Seventh Chapter DEVELOPMENT AFTER RECEIVING THE REMEDY When in February Veruska overcame pneumonia, she had no problems for three months. While on a mountain trip with the parents in June, her eyes had begun to burn (apparently there was much pollen around) as used to happen before, and she had sore joints, also a dated problem which had not troubled her for some time after taking the remedy, but which had now come back. It only lasted a few days, then both problems disappeared without any treatment. About six months later she had tonsillitis, for three days her temperature was 38§ C. She had a sore throat and tonsils, pains when swallowing. It was the kind of tonsillitis she used to have before, only it did not last as long, her temperature was not as high as before, and it came in the reverse order: previously her left tonsil would be effected first, then the pain would move to the right side, this time it started on the right side and moved to the left. In a few days, tonsillitis was gone. All these were the manifestations of symptoms in a reverse order, the symptoms that came in the reverse order to how they had first appeared. We have already mentioned the Laws of Cure by Hering. The symptoms followed these laws - from the more serious illness (pneumonia) to the lesser symptoms, which had appeared earlier. There were no new serious symptoms. Symptoms went away without any further treatment. Even when ill, the patient felt subjectively well, in spite of the fever. Children are more disposed to fever than adults, and I often hear children with symptoms in the reverse order such as fever say: "There's nothing wrong with me." Veruska was one of them. The Staircase We could imagine that the symptoms a person experiences during a lifetime form a staircase. Their plunge into the constitutional chronic disease is like moving step by step, faster or slower, down the staircase. The descend stops when the constitutional remedy is taken, before the more serious stages can be reached and once again, the patient begins to ascend, out of the constitutional disease (the miasma).
The patient has to climb up along the same staircase, which took them down into the pathology (the individual steps are the specific complaints and ailments), on their way back towards health. Symptoms in a Reverse Order Occasionally some small steps could be skipped, often they are negotiated so easily and quickly that they are not noticed, but on this we cannot rely. The Laws of Cure formulated by Hering help to monitor the ascend, and to determine if indeed we are still climbing, rather than falling back into the original pathology. Symptoms in a reverse order, are the unavoidable toll that must be paid, if a chronic pathology is to be rooted out and the patient is to remain healthy and independent of any treatment. It is imperative that this be explained to the patient. Fortunately, an interesting phenomenon occurs while "ascending the staircase": Having overcome the symptom in a reverse order, the patient feels much better than before. This is quite unlike the usual course of a disease. After a bout with influenza people often say: Since I've had this flue, I've not been feeling too well. However, having overcome the influenza in a reverse order (the original one came maybe a year earlier) the patient feels better than before. And this is true of all symptoms in a reverse order. The important thing is that symptoms in a reverse order are usually milder than the original symptoms, that they pass over more rapidly, without any auxiliary treatment. Symptom in a reverse order would for instance never endanger the patient's life. Here we meet with the "self-healing intelligence of the organism", or rather of its governing centre. It knows how far it can go. Nevertheless, the homeopath's supervision is essential, otherwise the symptom in a reverse order could easily be neutralised. For example, I was treating a young man, the son of a doctor. He had a nasty rash which defied any treatment. I gave him the constitutional remedy, and I forewarned him that some of his former acute problems would return. The rash had indeed disappeared (it was the last symptom manifested in the pathology of this man), but soon after this came tonsillitis, similar to one he had a couple of months earlier. He was quite determined to let it run its course - but! The next day he was to go on a mountain trip. So he took some antibiotics from his mother's surgery. Even after the first dose the pain in his throat had subsided and the temperature had dropped. The trip was saved. Within two weeks, however, the tonsillitis was back. He suppressed it with more antibiotics. And soon it was here for the third time. This time he rang me, what's going on? I advised him not to take anything, and wait for the symptom in a reverse order to run it course. He did this and the tonsillitis did not come back. What was it that had really happened? Quite simply, there was a conflict between the allopathy and the homeopathy. The organism, influenced by the homeopathic remedy, was trying to move up a step on the staircase towards curing the chronic pathology. The allopathic drug suppressed the symptom in a reverse order, preventing this. Temporarily it had a victory, but then the self-curing tendency of the organism prevailed and again tried to move a step higher. Victorious in this case was homeopathy, or rather the organism. Had the young man persisted with the antibiotics, the reaction to homeopathic remedy would have been completely nullified, and all that was previously achieved would have been lost. The rash would have come back and the gate to the pathology would have remained open. There is the obvious objection: But what if I should get again those horrible back pains I used to have five years ago ... (and so on)! The answer is: The back pains (and so on) have not come out of nowhere, they have accompanied the structural changes on the spine (and so on). The structural changes are still there, only the pains had gone after the painkilling drugs. Now it is necessary to homeopathically treat these changes, so that the person can be as healthy as he or she used to be, before the back pains and the changes connected with them occurred. This is why, in the reverse order, the back is now going to hurt. It will not be as bad as before, it will not last as long as before, and it will pass away without any auxiliary treatment. Had you, Mr. Patient, taken the homeopathic remedy when your back was hurting you, the pathology would have been halted even then, you would have not gone through further illness, and you would have been spared the symptom in a reverse order of your back pains. You can only leave the labyrinth the same way as you have entered it. Homeopathy is like the red thread that leads you back onto the light. The symptoms in a reverse order should not be made out to be a bigger phantom than they are - in between the terms of their manifestation there are very long periods of calmness. A child who regularly lost a third of his or her schooling time, having taken the homeopathic remedy may miss only a few days in the whole year. Perhaps two days, perhaps five... this of course depends on the initial condition. I remember that at the time my daughter, then approximately in the seventh grade, had reproached me because, unlike her often indisposed classmates, she was condemned to constantly attending the school. To compensate her for this flagrant injustice we would let her stay home occasionally, even when quite healthy, so that the homeopathic patient would not feel disadvantaged. My personal experience taught me that symptoms in a reverse order are not a great psychological barrier for the patients, to whom the matter can be usually explained without too much trouble. It presents a much bigger problem to the medical practitioners who use homeopathy, and who after any symptom in a reverse order find themselves under the pressure from their patients "to give them something for it". Then the doctor, weary of constant explanations, often capitulates. He gives them "something". Regardless of what it is, a homeopathic or an allopathic remedy. The symptom in a reverse order simply should not be treated, otherwise the cure will never be completed. If a homeopathic (let alone allopathic) remedy is hastily applied, the progress along the stairway is halted. The patient then has to start again, from the bottom. Through a repetitive and careless application of even the correct homeopathic remedy, the case might become incurable. The remedy should be repeated only when the symptoms do not follow the staircase in a reverse order, when there is no reaction to the remedy, when the patient has a constant feeling of weariness and when the symptoms begin to fall down the staircase. For example: let's say the remedy helped to overcome an allergy and, in a reverse order, tonsillitis. Now, after a while, the tonsillitis came back. This second tonsillitis after taking the remedy can no longer be the symptom in a reverse order. Even if the patient used to suffer from recurring tonsillitis, in the reverse order it should only come once. If it came for the second time, this tonsillitis would be a relapse, a fall into the normal course of pathology. Then it is necessary to apply the homeopathic remedy, generally of a higher potency. Higher remedial potency would also ensure that the curative reaction lasts longer. Of course, things are not always this simple. A long enduring chronic complaint may for instance linger on at a certain level of improvement, but only when it is its turn in the sense of "from the inside out" or "in the reverse order of its occurrence", it suddenly intensifies and then slowly disappears. To judge correctly if we are dealing with the symptom in a reverse order or if there was a relapse, this is an art and a science. There is also the category of "new symptoms". Even in the correct treatment some outer symptoms may occur, which the patient had not experienced before (rash, painful joints, etc.). As long as they are only isolated and as long as they follow Hering's direction "from the inside out" and subside on their own, everything is in an order. If more symptoms appear or if they persist longer, this is a signal that the prescription should be corrected. So in Veruska's case we waited and watched (wait and watch, says J.T. Kent), until that wonderful push-bike trip, when she was not at all winded. With her mother it was not that easy. When during our first interview we went through the history of her health, I learned among other things that she had a troublesome eczema on her entire body. The complaint first appeared about ten years earlier. The eczema was always present, though lately not so prominent. Parallel to this, with an unbelievable frequency, there came the already mentioned bouts of pneumonia. After the remedy her depression had ceased, her efficiency level had improved, there was no more pneumonia, but after some months of joy over this big advance, there was sadness again. The old eczema was back. Even on the face. It is known that some women are so conscious of their appearance that they would cheerfully put up with an occasional stomach ulcer, an odd depression, perhaps even with a well concealed artificial limb, rather than showing their imperfect skin to the world. Fortunately, the gallant lady did not belong to this category, she overcame the temptation to depart from the way of homeopathic treatment and to stifle the eczema with some allopathic preparations (which would have worked only temporarily anyway), even though for a time her face looked as if it were scalded. Then the eczema had begun to disappear, following exactly the Hering's Laws, "from above to below". First from her face, then from her neck, and last from her legs. It was gone.
[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents] © Jiri Cehovsky, 1994 |
poslední aktualizace: 14.08.2015 |
||
