CASE1
Cyclamen europaeum
BOY, 10 YEARS OLD
If you are working in
a centre with eleven doctors you have to be able to
cure every acute case with Homoeopathy - and that is the problem: acute cases.
I find them more easy than chronic cases, because in
chronic cases you have so many symptoms and so many unclear symptoms but in
acute cases you often have very clear symptoms.
Do not forget if you
have a practice and you are seeing your patients and you are away from home,
the patient goes to another doctor who will give him antibiotics and you will
never be happy with your Homoeopathy, because so often the chronic remedy
appears in the acute case. The acute case
is the top of the iceberg.
You have to let your
patients come in acute situations. If you give a remedy and afterwards he
develops an inflammation with fever and he gets antibiotics that suppress the
symptoms. Then you are again at the point where you started. That is the reason
why we have to work together. Who can work day
and night, Saturday and Sunday, to be there when the patients call? That is impossible.
Therefore we have to work together so that the patient can feel sure, "All
right, when I have a problem, I can call the centre
and go there." That is what we have to do in our centre.
We are too individualistic, we all think we are the best and also our education
as a doctor is an education of someone who is sitting on a statue - "I am
the biggest, I know" - we do not know anything, we
have to work together.
So, this is a case of
an acute inflammation of the ear.
What do you see in
the eyes?
The observation is
very important. What do you see in the eyes? Not an emotional symptom, an
objective symptom. Maybe it is
difficult to see, but on the right side there is a convergent strabismus.
The boy has been in
the centre a few times for bronchitis. He is not my
patient, I saw him when I had night duty.
A: Look here. Turn
your head! He is in treatment here for bronchitis, that
comes back now and then. Now, you called me acute. It is 9 o'clock in the
evening. He has pain in the right ear?
MP: Yes.
A: And his left eye
is turned inwards, especially when he is tired.
MP: Then you see it
stronger. Otherwise, it is not remarkable.
A: Previously, he
already had pain in the ear.
MP: Yes, in October 1986.
FP: So, three months
ago.
A: You came in
treatment in 1985?
MP: Yes.
A: Then, again in
February 1986. So, he was good until June, 1986 with Pulsatilla.
This means he has
been good on Pulsatilla for one year. Immediately
afterwards he had to come back, because Pulsatilla
did not work anymore.
A: On November, 25
again a Pulsatilla state. You had to come back on
November, 29. You came in treatment because he had an early tooth decay.
FP: No, because of
his bronchitis.
A: But he had bad
teeth early?
MP: Yes.
A: Let me see... Yes,
indeed. Did he have a lot of antibiotics?
MP: Yes, since he was
9 months old. Always for the bronchitis.
A: I give him a
remedy now and I would like to see him again within two days.
Objectively,
there is a convergent strabismus. Second,
he has pain in the right ear. Third, they say that the
pain is always at night. We can repertorize this as follow: pain in the right ear, pain at
night and convergent strabismus - we can not
just say Mercurius. If we would say Mercurius
which symptoms would we have?
Perspiration at night,
aggravation by slight touch, salivation, bad odor of the mouth, and so on.
Mercurius has early caries in children, yes, but
which remedy is it here? Cyclamen, yes. We have no reason to give another remedy.
Cyclamen M.
EAR,PAIN,right : Aeth., am-m., ambr., arg-n., asaf.,
aur-m., bar-c., bar-m., Bell., berb., brom.,
bry., caust., chel., chin., colch., coloc., cupr., cycl., dros., elaps.,eupi., Fl-ac., gels., hura., hyper., kali-c., kalm., lac-c., lach., lyc., mag-c., mag-m., merc-i-f., merc., mur-ac., nat-s., Nit-ac., nux-v., petr., prun-s., psor., puls., seneg.,
sep., stront., sulph., tab., tarent., tell., thuj., verb.
GENERALITIES, NIGHT : Abrot., acet-ac., Acon., agar., agn., aloe., alum., am-br., am-c., am-m., ambr., ammc., anac., ant-c., ant-t., apoc., aral., arg-m., Arg-n., Arn., Ars-i., Ars., asaf., asar., aur., bar-c., bar-m., bell., benz-ac., bism.,
bor., bov., brom., bry., cact., calad., Calc-i., Calc-p., Calc-s., Calc., camph., cann-i., cann-s., canth., caps., carb-ac., Carb-an., Carb-s., carb-v., caust., cedr., Cham., chel., chin-a., Chin., cic., cina., Cinnb., clem., coc-c., cocc., cod., Coff., Colch.,coloc., Con., croc., crot-h., cupr., Cycl., dig., dios., dol., dros., Dulc., elaps., equis., eucal., euphr., Ferr-ar., Ferr-i., ferr-p., Ferr., fl-ac., gamb., Graph., guai., hell., Hep., Hyos., ign., Iod., Ip., Kali-ar., Kali-bi., kali-br., Kali-c., Kali-i., kali-m., kali-n., kali-p., kreos., Lach., laur., led., Lil-t., lyc., Mag-c.,Mag-m., Mang., meny., merc-c., merc-i-f., Merc., mez., mosch., mur-ac., nat-a., nat-c., nat-m., nat-p., nat-s., Nit-ac., nux-m., nux-v., olnd., op., ox-ac.,par., petr., ph-ac., Phos., phyt., pic-ac., plat., Plb., Psor., Puls., ran-b., ran-s., rheum., rhod., Rhus-t., Rumx., sabad., sabin., sal-ac., samb., sang., sars.,sec., sel., senec., seneg., Sep., Sil., sin-n., spig., spong., squil., stann., staph., stict., stram., Stront., sul-ac., Sulph., tarax., tarent., Tell., teucr., thuj., valer., verat., viol-t., Zinc.
EYES,STRABUSMUS, convergent : Cic., cina., Cycl., jab., mag-p., nux-v.
GENERALITIES,TOUCH,slight, agg.
: Ars., Bell., Chin., coff., colch., ign., Lach., mag-m., Merc., mez., Nux-v., ph-ac., phos., stann.
And now, two days
later we hear the reaction. The rubric "convergent strabismus" is
very important to me. Nux vomica is there, Cina is there...
FEEDBACK (2 DAYS
LATER)
A: Today it is
January, 23, 1987. I put the remedy in his mouth. On the corridor he was still
complaining about pain in the ear and was weeping. What happened then?
MP: At home I took
off his clothes and put him in bed. Then he started weeping again.
FP: He didn't weep at
all the way back home.
MP: No, he slept.
Then he was weeping again. A quarter of an hour later he slept. I didn't hear him
until the morning. In the morning I went working. I called him at home.
"Mama," he said, "I still have a little bit pain, but it is
better than yesterday. It will be gone today."
A: That is what he
said?
FP: Yes. He slept.
Half a hour later he got up.
I asked him if he got pain in the ear and he said, no. He didn't have pain the
whole day.
A: For the rest he
doesn't have complaints?
FP: No. The loose
cough is still there. I was here on Sunday, he was also coughing.
A: Is the cough loose
now?
FP: Yes. The same
loose cough as yesterday and the day before yesterday.
MP: Before, it was
obstructed and he had a terrible shortage of breath.
A: I am very curious
how this will develop later. The cough is very loose?
MP: Yes.
A: He coughs loose...
FP: ... and swallows
it back down. Yesterday evening he had a little bit fever, 37,2°
C. I don't know whether this is fever at all.
A: How is his behaviour?
MP: I think he has
become more obstinate.
FP: He doesn't hear
as well as previously.
A: During the last
two days?
FP: No, no, the last
two days is the same as previously. May he go outside?
A: Yes, he may.
I gave him Cyclamen
M. The next day he was cured. Before, he wept, I gave him the remedy in the
mouth, he slept in the car. When he came home he wept a little bit and then he
slept, no pain anymore. The next day he had a little bit pain. Then everything
was over. But
afterwards - he was not my patient - he has been seen by another doctor who has
given him another remedy. Now, four months
ago - he came for eczema - they repeated Cyclamen and he is cured. Maybe, this
is a constitutional case. We found it because of an acute disease. The acute
disease indicated Cyclamen because of the right-sidedness, the aggravation at
night together with convergent strabismus. And later, in November he came back
with eczema. Cyclamen was repeated and he is good now. The question was: you
take chronic symptoms in acute disease.
Who makes the disease
chronic or acute? We make the disease chronic or acute with our mind. Who says
that an acute disease is not an exacerbation of a chronic situation?
You sit before the
patient and you see the pain there, worse at night and so on. What can I do? To
give the remedy that is indicated. I do not ask if this is acute or chronic. If
we know that we cured someone with Lycopodium and then he comes with a loose
cough, tearing eyes, yellow-green discharges and has to sit on the knees of the
mother, then we give which remedy? And the cough is aggravated in a warm room
and better in the cold?
Pulsatilla.
That is complementary to Lycopodium, right, but here we have Pulsatilla symptoms and I do not think whether this is
acute or not. That is not my problem, my problem is to give the simile, to give
the remedy that is indicated by the symptoms.
Whether this remedy
is the constitutional remedy for him, we do not know, we will see.
If a patient comes
with a complaint we think that this is acute - it is your problem, if you think
that. Do not make a separation between acute and
chronic.
How often does it
happen that we have to repeat the remedy of which we know that it is his
constitutional remedy? How often do we have to repeat it in acute diseases? For
example Sulphur. How often do we have to give
Sulphur in acute bronchitis or in influenza. We know
Sulphur, but we make mistakes, "Oh, that is acute, cold feet and he is so
hot," and we give Belladonna - wrong, Sulphur. Sulphur also has cold feet
in fever.
Here we can also
think: it is on the right side, Lycopodium also has pain at night, but Lycopodium is better after midnight, but
Lycopodium also has pain at night, why should we give Lycopodium? But I have no
indications to give Lycopodium. The way the child is sitting there? No. I have
no information for Lycopodium, we have to give the remedy that we can find by
the Repertory.