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| Hpathy Ezine - June, 2004 | ||||
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A Flurry of Explanations -- Elaine Lewis |
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4. The appearance. This can be very important. You wouldn't give Chamomilla to someone who is lying quietly; and you wouldn't give Gelsemium to someone who was thrashing about and screeching. Check for the color and the expression in the face, and the pupils--check to see if they're dilated or contracted. 5. Location is rather self-explanatory. 6. Modalities. This is another big one. Very often, this is the deciding factor in the case. I gave the example above where in two cases, "rainy weather aggravates" was the critical symptom. Modalities are things that make the patient better or worse. If you ask him what makes him feel better, he will often say "nothing" or he'll say, "Motrin." They really don't understand, so, you have to help out. Ask, "What are you doing now because of this illness?" The answer might be, "I'm lying here in the dark with an ice pack on my head." So, this person is worse light, and better cold applications. You're not going to give this patient Mag-phos, which is definitely worse for anything cold! Do you know what the modalities are? I could never remember them, so I made up a little poem (actually, it's more of a cheer!): Temperature, weather, motion and time Please hold your applause til the end. What do I mean by these things? Temperature not only refers to the temperature outside but the room-temperature as well. There's the famous Pulsatilla aggravation from warm, closed rooms, but Nux Vomica is better for this. You will find Nux Vomica wrapped up in blankets, and even the slight draft caused by turning over in bed will aggravate his cold or flu. By motion, I am referring to remedies like like Bryonia, famous for the inability to tolerate even the slightest motion--even moving the eyes or taking a deep breath can make the complaint much worse. On the other hand, a remedy like Sepia can be much improved if he or she can get out and do vigorous exercise, like swimming, dancing or playing tennis. Reaction to stimuli: some people can't tolerate stimulation when they're sick; odors, for example, will make them nauseous. Look in the Repertory--Stomach: nausea, odors. Colchicum is the main remedy here. Others can't tolerate noise or conversation (Mind: noise, aversion to). Others, like Phosphorus, are so much improved by encouraging words, that often just the doctor saying, "This is not serious at all, you're going to be well in no time," is sufficient to cause a vast improvement in Phosphorus, but not so for Arsenicum or Nitric acid, who will simply not believe you. A big clue to the remedy can lie in the patient's food and drink desires. You might be confused between Pulsatilla and Phosphorus, as they both are better for company, worse alone, better for sympathy and both love ice cream, but Pulsatilla is thirstless and Phosphorus is very thirsty for ice cold drinks. What do I mean by "Time"? "Position", what do I mean by this? Position can be an important clue. What if your patient is all bent over double? Go to Generals: doubling up of the body--Mag-phos. and Colocynth are the main remedies. Is there anything note-worthy about your patient's position? 7. Concomitants. What's so important about these? These are the symptoms that are along for the ride that make no sense, in that they have nothing to do with the complaint; and in the homeopathic understanding, that's what makes them so important--they are PECULIAR! The concomitants can be the deciding factor in your remedy choice. Consider this: Headache with nausea and vomiting--Ipecac 8. Discharges. Remember the color, odor and consistency of discharges. My mother used to say, "Why do you have to know these things?!" Sorry, Ma. Look at Generals: mucus, and all the subrubrics. 9. Generals. What are the generals? They're the "I" symptoms. "I'm hot! I'm thirsty! I'm sleepy, don't bother me." I could never remember the generals either, so, I'm afraid I wrote another poem. Here it is: Warm or cold? Yeah, I was running out of gas when I made that one up, but hey, if you think you can do better...! So, what do I mean by Sweating...what, where or when? It means what exactly are you sweating? Go to the Perspiration chapter in your repertory. You'll see that sweat can be acrid, bloody, burning, clammy, cold, hot, oily, warm....You'll see that there are aggravation times for sweat, there's a variety of odors to choose from, a variety of stains and colors; let me just say that Thuja is known for its oily perspiration, and Sulphur is known for sweat on waking, and of course, some remedies are famous for sweat on certain parts, like Silica for it's sweaty feet where the perspiration is said to actually eat the socks and shoes! 10. The mentals. Just make sure the mentals have something to do with the case and aren't normal mentals like "Loves animals". Who doesn't? 11. What does the person say? This is a big one and I can't cover it all here, but it may be something obvious that could lead you to the remedy, for example Lachesis may say, "I feel like my throat is closing, I'm having trouble swallowing." (Lachesis is a snake, and the throat is the most vulnerable part of their body, the place where they can be grabbed and controlled.) But, it may be less apparent. Someone might say, "I wish I could just fly away from here." There's a reason for choosing the word "fly" when one could have as easily said, "I wish I could bust outta here." Try to tune into themes and repetitions of words and phrases. The "fly away" person may need one of our bird remedies. 12. Thirst. The amount of thirst, the desire for warm or cold or ice are all very important in differentiating among remedies. Food: do they want cold or warm? Sweets, salty, spicy? More importantly, if they've changed their food or drink desires since they became sick, this is really important. 13. Fever. When taking a fever case, first ask if they're dry or
sweating. Next ask about their thirst. Then ask for the concomitant: 14. Sweating. We've already gone into that. 15. Odors. Sometimes odors can be indicative of the remedy. Foul odors will lead you away from remedies like Aconite and Belladonna and more toward the toxic remedies like Mercury, Baptisia and Pyrogen. 16. The striking, strange, rare and peculiar symptoms. We've touched on this already. Suffice it to say that the common symptoms of the complaint will rarely help us, that's the reason for all these questions. We need complete symptoms, we need the etiology and onset, we need colors and odors, we need concomitants; and after all this, we stand a good chance of coming up with the right remedy. |
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