative health, between the attacks of illness. The child would continually cough. The spring and to some extent the autumn, were the periods of high risk. The child was missing a lot of her schooling time, often confined to bed. Recently the interval between the bouts of pneumonia was twice filled with a tonsillitis. It was evident that Veruska's overall health condition was constantly and increasingly deteriorating. All her illnesses were duly treated by the allopathic (or orthodox) medical practitioners, so that before her homeopathic examination, the child in her short life had ingested a large amount of antibiotics and other powerful drugs. Veruska had no friends, partially because her recurring illness mostly prevented her from enjoying the company of other children, and also because she was always treated as a delicate child, under a watchful control. The worries of her mother were reinforced by the feeling, that the girl "had taken after her". She too had gone through a great number of illnesses, of a similar character to her child's. For example, up to date, she had pneumonia thirty times. Psychologically, Veruska displayed the somewhat unusual trait that was instantly obvious - she expressed herself during conversation in a very serious and adult manner, as if she would like to stand fully on the intellectual level of an adult. She displayed a great deal of comprehension, while I explained to her parents the principles of homeopathic treatment, her questions were to the point, and they showed understanding. Her vocabulary included the terms that usually occur in grown-up literature and her parents confirmed that she often reads, and also books that are "above her age". She particularly liked the novels by Jules Verne. Her "adult" ways of conduct could have been largely attributed to the fact, that most of her time she spent in the company of adults, constantly staying in the presence of her mother, a translator, who worked mostly from home. Probably contributing to her premature adulthood, was also her hard won life experience, riddled with her illnesses, which suppressed prematurely the child's natural playfulness. Other information from the area of psychology: Bright, unwilling to go to bed at night, prefers to converse with her parents, in the morning sleepy and surly, easy to take an offence and inclined to crawl into a corner and sulk, likes to play her own games, talks to herself aloud, dislikes dogs, who scare her, likes cats. The standard of values similar to her mother's, sometimes she is introspective, "absent-minded", dwelling in an imaginative world. She sleeps uneasily, dreaming of a ghost woman, of sharks, of a dog that seizes her mother. She is ticklish. Some amusing situations (such as when watching cartoons) would make her laugh, wildly and unable to stop. She likes to listen to melodious music. The general information: Wants to be cooled down when having problems, does not like to wear tight clothes, especially around her neck, in winter time refuses to wear scarves, and does not want to have her coat buttoned up to the neck. Hot water in the bath does not suit her, it should be luke-warm. During the spring and in the early spring, she always falls ill. The food: She loves sweets, vegetables, fruits, particularly the apples, strawberries. Likes tomato sauce. The pathology: Frequent cough, her colds have watery beginnings, turning to phlegm and "dropping down the windpipes", usually followed by the cough, first a productive one, dry during pneumonia. Chronic enlargement of the left tonsil. Tonsillitis. Painful joints, ankles and knees, improvement when a cold compress is applied. A smear revealed the bacillus of scarlet fever. Allergy to pollens manifesting through colds, sneezing, burning eyes. An occasional eczema. A low immunity detected. Evaluation of the Case The greatest art in homeopathy is dividing the grain from the chaff, i.e. separating a lot of facts, given by the patient or by the parents, from the valuable information, useful for finding the similimum in the given case. The Materia Medicas, as already stated, cannot describe all the indications to the remedy. They usually only describe how the individual remedies differ from each other, the facts that can contribute to finding the remedy. So first it is necessary to find and sort out the facts that are mentioned in the Materia Medica. The "round talk" we must forget. Further it is necessary to sort out the facts according to their identification value. For instance, the identification value of a symptom such as the cough, is practically zero. Any constitutional type, almost any remedy, is displayed through cough. Under the entry Cough in the repertory, more than two hundred remedies could be found. But we are looking for the one that would cure everything in our patient. Why, aren't we perhaps a little too ambitious, wouldn't it be sufficient giving out the remedy for cough, just for the time being? And the next time (if it works) for something else? The thing is, in homeopathy it does not work like this. The carefully chosen remedy must cover the whole patient and everything about him or her, only then it will gradually cure the cough, the inclination to pneumonia and to tonsillitis, the allergy, the eczema, the nightmares, in short: everything. The improperly chosen remedy (only for the cough), cannot cure anything. At best it might bring a temporary relief, followed by further deterioration of the overall condition. The most valuable, the least uniform, the most individual information, which can help us to achieve the most precise differentiation, concerns the psychology: "Sometimes absent-minded", "prefers to stay alone", "does not like to wear tight clothes, particularly around the neck", "in the morning sleepy and surly", "talkative", "laughing herself to the tears", "introspective". Such information alone, closely binds the circle of remedies that come into consideration. Among them we even find the one key symptom, which is "does not like to be constricted around the neck". Another extremely valuable category of symptoms are the general ones, the reactions that concern the entire organism. "The illness gets worse or begins in the morning, after waking up". "Predominance of symptoms on the left side of the body (enlarged tonsil, pneumonia, pain in the joints)". "The illness comes always in the spring, or in the early spring". Eureka! We have found three more keynotes, key symptoms! And as we have four altogether, we know which remedy it is, and we should only quickly check the other information, to see if it fits the picture of the remedy, in case something might contradict it. And we find no contradictions. According to the overall picture of the symptoms, the result is Lachesis Mutus, a quite commonly indicated constitutional remedy. Discovered by the famous Constantin Hering. The whole pathology fits the picture of the remedy (the cough, the painful joints, the eczema, pneumonia, quinsy), even though this has not helped us much in finding the remedy. Let's also dwell on some other valuable general symptoms, which verify the choice of the remedy: "improvement by cooling down", "likes fruits, especially the apples". These are important facts, to a homeopath. They can be useful in looking up the remedy in the Repertory or the Materia Medica. Firstly there was the information of a MENTAL character, which depicts the personal type. Here belong the likes and the dislikes, fears, social behaviour, relationship to other people, sleep, dreams, etc. Secondly there was the GENERAL information, describing the common reactions and symptoms, concerning the whole person, such as the reactions to heat and cold, predominance of symptoms on either side of the body, the seasons or times of the highest risk (such as "The problems begin in the morning"), reactions to moisture, to wind, etc. In fact, everything that relates to the patient's personality as a whole, belongs here. However, when he says "My leg hurts," this concerns only a part of the body, it is a particularity. Such particularities, being predominantly the concrete signs of the disease which the patient expects to be treated, have the lowest identification value. The homeopath can often make do without them. This is where the traditional image of treatment receives its hardest hit. "I don't treat the disease, I treat the person", says Hahnemann. Nevertheless, such prescription has an extremely beneficial influence on the singular disease. Application of the Remedy I gave Veruska's parents a small bottle with the pills of Lachesis C 200, and I told them how to apply it correctly: Half an hour before and half an hour after taking the remedy, no eating nor drinking. Let one pill dissolve in the mouth, without washing it down with water, do not touch the pill with your hand, but transfer it with the use of clean paper. We then agreed that the parents should get themselves a diary, a notebook, not a calendar that gets thrown out at the end of the year, and that they would record the changes in their daughter's health condition, anything they generally considered to be different from the normal. Such a diary is my invention, a very useful one. I found out, that we are virtually born with the psychological property of forgetting the unpleasant things. If for instance we run a higher temperature for a couple of days and then get over it, a month later we do not remember it at all. But a homeopath should know about everything that happened. And not only a month later, but even five years later. The diary also increases the patient's participation in the treatment. Before this, he conscientiously took the allopathic drugs (which did not help him) and thus "actively" treated himself. Now he can display his activity by taking notes. The treatment naturally works even without this (I know of no other homeopath who would be using a diary), but to scrutinise everything that happens between taking the remedy and the next control, can sometimes be very difficult, or even impossible (some people remember hardly anything). I also pointed out that soon after taking the remedy there might be (but does not have to be, mostly it does not happen at all) a temporary worsening of the present condition. This means that the actual symptoms become more pronounced, before there is an improvement. In homeopathy, a decline soon after applying the remedy is a good sign, it means that the remedy works, that there is a reaction. The parents said that they would give the remedy to Veruska the next day after breakfast, but in life things never go quite according to our plans. A few days later they phoned me that they had not applied the remedy as yet, because they wanted Veruska to be quite healthy, and as on the day of examination she was coughing, they feared that her condition might deteriorate. So the remedy remained untouched in the drawer. Now Veruska had her usual pneumonia. On the left side, with the temperature of 40°C. I told them to apply the remedy now, straight away. The parents were a little hesitant, they wondered if they should not call the doctor, who would prescribe the usual antibiotics. After all - this pneumonia is a serious matter. I did not press the issue - it was entirely up to them, their choice of what they wanted to do. I had done my part of the work, it was now up to them, whether they wanted to take advantage of it or not. Finally they decided to apply the remedy. Later they described how the girl, who as usually had no interest in anything, apathetic and refusing to eat, had suddenly rallied. As if animated with a good spirit, even though the fever persisted for some ten hours at the same level. Then it had begun to fall. On the third day Veruska was completely free of fever. The after-effects of her cough lasted for about a week. A year later we applied another pill of the same remedy, in a higher potency of C 1000. Altogether, after taking the remedy for the first time, two years had passed without pneumonia (prior to this it was coming four times a year, with the tendency to deteriorate). During this time the girl had received no antibiotics, no drugs. The abnormally delicate child, who due to the continued illness could not live like a child, and who was the object of consternation and fears on the part of her parents, became a completely normal child. Twenty eight months after first taking the remedy, I had the chance to take her out for a bicycle ride. On a heavy bike she climbed a long hill first, ahead of the other children and ahead of myself. Without any gear changes. And hardly losing her breath. Her lungs were as sound as a bell. She was completely healthy, no allergies, no eczema, no coughing, no painful joints... The Family Connections Still the way to health was not completely smooth, as we will see later, because homeopathic treatment has its rules, which cannot be by-passed. Meanwhile I have to add that upon seeing her daughter's progress, the mother also yielded and allowed herself to be examined. It was confirmed that she needed the same remedy as Veruska. The recurrent bouts of pneumonia also ceased and since taking the remedy there were none up to date. The depression she had suffered from had disappeared, and had not come back. Her allergic colds passed and had not appeared even during the periods of risk, as well as her breathing difficulties. Lachesis C200 worked with the mother for two years, and then the potency was increased to C1000. To make the family portrait complete, let's also mention the father. He too had his problems, though he did not look it. He was 41 years old. He appeared youthful and efficient. The interior was not so great. Above all, since the age of sixteen, he suffered from a really heavy, and by allopathy unsuccessfully treated allergy to pollen, lately combined with asthma. During the pollen season he had tears in the eyes, watery colds, breathing difficulties. The stuffed nose could not be freed. He coughed. All this became aggravated when at rest, while lying down. Asthma at night and in the morning. Psychological picture: Intellectually capable, a writer and the boss of two companies. Competitive. Able to withstand the solitude of his work, but "social hungry", yearning for company. Desire to distinguish himself within the society. As a boss, he was anxious that others would fail him. Felt overworked, working up to sixteen hours a day. He refused to take any medication for his problems, lately having no treatment. He tried to come to terms with his problems on his own. Uneasy to fall asleep. Tendency to hide his emotions. Emphasis on the intellect. Sometimes reacting impulsively. Domineering at work, as well as at home. Occasionally feeling claustrophobic. General symptoms: Frequent bouts of influenza with fever, usually around Christmas time. Acute illnesses beginning in the afternoon and worsening especially between 6 and 7 p.m. Hot food and drinks relieved the pain in his throat. Often ventilating, even in winter, though he disliked cold and could not stand the draught. Having taken Lycopodium C200 in February 92, in April the accompanying allergic reactions to pollens manifested themselves strongly for a week, the cold, the cough, the breathing difficulties, even though the full pollen season was not yet quite on. Then came a fast improvement. During the spring and in summer there were no more problems. There was no mention of any allergy. The asthma had gone completely. In April next year there were again strong allergic reactions. Lycopodium 1000 was applied, followed by a fast recess of all difficulties, lasting throughout two pollen seasons thus far. The overall condition had improved. There is no insomnia and no tendency towards influenza. Naturally neither Lycopodium nor Lachesis are the routinely applied remedies against allergies and asthma. I had prescribed them mainly because of the mental and general symptoms. Here it is appropriate to point out that homeopathic practitioners were traditionally the family doctors. There could be a history of miasma in the family, or an illness that afflicts the whole families, people within the family circle are often linked by the common characteristics. If the homeopath knows the parents, it is easier to treat the children. Or vice-versa. On the other hand, there is no rule that the offspring must necessarily belong to the same constitutional type as the parent. There are, however, groups of remedies, of human types, that somehow hold together, that look for each other, that need each other, that belong to each other.
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