It Starts with a Lost Voice
Julia came to see me with recurrent throat infections which would usually include a chest infection, she got these often which indicates that her immune system was low and so she had little resistance to acute illnesses. She would usually lose her voice at the beginning of the infection and then it would progress to a chest infection. She had pain when swallowing and a very sore and painful throat.
As is often the case, these attacks of throat infection went along with periods of anxiety. Anxiety presents itself differently in people. She had finished school and was waiting to go to university, at this time of uncertainty the throat infection appeared for the first time. Ever since then she had recurring throat infections during times of stress.
Previously Julia had been treated with antibiotics for the throat infections, they were Strep throat, which comes from a certain common bacteria known as Streptococcal. The antibiotics usually helped to reduce the pain and inflammation from this unpleasant condition, however, the throat infection always came back when Julia was under stress and each time the antibiotics became less and less effective, leaving her with an almost on-going situation.
At the time of her first consultation, she was taking antibiotics for Strep throat infection. I gave her a remedy to take, Belladonna, with instructions to start taking it once the course of antibiotics had completed.
Massive Improvement
When Julia come back for her follow up 4 weeks later, she reported that her throat had improved massively. She had taken the Belladonna three times a day for an initial period of 5 days, as directed and then just one occasionally if the pain seemed to be resurfacing. She said it had taken three weeks, but now in the last week, she had not had any pain in her throat. So although there had been throat pain after finishing the antibiotics the Belladonna had finished the job.
So Julia's throat pain was much improved, however, mentally she felt worse, she was not sleeping and was more anxious. This does not mean that the homeopathy was not working, it just means that having removed the acute layer of disease, e.g. the strep throat, another layer of disease was becoming more evident. This one centred around Julia's mental health and well being. This is a good example of why its important to see a professional homeopath who can understand the direction of cure and what needs to be done next. You could say that the throat infections where stopping Julia from dealing with deeper psychological issues that she was not yet ready to face. With homeopathic remedies we can gently bring a patient through this maze of emotion and help them come to terms with their inner struggles.
I'm going to do a separate blog on Julia's mental health recovery and freedom from anorexia. However, the strep throat did come back, as you might expect, about 6 weeks later in the form of flu like symptoms. These symptoms were different from the original strep throat although there was throat pain and so needed a different remedy. She felt extremely exhausted, shaking and with a fever and painful joints, she needed to lie down a lot. The remedy given at this point was Arsenicum.
Overnight recovery
Julia experienced an improvement in her symptoms overnight after taking the Arsenicum. She continued with the remedy as directed for a few days and then felt very well on an emotional level and with her throat. When the remedy given is a good match and especially in acute diseases such as colds and flu, the recovery can be very quick. This is one of the great joys of homeopathy and very impressive. Even antibiotics take around 3 days to start acting.
There were some other periods of flare up with regard to the strep throat over the coming months and each time this was treated with the appropriate homeopathic remedy. However, at the time of writing, she has not had a strep throat infection for the last 12 months.
Its quite common for a long standing illness like this to take more than one attempt to clear. The important thing is to keep taking appropriate remedies until the infection is no longer able to surface. People often ask me how long they will remain well. This is very difficult to judge. In some cases when the patient is subject again to great stress or anxiety the disease may return, however, they may also remain well for good.