Oh boy, I am a fixer.  Yep, I am a 1 on the enneagram, so I see faults.  That’s how my brain is wired, I see faults all around me, and within myself-to a fault.  The compliment to that fault-finding is that I am a “fixer”.  I satisfy this cycle of fault finding and fixing in many areas of my life.  Some of them are healthy, some of them are not.

One healthy way I have seen myself embrace this tendency is in my love of finding some broken, trashed, ugly piece of furniture and fixing it up; making it into something new or beautiful again.  I love sanding away old paint, slapping on some fresh paint, or new fabric and making something come alive again.  Another way I embrace my “fix it” attitude is through remedy prescribing.

That’s right, I love finding the perfect remedy for a person because it takes a critical, detail oriented, yet big-picture-aware kind of mind to unlock the clues of symptoms and find the remedy they’re asking for. I love being able to see a problem (person is sick) assess the situation, come up with a solution, and see it go to work.  So let’s talk about finding a remedy for someone in need.  What is a remedy? How do you choose one? What should you expect? Follow me through the process as I give you my real-life story of illnesses, remedy selection and how it all played out.

Case study #1

My boys had acquired a little cough and cold on Sunday but were dealing with it on their own just fine-no remedies or other medicinals needed. Then on Tuesday Marco came down with a slight fever (never took his temp so not sure how high it was) so we all cuddled up and watched a movie. As we were getting ready for bed Michael (who was pretty much over his cold) said his ear felt funny “on the inside where the sound goes in” ☺️ and on a side note he told me his lip was itching…which I paid no attention to.  Like a good tired mom, I told him he probably needed some rest and his lip would feel better in the morning.

But I did think, “ok he’s coming down with an ear infection I guess.”  He has never had one, but there was a time when he was about 5 that I suspected we avoided one with homeopathy. So I gave him a remedy (hepar sulph) since he didn’t really have any very distinct symptoms.

Hepar Sulphiricum is a great remedy for infections of various sorts, and since he didn’t have any very distinct symptoms yet (so I thought) I gave him a dose and sent him to bed.  I fully expected not to hear from him again till morning.  

About a half hour later I heard him crying in his room. He said he wanted to sleep but his ear hurt and was keeping him awake. As I spoke to him I noticed his bottom lip was very swollen as if he had been hit! I said, “what’s the matter with your lip?”  “It’s itchy! I told you that!” he retorted.

“That’s strange.” I thought. I prayed with him.
I waited about 10 mins to see if the remedy was working or not working but he became increasingly uncomfortable, moaning and crying.  Sometimes when we give a remedy, we know it is working when we see an aggravation of symptoms.  Remember that homeopathic remedies help the body overcome, so we often see the illness speed up as the body works more efficiently. 

I waited, he wasn’t screaming, but he was going to keep the other kids awake with his moaning so I invited him in bed with me so I could watch him. He wanted me to hold him and we cuddled up in my bed. He was thirsty. I looked up pulsatilla because he seemed to indicate that remedy- weepy, in need of sympathy, thirsty, etc. I scanned for an unusual symptom to help me decide. 

When we look for a remedy, we want to find the best match to the symptoms the person presents with.  Pulsatilla is a remedy whose chief guiding symptoms are the mental/emotional state of the patient.  We look for the weepy, clingy child, usually a mild disposition, and also is notably a female remedy.  I recommend this remedy to women who have that emotional crash after childbirth.  Although we look for big picture symptoms to match, it is not uncommon to notice that our patient doesn’t match most of the symptoms listed.  This is OK.  if your patient matches some of the main symptoms, that is a good starting point.  What you want to do next, is look for an oddball symptom that matches 100% This is what I mean- Boericke’s material medica describes some symptoms of pulsatilla this way-

“Weeps easily. Timid, irresolute. Fears in evening to be alone, dark, ghosts. Likes sympathy. Children like fuss and caresses. Easily discouraged. Morbid dread of the opposite sex. Religious melancholy. Given to extremes of pleasure and pain. Highly emotional. Mentally, an April day.

Head.
     Wandering stitches about head; pains extend to face and teeth; vertigo; better in open air. Frontal and supraorbital pains. Neuralgic pains, commencing in RIGHT TEMPORAL region, WITH SCALDING LACHRYMATION OF AFFECTED SIDE. HEADACHE FROM OVERWORK. Pressure on vertex.”

Now, some of those fit quite well for Michael, others not so much, but as we read further, one might be tempted to think this was not the correct remedy at all!  Some of the symptoms even speak to his disposition in general, and not at all in direct relation to the illness, but then again, it is all connected, isn’t it?  He is very easily discouraged generally speaking, and he can be highly emotional, he very quickly swings from one extreme to another.  Here are some other symptoms that dont really match at all.

Male.
     Orchitis; pain from abdomen to testicles. Thick, yellow discharge from urethra; late stage of gonorrhea. Stricture; urine passed only in drops, and stream interrupted. (CLEMAT.) ACUTE PROSTATITIS. Pain and tenesmus in urinating, WORSE LYING ON BACK.

Respiratory.
     Capricious hoarseness; comes and goes. DRY COUGH IN EVENING AND AT NIGHT; MUST SIT UP IN BED TO GET RELIEF; AND LOOSE COUGH IN THE MORNING;, with copious mucous expectoration. PRESSURE UPON THE CHEST AND SORENESS. Great soreness of epigastrium. Urine emitted with cough. (CAUST.) Pain as from ulcer in middle of chest. Expectoration bland, thick, bitter, greenish. Short breath, anxiety, and palpitation when lying on left side. (PHOS.) Smothering sensation on lying down.

None of that really described him.  So…what was it that stood out to me and made me confident that this was the remedy he needed?

I looked for something odd, something seemingly unrelated to his ear pain, something that matched him in such a unique way, that there would be no denying it was right for him.  and I found it! 

Face.
     Right-sided neuralgia, with profuse lachrymation. Swelling of lower lip, which is cracked in middle. Prosopalgia towards evening till midnight; chilly, with pain.

Swelling of lower lip??!!  Are you serious?  I looked at his lip, it was swollen!  I could hardly believe my eyes as I read it again.  I just love how seemingly unrelated symptoms can make sense in light of a well indicated remedy!  

I gave him pulsatilla and he seemed to settle a bit…and then it got worse. Possibly a good sign…gave him more about 15mins later. Then he really took a turn for the worse. He really began to cry and yell, became restless, hot, and didn’t want me to hold him. I called my husband who was on his way home and asked him to pick up some children’s Tylenol 😳 just in case.

Yep, you read that correctly.  I don’t even keep the stuff in the house.  He had gotten so much worse after that first dose I was worried that maybe I had gotten it wrong. ?

I wanted him to be able to rest and sleep. When he arrived with it, I had huge reservations about giving it to him (especially after reading the warning label!)…so I didn’t. 😬 instead I re-evaluated. Sometimes when a remedy begins to help the body work through something the symptom picture changes as the body works. Michael’s had changed.  Think of the healing process as though it were climbing a ladder.  We are going in a positive direction, and now the view is different.

He now looked and acted more like chamomilla. So I gave him a dose. I will admit, as he lay there holding the side of his head and shouting and crying I had a bit of guilt. After 10 minutes I offered him the Tylenol, but he didn’t want it! I certainly was not going to force it on him! We prayed with him.

General.
     The chief guiding symptoms belong to the mental and emotional group, which lead to this remedy in many forms of disease. Especially of frequent employment in diseases of children, where peevishness, restlessness, and colic give the needful indications. A disposition that is mild, calm and gentle; sluggish and constipated bowels contraindicate Chamomilla.
     Chamomilla is SENSITIVE, IRRITABLE, THIRSTY, HOT, AND NUMB. Over-sensitiveness from abuse of coffee and narcotics. PAINS UNENDURABLE, associated with numbness. Night-sweats.

Mind.
     WHINING RESTLESSNESS. Child wants many things which he refuses again. Piteous moaning because he cannot have what he wants. Child can only be quieted when carried about and petted constantly. IMPATIENT, intolerant of being spoken to or interrupted; extremely sensitive to every pain; always complaining. Spiteful, SNAPPISH. Complaints from ANGER and vexation. MENTAL CALMNESS CONTRAINDICATE CHAMOM.

Maybe 10 minutes after that, he began to breath deeply, he settled down, and became sleepy. Not long after that he was sound asleep. We let him sleep there for a bit, then carried him into the next room.  We again were amazed at the effectiveness of these simple little pellets.  

He woke the next morning perfectly fine, he said he felt much better and that his ear only hurt if he stuck his finger in it. 😂 his lip was just the slightest bit swollen (it seemed to me it was a good physical indication of what was going on inside his ear that I couldn’t see)

Michael

You all know I advocate for homeopathy to people who are interested, but still…Each time I see a remedy work like this I am amazed! So be encouraged and if ever you have a question about homeopathy and how to use it feel free to ask me!