Cases

A 65 yr old male with hypothyroidism came with complaint of cough for last 15 days. He was not able to describe the cough in any manner. No modality, no character was described. He had covid 20 days back for which he took allopathic treatment. After lot of questioning, he mentioned that that phlegm flew out of his mouth every time he coughed. On this limited detail Badiaga 30/ 3 doses /od were given, with instruction to stop medicine as soon as amelioration sets in. He was asked to come after 3 days for follow. After 3 days he reported that he took all the 3 doses but felt much better after the first day itself. He was given placebo for another week with complete resolution of cough.

Explanation

The prescription in this case was done on very limited information provided by patient. That information however was very characteristic of the medicine (mucus flying from mouth and nose on coughing). The patient should have stopped the medicine after 1^st dose as it gave relief, but sometimes this does not happen in practice and he took all the 3 doses. Luckily the later doses did not do much harm. (Repetition of dose when none is needed can spoil the case).

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download a .pdf file of the case below:

57 yr old male with no comorbidity came with severe conjunctivitis of left eye. It started suddenly after riding a bike. He was given aconite 200 4 pills 2 times a day for 3 days.

Explanation

Sudden onset, severe inflammation and complaint starting after exposure to cold air(causation) led to the prescription of aconite, with complete resolution of the inflammation in 3 days.

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download the pdf file of the case below.

A mother contacted over phone for her 3 yr old child who was crying for last 1 hour continuously for no apparent reason. The child had no fever, no cold, cough or any other complaint. There was no problem on urination and child had passed motion previous day. Thirst was normal. When questioned the child was holding stomach and was sitting on couch. When the mother tried to carry the child, she refused to be moved. On this basis Bryonia 200 one dose was given to child. Within 2 min the child stopped crying, became comfortable and started playing.

Explanation

The child was probably having a colic. We generally think of colocynth, mag phos, cham etc in such cases. I too thought of them. However, the modality that the child did not want to be moved and was sitting still, led to the prescription of Bryonia (motion agg).

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download the pdf version of the case below.

A 45 yr old lady came with cardiac anxiety. It started after a scare about an accident of her only son. Though nothing happened to the child, she developed these anxiety attacks every time she heard anything out of ordinary. She was in a constant state of tension. There were constant eructations, more so when she was empty stomach. She complained of leaving things here and there without remembering them, after that incidence. She was given one dose of Laurocerasus 200. Follow-up after a month resolved her complaint to a large extent. She was given kali phos 6x for another month.

Explanation

After a sudden fright, we usually think of medicines like aconite. This case with its sudden onset, fright, and anxiety was also taking me towards prescribing aconite. However, the unusual manifestation of memory loss struck me and made me search further. The memory loss after a fright (cause and effect) led me to laurocerasus (sudden loss of memory, from pain, fright, etc. (Boger Synoptic Key)). The result spoke for itself. I, nevertheless wonder what would have been the action of aconite in this case. Only if there was a parallel universe.

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download a .pdf version of the case below.

This is a case of a 35 yr old male, obese with no other comorbidity, c/o heel pain b/l for last six months, and an unspecified eroded lesion of 3 cm diameter on left heel. His serum uric acid was normal and the X-Ray heel advised by the previous doctor did not show any abnormality. He had severe pain in getting up in the morning and keeping his foot down on the floor, which reduced after some time as he moved out of the bed and walked around. His tongue was deeply coated white. He was given ant crud 1m/ 3 doses, and silicea 6x 3 tabs twice daily for a month.

The next follow-up revealed a healed lesion and no pain.

Explanation

I encounter heel pain as presenting in many patients but most of them have no reason to which it can be attributed. Some may have uric acid levels raised or some may have a calcaneal spur which might be causing a plantar fasciitis. This patient had a whitewashed tongue which (heel pain and white-coated tongue) prompted me to give ant crud and since the pain was acute, a moderately high potency in repeated doses was given. A biochemic was added as a supportive. His heel pain and lesion healed completely on the follow-up.

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download the pdf file of the case here.

A 67 yr old male came with pain in rt leg with a localized area of redness. On examination, it was found that he had varicose veins in the leg and one of the superficial veins had thrombosed and gotten inflamed (on examination one could appreciate the cord-like structure running along the length of the vein). He has a standing job and never took any treatment for varicosity. He was on antihypertensive medication. He was given Vipera 30/ 3 doses/ od with local application of arnica Q and asked to come back with venous doppler study of both the legs, to see the extension of thrombosis (a thrombosis in the deeper vein can embolize to lungs causing acute/ subacute or chronic pulmonary embolism). He came back three days later with the report showing evidence of superficial thrombosis only. The extent of thrombosis had reduced almost by 90% (on palpation only a small area of thrombosis was left) and the superf. inflammation of the skin gone. Vipera was stopped and local application was continued till another 3-4 days when the thrombosis resolved completely.

Explanation

Vipera is one of the main medicines for inflamed veins- phlebitis. Along with this the bursting sensation that the patient complaint pointed towards Vipera (veins thrombosed, bursting sensation).

Since nothing else could be found a lower potency was chosen with limited repetition and a local application.

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

A patient of mine consulted for a relative, a contractor (construction) 54 yrs, who had developed a non-healing varicose ulcer in the left leg and was advised a skin graft as all treatment failed. The patient had no comorbidity. Since his job included long-standing, he had suffered from varicose veins bilaterally for years. 2-3 years back he developed this ulcer near the left medial ankle which refused to heal despite conventional treatment, hence the advice of skin grafting. The only information I got was that he had severe burning pain in the lesion and it prevented sleep. Lachesis 200 one dose was given. A local wash with calendula Q was also advised regularly. The next day the pain reduced and the patient was more comfortable. Nothing else was given (not even a placebo) and patient kept reporting every week. There was a remarkable change in the appearance of the lesion within 10 days, with granulation tissue appearing and ulcer becoming shallower. Slowly the ulcer started healing and after 3 months of the only dose, it healed completely.

Explanation

As this case was not under my direct observation that is why I decided to go with a moderate potency. It was a left-sided varicose ulcer and had marked burning as a symptom. There are many other medicines having varicose ulcers but none have such burning (it was the sensation voluntarily given by the patient) as Lachesis. Based on this a single dose was given (Lachesis- left-sided, varicose ulcer, burning pain). And since the patient kept improving the dose was not repeated (had the progress stopped, I would have had to think about a second prescription).

This case is also interesting as I did not give a placebo to the patient (I could not, as the medicine was prescribed over the phone). Improvement in the first few days convinced the patient that his treatment was on the correct path and he followed every instruction that was given to him, diligently. Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download the .pdf file of the case below

With this case, I want to demonstrate treatment of an acute during treatment for chronic disease. This child around 6 yrs of age was a k/c/o Gaucher’s disease. She frequently suffered from infections for which she had to be admitted and given intravenous antibiotics (she would not respond to oral ones). After each such episode, she took a couple of weeks to recover and regain her strength, only to be battered by the next one. She was under treatment of a senior homeopath who was out of the station and had entrusted me to look after her in his absence. During this period, the child developed an acute episode of severe tonsillitis with high-grade fever. Her parents called late at night (they were not willing to admit her); when I saw her, she had a 103F fever, red lips, thirstless. She was not able to swallow anything on account of the pain. An examination of the throat showed very red tonsils (though no focus of suppuration could be seen).  Belladonna 200 was given and was asked to be repeated hourly with instructions to stop as soon as fever comes down. The parents were advised to admit the child if the fever does not come down or goes further up.

The morning brought good news. The child’s fever came down after just one dose and there was no need for repetition.

Explanation

During the acute episode, consideration was given only to the newly developed symptoms and not to the pre-existing ones. The case became a very straightforward one. Redness (sp. red lips), congestion, thirstlessness, and high fever. These are key indications of bell. The surprise was in the fact that no other dose was needed. This shows that a single dose of similimum can ride the tides (in this case it aborted acute episode). We can either achieve results in a zig-zag way or in the shortest possible way, the latter achieved only by similimum (similar medicine in suitable potency).

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download the .pdf version of the case here

A 50 yr old male came with a complaint of chronic pansinusitis. He had been suffering for years with the problem and nothing helped him. He repeatedly took antibiotics to clear up the infection, only to return again. He could not smell anything, could not bear airconditioned environment, and had not slept properly according to his own account for years due to a blocked nose at night. The only time he felt better was when it was warm. He was given a dose of hepar sulph 10m. He returned after 3 months, extremely happy and satisfied, and thanked profusely for the medicine had helped him smell something literally after decades. He slept without any problem and did not need any antibiotics for the past 3 months.

Explanation

An extremely chilly person (he was only ameliorated by warmth) who has pansinusitis (and yellowish discharge) and has taken repeated antibiotics needs nothing but Hepar sulph. I thought that given the chronicity of the trouble he might need some other medicine later on, but it has not been the case till now, even after 4 yrs.

Aude sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

A female of 55yrs came with c/o acidity and joint pains. She was not able to sleep at night because of acid reflux. She also complained of joint pains. On detailed inquiry, it was discerned that when she had acidity, she did not have joint pains. They seemed to be alternating with each other. One appeared when the other disappeared. Based on this Kali Bi 200 one dose was given. A follow-up one month later showed no change in her condition. Since I was sure of medicine the potency was increased and Kali Bi 1m.  Even now nothing happened. The case was taken again in detail. I was going to suggest some blood tests but the patient was reluctant to undergo them. It was found that the patient had taken OCPs for a very long time to regulate her periods. On this basis, Thyroidinum 10m was given. This time she responded very well and the follow-up a month later showed marked improvement in her complaints. She was kept on placebo till her last follow-up.

Explanation

I wanted to bring forth a very important point through this case and highlight the need for an intercurrent or another medicine (by whatever name you call it), to remove a block created by prolonged use of OCPs in this case. Kali Bi despite being indicated (acidity alternating with joint pains is PQRS) did not work till the block was removed using Thyroidinum. You will come across many cases like this where a well-indicated medicine will fail to produce results. Look for such blocks/events/accidents/incidences etc, address them with appropriate remedy and you would find them unlocking the case for you or churn the wheels of a machine that refused to budge earlier.

(For those who would like more, I would like to refer to a discussion/case of Dr. S P Dey as mentioned in one of his books “Essays on Homeopathy”. He gives an example of a patient with severe skin manifestations who would be given a dose of Sulph which will apparently cure a patient for time being, only to return 6 months later with a recurrence. He says should Sulph be indicated, as it would be from the symptomatology, it should take care of the case for once and for all, why the recurrence? On delving deeper, it would be found that the mother had skin allergy during pregnancy, in which case Thyroidinum would do the job, or Medo if there’s a family history of sycosis in parents.   These obstacles need to be removed if we are ever expected to travel towards a cure.)

Aude Sapere

Shivangi Jain
BHMS, MD, PGDMLE, PGDHHM
drshivangijain79@gmail.com
https://drshivangihomoeopathy.com/

Download a copy of the case below.