A Solace for the Agonising Suppuration (Suppurative Dermatitis - 2013)
It is always sad to see a young person being carried into my clinic, no matter what the health problem is. We all want our young generation to be hale and hearty. But things are not always rosy.
This 12-year-old girl was brought to me with very painful, big, oozing skin lesions on her feet. For the past three years, she was suffering from painful eruptions on both her soles and in between the toes, with oozing of a watery sticky fluid. The poor girl was not in a condition to walk due to the severity of swelling, ulceration and pain on her feet. So she was carried to my clinic by her father. There was intense itching, that became worse with sweating.
She was suffering from recurrent attacks of cold and cough from infancy for up to 9 years of age. Once these respiratory problems were resolved three years ago, she had developed skin problems.
Thermal reaction - Hot Patient, but she prefers lukewarm food and drinks.
Menstrual History - menarche in March 2013. Menses - every alternate month with severe dysmenorrhoea, lasting for several days.
Treatment
Hepar sulph was the curative medicine in this case, selected on the basis of the severity of pain the girl presented with. Hepar sulph from 1M to 50M over a period of one year, from September 2013 to September 2014, gave her immense relief. In between, I gave Psorinum 1M twice when the discharge became highly offensive. The girl also developed high fever once with lot of pus formation and two doses of Pyrogen-200 was given. To complete the cure she needed Ars iod 1M to 50M potencies, when she developed some respiratory problems and the healing skin lesions became scaly, thick and black. It took two years to completely cure this patient.
Discussion
Usually patients come to a physician with more than one problem haunting them. If the physician can quickly relieve the most troublesome symptom, he gains the confidence of the patients. Ideally, treating a patient is a joint effort. A physician alone cannot bring success. The faith and cooperation of the patient and his family too are essential. The patient should strictly follow the diet and regimen and should not get frustrated and intolerant. Here, Hepar sulph effectively took care of the acute pain tormenting this little girl. At that point, a special bond develops between the physician and the patient and the rest of the journey becomes smoother.
The most striking symptoms presented before the physician when the patient approaches him, guide him in the selection of the first prescription. There are many levels of dis-ease in each case which the patient accumulated through various channels- genetic, miasmatic, environmental, psychological, constitutional, lifestyle induced and drug induced, among others. In an ideal cure, correction should happen in all these areas. As correction happens, deeper discrepancies guide the physician to use more deep acting anti-miasmatic and constitutional medicines for correcting the vitiated inner self. This holistic correction cannot happen overnight. It takes time, and calls for the faith and cooperation of the patient.
In this case, cure was achieved through different medicines guided by symptoms over a period of two years. A good start with Hepar sulph, which brought her relief, greatly encouraged the patient and increased her confidence to walk the whole journey. Gaining a patient's faith is absolutely essential as it will extend the much needed cooperation to the physician during the long path towards cure.
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“There is only one condition where local application of the indicated potentized remedy may be used to advantage, and that is in cases where it is impossible to administer it by mouth. This statement is based on Hahnemann’s observations that mucous surfaces and denuded surfaces are receptive to the indicated remedy, but in a more limited degree than through the alimentary canal.” - Herbert A. Roberts.
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