CASES

 Ratanhia peruviana

 WOMAN, 36 YEARS OLD

 This patient already comes to the centre for many years, maybe three years. The first consultation was in 1984 and she only had one remedy. She got the remedy on April, 16, 1984, then again at the end of May 1984, then in August 1984 and then in October 1984 and then she was cured. She came back in September 1987 and got the remedy in 10M potency, then in October Sac-lac. and in November the remedy has been repeated in 10M. Since then she is still good, but she may relapse. The problem is nervousness, a lot of problems. We will try to indicate the remedy

 P: Yes, it doesn't go anymore. I think I also have it at my heart. Sometimes, I can't get air. The cup is full. It doesn't go anymore. I always have to sigh. It is not because of problems at home, but the problem is myself.

 A: So, at home everything is all right. There are no problems with the children or the husband?

 P: No, there have never been. I don't know, otherwise I am very satisfied. But now, it is completely gone. Some days I can only talk with difficulties at home. I have been on holidays and they asked me how it was. They mean it well but I thought, I just can't talk! And if my husband asks, "Do you need the car?", then I couldn't give an answer. It is as if it doesn't want to come out, and in fact it is easy to say, "Yes", or "No".

 A : What can't you bring out? What do you mean?

 The slightest thing they ask...

 P: ... that is too much, also at work. I go to work every day. I had this once, but at the moment I have it much stronger than at that time. When I am in the shop sometimes I have to go out quickly. I can't talk with those people anymore.

 A: What do you mean?

 You see she is very loquacious: I am working and I can not talk to these people and when I am working in the shop - she is a cleaning woman - I have to go out in the open air and I can not tolerate the people around me and so on. Which remedy? Lachesis, that is one possibility. Another? Cimicifuga. That is also a possibility. And Podophyllum? Yes, Podophyllum is also loquacious, but only during heat. Another? Loquaciousness and wandering from one subject to another. Helonias? Maybe, but not especially. What is a special symptom of Helonias? They are conscious about their uterus and you miss prescriptions of Helonias because it is also a bearing down sensation like Sepia. The differential diagnosis is not easy between Sepia and Helonias

 But there is still another remedy, Paris quadrifolia - this is not a Paris case - and Agaricus, these are loquacious remedies and jumping from one subject to another. Lycopodium is also there. Until now this patient makes us think of loquacious remedies

 P: If you do this for quite a long time you know the people and then you think: I must ask how he or she is doing; and then I think immediately: well, leave it. But the people expect that you ask this. I just can't get it out, nothing anymore. I can't go away either. It doesn't mean anything to me. Only working and being anxious.

 She is sighing constantly

 A: What do you mean with working and being anxious?

 P: Always being occupied and always looking for work, to be busy. That is my fault.

 "And I try to be occupied all the time." Which rubric can we take here? "Busy" (p. 10)

MIND, BUSY (See Occupied, Delirium) : Apis., Bar-c, bry., calad., calc., caps., cocc., ign., lach, nux-m rhus-t., sep, stram., sulph., verat.

and "occupation amel." (p. 69) .

MIND, OCCUPATION, amel. : Agar., alum., aur., bar-c., calc., chin., con., croc., cupr., ferr., hell., helon., ign., iod., kali-br., lil-t., lyc., merc-i-f., mez., nat-c., nux-v.,pip-m., Sep., sil., stram., thuj., verat.

She has to be busy all the time. Which remedy is very important here? Ignatia. Another symptom for Ignatia is the sighing

 The second important remedy in sighing is which one? Calcarea phosphoricum. There is still another remedy that is very loquacious and that is sighing: Cimicifuga. When they come and you think of Ranunculus bulbosus, but they are sighing, it is Cimicifuga - in acute cases

 P: When I have my day off like today, then I am looking for some work, so that I don't have to watch television. Also when I have to go somewhere when I have to meet someone I am looking for reasons for not going there.

 A: Why?

 P: I don't know. Also with my girl-friend who called recently. Then I shuffle that I don't have to go out with her. I know that I am sorry in the evening or the next day.

 She starts having anthropophobia (pathological form of shyness and timidity). What is the real reason

 A: What hinders you to go there?

 P: I don't know. It became worse gradually. I don't know what it is.

 A: I mean what is it in yourself that hinders you to go there?

 P: Because I don't have time, I have to be with my children, I have to do this work.

 I must, I must - what is this? A kind of fixed idea. "There is something that does not tolerate that I will go on holiday or walk with another woman or go shopping with a girl-friend. Something tells me I have to do this." Which remedy has these strong fixed ideas? Argentum nitricum? No. Argentum nitricum has this kind of impulses. But these continuous fixed ideas: Thuja. Also people who always have to wash their hands. We had all these cases, you are fighting with those cases, and you prescribe Arsenicum, because they have to be clean and things like that, and in the Repertory there is the rubric "washing hands": Syphilinum and an addition of Sulphur, but the first remedy you have to think of is Thuja. She also has some fixed ideas and we will try to find out what there is in reality, what she feels and why

 P: I am afraid for an impendent disease, that something will happen to my children.

 Anxiety about others, anxiety about the children. We have to see: "Anxiety about others, then fear that something will happen.

 There is an addition that I can not give you now. Mancinella is an addition, Plumbum and there is a third remedy, but that comes later

 Yes, you can take the rubric "persistent thoughts" (p. 87),

MIND, THOUGHT, persistent (See Delusions) : Acon., aeth., alum., am-c., ambr., anac., arg-n., ars-i., ars., benz-ac., calc-s., calc., Cann-i., canth., carb-s., carb-v., caust., cham., chel., chin-a., chin., graph., hell., hyos., ign., iod., kali-ar., kali-c., kali-i., lam., laur., meli., merc., mez., mur-ac., Nat-m., nit-ac., nux-m., nux-v., olnd., op., osm., petr., ph-ac., phos., phys., plat., psor., puls., rhus-t., sec., sep., stann., staph., stram., sulph., tab., tarent., thea., thuj., tub., verb., viol-o.

 but here it is something else: something urges her to do something without thoughts. You can use the rubric "persistent thoughts", but she has something in her that urges her, that pushes her to wash her hands or to do something and you do not know why, but she has to do it. It is not in the Repertory, that is a problem. There are people who say, "I have to touch this twice and then I can go away; I have to move three steps forward and one backward and then I can go forward again." The first remedy you have to think of in this kind of obligatory actions is Thuja

 P: My husband has been operated on because of a hernia and I think that I have a relapse since then (last year).

 She came in 1985 and now in 1987 she comes back. She has been good in between, but last year her husband has been operated on for hernia and she thinks that she has a relapse since then

 P: I recovered very well from that. I said, "What has to be, has to be." It was very serious at that time. I could surmount this very well and he stayed at home for half a year.

 A: You still have the anxiety that something will happen to your children.

 P: Yes, also. I don't know it anymore, really. Previously, I knew everything, at the moment I don't know anymore. And our children are very independent, that is the worst. They don't care about that. When I don't do anything, they do it themselves.

 A: But you don't like that, do you?

 P: Yes, I do. When they do it themselves I can do something else in the meantime. I always find something to work.

 A: What forces you to do so?

 P: I don't know. I can't sleep at night anymore. I found a remedy for that. Because I went to the family doctor and I do not allow sleeping tablets in my house. Now, I drink two schnaps every day or milk with rum. With the consequence that I put on five or six kilos at once. Now, I don't do it anymore, but then I don't sleep anymore. At half past three I wake up and then I get such a head at night. There are 20 things running through my head.

 A: Especially at night?

 P: Yes, but also during the day. I don't understand it anymore. I already said that I feel as if I have a head of an elephant. I think it is so. So many thoughts are going inside the head!

 A: Don't you get headache of that?

 P: No, I don't have pain.

 She has no headache. If she would have headache of which remedy should we think? Cimicifuga

 She also says, "I don't know it anymore." We could think that she will be crazy, delusion that she will become insane - and there is Cimicifuga, and do not forget Medorrhinum. She is talking and talking the whole time: Cimicifuga. She is sighing all the time: Cimicifuga. And how does Cimicifuga feel in the brain? As if they are in the clouds, the feeling as if the head is in a cloud, and together there is a kind of pain. But she does not say anything about pain, she only says, so many thoughts are coming in her mind and she has to do this, she has to work, but why, she does not know

 A: You don't sleep very well. You wake up with all kinds of thoughts. What do you do then?

 P: Oh, I get up. In the morning I am dead-beat, but I get up at six o'clock in the morning and then I have such a pain in my legs. I stand too long on my legs. I take a shower at 10.00, half past 10.00 in the evening, and then I go to bed. It is for me normal that I get up at 6.00 o'clock in the morning. But now, I get pain everywhere, in the fingers and in the hands and so on. I am anxious to get rheumatism.

 Cimicifuga also has pain in the small joints. What is the prescription? Normally, we should prescribe Cimicifuga with this information. Maybe you can also prescribe Ignatia - maybe, because occupation ameliorates

 Proposal: "I think that Cimicifuga is more crazy.

 A: I do not believe that Cimicifuga is more crazy than she is. She is rather crazy. Normally, you could give Ignatia because of several reasons and you could give Cimicifuga because of several reasons. If someone would give Cimicifuga I would say that is a good prescription, and if someone prescribes Ignatia, I would say that is also a good prescription. Why not

 

 A: Tell me, at night you get up to work?

 P: Yes, or I am sitting and continue crocheting at my bed-spread or I take off the curtains so that I can wash them the next day.

 A: There is something in you that urges you to take off the curtains and to do this or that?

 P: No, it is not an urge, I can just as well sit at the table and read a book. I can do it as well. But get up, an urge, to get up.

 A: At what time? Is that early in the morning?

 P: That might be at 20 past 12 at night. Last week I had a fight with my husband that he shouldn't drink so much, because he becomes too fat, then I woke up at 20 past 12 and was fresh. Then I am awake and very active.

 She was drinking alcohol in the evening before going to bed. She stopped drinking because she was anxious to become an "alcoholic". It is better to be workoholic" than to be an "alcoholic". She stopped drinking and could no more sleep. She had to get out of the bed, 20 minutes after midnight to work. Something in her urges her to work

 A: Very active. That is a characteristic of you, that you are hyperactive.

 P: Yes, I think so.

 A: And you always have to be busy?

 P: I always have to do something. And I always have the energy. I don't understand it. Other people have finished their work at Saturday evening; I haven't, it is unbelievable. But that is because I always find something else. It is my own fault.

 A: What do you mean?

 P: When I cleaned my house then I start emptying the cupboards. Recently, I prayed to God that the family should go away on the Sunday afternoon so that I could do something. Otherwise I would have been occupied with the family, but then I didn't have time to do something else. Now I thought, I hope they are going and they went. But then the joy of the household is gone.

 She was praying to the Lord that the children would go away on Sunday afternoon, so that she could clean her furniture. She emptied everything, cleaned it and put everything again in it.

 It is the same story as she told me in 1985, exactly the same

 Sulphur? Why Sulphur? Because Sulphur is in many rubrics of this case. What about Rhus toxicodendron? That is a very good proposition. We forget Rhus toxicodendron in situations like these. Nearly insanity situations. Clarke writes: "Anxious sadness and excessive anguish, especially in the evening and at night, with wish for solitude and inclination to weep." She does not want to be alone. "Restlessness which will not suffer the patient to remain seated and compels him to throw himself about in bed, and also to drive him out of bed. Anguish with fear of death and sighs. Fear of being poisoned. Suicidal mania (desire to throw himself into the water). Irritability and ill-humour, with repugnance to labour. Moral dejection with anthropophobia. Helplessness and profound despondency. Uneasiness respecting one's children, affairs, and the future, with want of self-confidence." Anxious about the children. Anxiety about the future, what will happen? "Weakness of memory and forgetfulness (cannot remember the most recent events). Want of ideas and of mental energy. Difficult comprehension. Slowness of conception and mental dulness. Delusions of the imagination and visions. Mild delirium; with insensibility."

 This is a clear picture of what she says here. This kind of things with its restlessness has to be busy, that is clear Rhus toxicodendron. But I gave another remedy

 Rhus toxicodendron is a very beautiful prescription. You have to give Rhus toxicodendron in this case, unless you have other information of peculiar symptoms that gives you the remedy.

 A: Yes, of course, because you don't find any rest. What about the anxiety about the children?

 P: Yes, I still have it.

 A: Anxiety that something will happen to them?

 P: Yes, also. When they go to school. But at the moment I don't let someone come to take care of them. Previously, I often did so. Now, I don't bring them somewhere.

 A: Why?

 P: They are grown up.

 A: Yes, yes, and you were too anxious.

 P: Yes, and yet nothing happened.

 A: Do you think that you feel better when you are alone?

 P: Yes. When I am alone I am the happiest person on the world. I think one day I will buy a small house in the middle of the wood. I also said so to my husband, but I didn't tell him where. Then I don't come back. I can be alone very well. That's the reason why I got all this, because my husband was at home for half a year, although he never said what I had to do.

 And I always have a lot of people around me in the house. I am never alone. That is a misfortune. The children get up at 6.00 o'clock in the morning and I go working in the shop. And then the talking of the people about the bad and the good weather and so on. When I come home, I am also not alone. Also not in the evening, then he or she is coming, oh dear. Maybe that is the reason why I get up at night so that I am a little bit alone.

 A: But you like company?

 P: Sometimes I do, but sometimes I can't see any person. I can not renounce them because at the end of the week I miss them when they have not been here. And then suddenly I can get the idea at 11.00 o'clock in the evening that I have to see her, and then I jump on my bicycle and ride to her house.

 A: Sometimes you have inclinations to which you can't resist.

 P: Yes.

 A: And you have to go there to see these people?

 P: Yes. Then I go there. If they are not there I was unlucky. Then I leave a note behind.

 A: Do you have other inclinations?

 She has inclinations to do something and she has to do it, but she does not know why she has this tendency. Something urges her to do certain things

 P: Well, this happens daily.

 A: And then you have to do this, you can't resist.

 P: Sometimes there is no other choice, when the weather is so bad, then there is no other choice.

 A: What do you mean?

 P: I have only one day off. When it is raining that day and I can't clean the windows, yes, then I clean them the next day. It doesn't play a role. I do this at noon or early in the morning, or the next day. It has to be beautiful weather. I am not completely insane.

 There is one day in the week that she has to clean the windows. It has to be done: if she did not have the time to do it that day, she will do it at night, or between the soup and the potatoes or I do not know when - but it has to be done

 Sepia? Yes, that is right. Why? Because she was too long with her husband, aversion husband, too long time with the husband makes Sepia crazy, occupation ameliorates, aversion company, wants to be alone, wants to be busy all the time, the cleaning woman, the washing woman with the big belly, as Nash says. Yes, that is a possibility

 We already have given Ignatia, after two months no reaction. We have given Cimicifuga, no reaction. We gave Rhus toxicodendron, no reaction. We gave Sepia, no reaction. We are treating her for nearly one year

 A: And when you have cleaned your windows, do you feel well?

 P: Yes, it is good, but it has to be done. I think, I have two lives, an internal and an external life.

 Which remedy is this? Thuja. "I think I have two lives, an internal and an external", a kind of dissociation - Anacardium. Yes, very good, but do you feel that she has been suppressed? No, there is no reason for her to be Anacardium. To be Anacardium there has to be a reason. Anacardium has to be suppressed with enormous lack of self-confidence and a very strong hatred feeling. They have no heart, but a heart of stone

 Here you can never prescribe Anacardium, because she does not have this hatred we expect in Anacardium. Another possibility was Thuja, but we need other symptoms for Thuja. We need symptoms to be sure. Dreams about falling, nightmares while sleeping on the left side, these would be indications for Thuja

 Until now we can give this or that remedy, only on the mental picture, but we need a symptom in the Repertory that indicates the remedy, or a peculiar symptom, or a very strong symptom that indicates the remedy that has this kind of mind.

 A: There is something in you that urges you to do so. That is also at night. What do you do when you get up?

 P: Yes, everything in silence, cleaning the bathroom. Or when we go on a holiday, I prepare everything, looking for the maps and so on. Everything at full speed.

 A: A kind of hurriedness?

 P: Yes, my husband always says this. When he gets a bottle of milk, then I already took and brought it back twice. Then I start abusing and say, "What will become of you! " With the children I am always behind them, although they do not have difficulties in school.

 A: You stimulate them very much.

 P: Yes.

 When other people do not work quickly enough she starts abusing that everything has to go more quickly? Which remedy is this? Tarantula. What can Tarantula not see? Red and black, yes, but what can they not see? People who are in trouble. They can not see people who are in trouble, they must always help. When they see someone in trouble they immediately go to him to help him. You know Tarentula is a remedy in multiple sceloris. And here we make the differential diagnosis between Argentum nitricum: Tarentula is so in a hurry and also all the other people have to hurry, also Argentum nitricum is impulsive and in a hurry

 Another prescription is Tarentula without reaction after two months

A: When you are alone do you think that you are more anxious?

 P: No. In fact, I am not an anxious type. I'm not afraid of the dark. When I am at home on Saturday evening I never switch on the television or the radio, it depends, I must be in a very good mood for that, when I know what is on, otherwise not. I like it to be quiet when I am alone.

 Very strange. Can this be Tarentula? "I can listen to the silence." Can this be Tarentula

 P: I can even listen to the silence. I can do very well.

 A: You told me that you have put on weight?

 P: Yes, surely ten to twelve kilos.

 A: Where do you put on weight?

 P: Everywhere. Look at my thick fingers. They also hurt. And my hips become very thick.

 A: Are there periods in which your abdomen is more swollen?

 P: Always before the periods.

 She has a distension abdomen before menses, so "abdomen, distension before menses" (p. 545). We see there is Lycopodium

 A: Does the menstruation come regularly?

 P: No. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn't.

 A: Do you have the impression it is irregular?

 P: Yes.

 A:  If the bleeding is coming through, then you feel better?

 P: When it is coming through then I am a new person.

 "When the menses comes then I am a new person." Lilium tigrinum is a possibility. And Lachesis is a possibility. But now we give Lachesis - but after two months no reaction. That is the way it happens in practice and then you say, "Oh, I found it." And then there is another remedy when everything is better when the menses appear: Zincum. All right, Lachesis and Zincum are two remedies who feel much better when the menses appear

 A: Do you think that your general problem, the hurriedness...

 P: It might have something to do with it.

 A: Do you think it is better when the bleeding of the menses comes through?

 P: Yes, then I can say, "Let's do this or that."

 This means that when the menses is there that she feels better in general. The hurriedness is much better, the sadness is much better and so on

 A: How many time is there between two periods?

 P: That might be four weeks until three months.

 A: When did you have your periods the last time?

 P: A fortnight ago.

 A: And before?

 P: In July. Now it is September. In July, during the holidays, as usually.

 A: You don't take the pill?

 P: No.

 A: What about the stool?

 P: When I am in a hurry it is better. When I am quiet, ... sometimes I can't eat anything, then I don't care about that.

 A: But do you have complaints with the stool itself?

 P: Yes, regularly I drink a special kind of tea for that. Then it is all right. When I don't drink it I can't go to the toilet for two to three days.

 A: And when you go then?

 P: Pain at my behind, also in my abdomen.

 A: Also at the rectum? How is the pain then?

 P: Stitching and burning. When I have been to the toilet then it is burning inside.

 A: How long does it last until the pain is over?

 P: That can be over very quickly, but it can last a long time, half an hour, it decreases gradually.

 A: Does this burn from outside to inside?

 P: Yes, very slowly upwards. I think that my intestines have been shortened for 25 cm, they have been burned away.

 A: Do you have other complaints?

 P: No, only pain in the thigh. I am anxious I will get rheumatism or arthrosis. Often pain in the hip, from left to right; that is different.

 Now, you know two things: we know that when the menses does not appear and stay out too long a strong symptom, namely the distension of the abdomen, appears. Look in the Repertory "abdomen, distension during suppressed menses" (p. 545)

ABDOMEN, DISTENSON, MENSES, suppressed, during : Rat.
Then she is anxious that something will happen and she does not say that it is better when talking about it; but to indicate the idea of the remedy, look on page 45, "fear that something will happen when alone relieved by conversation". Here, there is an addition: Ratanhia and Mancinella

MIND, happen, something, will, when alone relieved by conversation : Rat.

 I do not know why suppressed. When the menses does not come, they are suppressed, but we do not know why

 Do you know why I found the remedy in 1985? Because Vithoulkas said about this remedy that they have to do certain things. For example, when they pass a church, they have to make a cross, they can not pass a church, without making a cross. They have to do certain things, they just can not do otherwise. These are mental symptoms of Ratanhia that they have to do certain things, that they are anxious, that they are hurried. You can give this picture and say, "All right, that is Ratanhia, but you can never prescribe unless you have peculiar symptoms: distended abdomen from suppressed menses and this enormous burning pain a long time after stool. These two key-notes of Ratanhia makes a case of Ratanhia, together with these mental symptoms. We have treated her for one year and now we give Ratanhia

 A: What about the pain in the rectum, the stitches?

 P: Burning, really burning. As if you have burned yourself?

 A: But this stitches also. How does it stitch?

 P: As if they are stitching with an injection, it can hurt that much. Not every time, but very often.

 A: Do you have discharge?

 P: No.

A: Beside the pain in the hips do you have other complaints?

 P: Pain in the back. I had this once and it hasn't been cured. I can't. I don't go to the family doctor, that is a characteristic of me. I am such an obstinate plant. I always start rubbing with warm clothes on it. I can't tolerate when my mother says that I have to take a sleeping tablet. If she wants to compel me to do such things, then I could put my mother with the sleeping tablets at the door. I am not angry, but they don't have to urge other people. They have to leave me in peace. Everyone is different.

 A: Does it also itch at the rectum?

 P: Very strong, but then I always take sterile clothes.

 A: How often do you have this?

 P: Very often, but that is very different.

 A: Sometimes you don't like that they tell you what you have to do.

 P: No, absolutely not.

 Phatak writes: "Better from exercises" and we have seen in this case that the woman is very busy. I think that this is a kind of exercises

 We have to make an addition in our Kent. You know that also Helonias has exercise ameliorates, exertion ameliorates. We have to add Ratanhia

 You see how close the remedies are sometimes, if you compare, for example, Rhus toxicodendron. But the peculiar thing in this case was the kind of pain in the rectum after stool, so burning, so strong. And then the distension of the abdomen in the suppression of the menses, we do not find this in Rhus toxicodendron

 

 FEEDBACK (1 MONTH LATER)

 She got Ratanhia 10M. Now she comes back and she gets Sac-lac.

 A: On September, 14 you were here and I gave you the remedy. How did it develop afterwards?

 P: Until Thursday I had enormous headache. I had three tablets, in the morning, at noon and one at the next day.

 Sometimes, I give three tablets, one for the morning, one for the noon and one for the evening. Normally, it is not necessary, but when I have the feeling that this is the remedy and you want to be sure that the remedy has been taken at the right moment - sometimes it seems that it depends on the moment the remedy has been taken. It seems so, I am not sure. Nash, for example, writes that you have to take certain remedies when the moon is growing, or when the moon is decreasing, or better in the evening. I do not know. But in this case I gave 10M three times a day

 Do not give one tablet today, the next week another, the next week another that is not good, because you repeat during the working of the first tablet and then you have an aggravation. But when you do it in a short time, within one day or half a day, it is no problem. She had strong headache after the remedy.

 P: I turned from one side to the other. And then I was dangerously ill and then it became better. I had pain at my heart, in the stomach, headache, at the skull. Then it started becoming better. Last week it was very bad. I didn't like coming back today. I thought, "Dammed, do I have to get it back so soon?"

 A: Last week you had a relapse?

 P: More or less. Yes, it has been worse.

 A: In what way?

 P: I didn't have the heavy feeling inside anymore. I still have this often, but it is away very quickly. It doesn't heap anymore, previously, I had a kind of feeling of a heap inside. That is less. Also the burning at the rectum is very much better. The pain has become less.

 A: What about the emotional state?

 P: All right, much better. It is improving, I feel it.

 A: Have you become more quiet?

 P: Yes, much more quiet than before.

 A: Do you still have to get up at night?

 P: Last week I had to get up two or three times. And I didn't have to for quite a long time.

 A: I will give you a few tablets in a tube to take home in case you have a relapse that lasts longer than one week. You only take this when you have more complaints at the rectum and when you feel worse emotionally. When you feel a little bit less emotionally, but physically there is no aggravation, then you wait, it will improve spontaneously. If the rectal as well as the emotional complaints last longer than five days, then you take it. I would like to see you again after two months.

 P: I would like to come back after one month. The last time I also came back after two months and then it was over again. Do you know what I have, the voices in my head, I don't have a quiet head: I always hear what someone said. And also that drone in my head. I also have this very much at night.

 A: But less than before?

 P: It is already better, yes.

 A: You would like that I follow your case until you are completely all right. Good.

 First, you see very well the aggravation, then the improvement and in general she feels better at the moment. The abdomen is better, the stool is better, the rectum, and also mentally she is better. She can have a slight relapse and then she recovers from herself. One week before this consultation there was a kind of relapse and then again she felt better

 From 1984 up to now I did not give her another remedy, only this remedy, Ratanhia, and she did very good on it. It means that in this case Ratanhia can be a very deep acting remedy. You see that there are more than 10 important remedies in Homoeopathy. There are people who work with ten constitutional remedies. I do not like to blame, but with those ten you can indeed solve 70 or 80% of the problems of the population, but the problem is the other 30%. When you solve the problem of 20% or 25% more, you have 90% or 95% - but you are suffering with the other 5%

 You can say that we all together cure 90% in the centre, but if you have 20,000 people, how many people are not cured? 2,000. 2,000 persons you can not cure is a problem, a very big problem. Our task is to work to be able to cure this small percentage and then you think of remedies like Ptelea, Ratanhia, Helonias, Fagopyrum and so on, small remedies; they are there and they have to be used, but maybe once in your life or once in five years. I had a case and I could not find the remedy. It was a case of chronic diarrhoea with distension of the abdomen and oedemas. Which is the remedy? Chronic diarrhoea, the whole time, that is the disease of M. Crohn, with Rectal perineal fistula, with oedema, swelling, chronic diarrhoea, oedema also of the abdomen - which  remedy

 Apocynum cannabinum. We have to know. I gave Apocynum cannabinum and there was a beautiful reaction. But afterwards, she got a phlebitis, but I did not give Vipera (it would be necessary). She went to the hospital, but they could not do anything

 You often see that if you are treating a person and an acute state is coming up you have to give the acute remedy. Graphites and Apis, or Graphites and Vipera; but you have to be able to do this step. That is the reason why we often need these small remedies

 Does everyone know this rubric? "Dropsy of the abdomen" (p. 546)

 Apocynum cannabinum is a very important remedy in the first cases.

 

CASES