Finding the Heart of the Problem
In some cases, in fact often times, there is not always an immediate obvious remedy that fixes the patient. A bit like looking for a problem with your car for instances. You may be aware that it is not handling right, or has a strange rattle, but the mechanic cannot always go straight to the heart of the problem. Cars are very complex machines and people can be equally as complex. This case illustrates how this can happen. However, each step of the way, brings us a little bit closer to finding the heart of the problem and then once we understand what the issues are it is possible to give a remedy that does the trick.
This lady had fled from Iran as a teenager. Her mother had said that she would kill herself if she did not leave immediately. Flavia (not her real name), was in no doubt that her mother would do this, so with deep regret she left Iran and started a new life in Germany. This was at the time of the Iranian revolution and several of Flavia's fellow students had been imprisoned and tortured, her mother took this drastic step to ensure that her daughter would be safe and not subject to the same threat as her friends who now were incarcerated.
Some tales are so tragic it is almost too awful to recount and sadly this one was such tale. Flavia was never to see her mother again, as she died after she had left for Germany.
Inflammation and Rash all over Body
At the time I first met Flavia, she had been living in the UK for several years, she was married with adult children and a husband. Her relationship with her husband was not an easy one, but she made the best of it. She sought out help for a rather dramatic skin condition which would occur very suddenly giving her a rash all over the body which was swollen, hot and itchy. She would take cold showers and try to calm the rash with yoghurt and she also took antihistamines as prescribed by her Doctor, but the flare ups were frequent and very distressing. The last flare up had been scary and she had gone to A&E as she was having trouble breathing, her face and mouth were swollen and her fingernails went black. She was now under a specialist and had been taking antihistamines for five months, with no real diagnosis and frequent flare ups. She had also been prescribed antidepressants but so far they were not helping.
So at this point I'm looking for a cause for the skin rashes and like the specialist, I'm coming up with nothing in particular. She is careful with her diet and knows that certain foods can trigger, so she avoids these. She has a challenging relationship with her husband, but it has been like this for years, so why now is she getting this reaction? The first remedy I gave her was Natrum Muriaticum, as I felt there was grief at the loss of her mother and then her father who had died some years later. I also gave her Apis to take at the time of a flare up. This is a great remedy made from bee sting and as her symptoms so closely matched the reaction from a bee sting coupled with dryness and thirst this seemed like a good place to start. I also, advised her to continue with all her medicines from the Doctor as before. I don't ever take anyone off their medication until they start to see an improvement. Then they can reduce the medication with the help of their Doctor if should they wish.
At the Second Appointment
Flavia reported that she was sleeping better and the itching on her face had gone, (but still itching in other areas). When she felt her heart beating strongly and was aware of her blood pressure going up she would take the Apis and things would come under control. She was still taking antihistamines too.
This was a good result so I gave her more Apis to take when needed and increased her dose of Nat Mur to LM2. Taking homeopathic remedies as LM's, which means as drops and very very dilute; can be useful in a case like this when the person is already on quite strong medication. The LM drops are taken every day and therefore are not antidoted by the medication, in this case the antihistamines.
When I worked in hospice care using homeopathy, I found that LMs were helpful even through the most powerful medication. People receiving chemotherapy could still benefit from the homeopathic drops and even people on steroids or strong painkillers were still able to benefit from my remedies. In most cases the care at this point would be palliative, however, homeopathy could help with things like, dry mouth, itchy skin, mucus on the lungs that would not clear up, that kind of thing. Making the patient more comfortable.
So going back to Flavia, she had relief from the severe itch and anxiety from taking Apis when needed and I continued to give her other remedies to take alongside the Apis with the intention of getting to the root cause. I knew we had not reached the point of cure as yet and that there was another remedy which would benefit her more than the Apis, but I just could not see it yet. Sometimes, as in this case, its a matter of the patient saying something that makes all the difference and then suddenly bingo you know what they need.
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
We were talking on one of her visits about her friends who had been tortured back in Iran and she said that this was the anniversary date of the time when they were put to death. Flavia said that she had had a bad nights sleep the night before as she was thinking about her friends and what had happened. When she finally managed to get to sleep she very soon woke with a start thinking "If I go now I can save them" and she looked at her watch in the consulting room, while telling me about this. In that moment between sleep and wakefulness her sub conscious had revealed the underlying state of mind that was giving her the rashes. In looking at her watch she revealed that the moment of death, the moment when she would loose her friends was still fresh in her mind, all these years later, and it was this fear of imminent death that was still haunting her today.
Now the remedy becomes very clear. Aconite! It is used for fear and can be taken in low doses for nerves from a trip to the dentist or when feeling fearful after a frightening event. One of the main things about Aconite is fright, shock and the feeling that death is going to happen now. This poor lady was basically still in a state of on-going shock and fear, and when she had an argument with her husband, or something else unsettling, it would just be too much and tip her over the edge, causing the skin flare ups. An expression of her acute anxiety state.
Feeling Much Calmer in Herself
I gave her a high dose of Aconite, just one pill and when she returned a month later she said that she felt much calmer in herself. She was sleeping better, and best of all, had had no episodes of the rash in the last month apart from one small outbreak. (Previously there would be several episodes a month). If she felt the itch, a sign of a skin flare up, coming on she would take antihistamines and this would be enough to stop symptoms getting worse. Whereas before, antihistamines were not sufficient.
She was prescribed another high dose Aconite on a couple more visits and was then completely well.
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