Just Two Doses to Cure Sudden Vision Loss (1960)
This case was a really challenging one. I came across this case when I was working in Aathurashramam NSS Homoeopathic Medical College, Kurichy, Kottayam. A woman of 45 years, after her routine household chores, went to bed with a perfectly normal vision and general health. But the next morning was a rude shock for her. She woke up with a blurred vision in her left eye.
Later, she realized that she was totally losing vision of that eye. Immediately she consulted an ophthalmologist, took treatment for a while, comprising three courses of eight injections each directly into her eyes. There was no improvement. As her husband was a Homoeopath, they decided to take Homoeopathic treatment and came to me.
During case taking, I noticed that she was quite talkative. She was sensitive to heat and most uncomfortable in hot surroundings. As her complaint was on the left eye and she was approaching her menopause, I couldn't think of a more suitable remedy than Lachesis. I gave her one dose of Lachesis 1M and asked her to report after a month. Strict instructions were given regarding diet and regimen. Since her husband was a Homoeopath they were quite aware of these aspects of Homoeopathy. No placebo was given to her.
I presented this case to my colleagues. Most of them believed it was
impossible for the lady to regain her vision. All of them except one disagreed with my prescription of Lachesis. Because of the clear- cut totality of the symptoms I had gathered, I was more than confident about my prescription. Everybody was curious about this case and was waiting for her follow-up visits.
She came for review after a month and reported a slight improvement. She could see objects in front of her very faintly. She could see a faint light instead of pitch darkness. I wanted to show my students the necessity and advantage of waiting after administering the similimum. So the lady was sent back with directions to wait without even placebo medicines.
When she came back after a fortnight, there was a little improvement to report. All my colleagues were keenly following the case. I believed that the Lachesis 1M, which I had given earlier, could bring some more relief. I instructed her to wait for another month.
She was very cheerful when she came back next month as she had regained her vision completely. She said that the improvement was rapid after the previous visit. Both husband and wife were so relieved that they arranged a tea party for our team. During the party, she commented that she was doubtful whether the recovery was due to the injections she had received before the homoeopathic medicine. I just smiled.
She came after two months with loss of vision of her right eye. This time they came directly to me with confidence without taking any allopathic treatment. I gave her Lachesis 10 M, one poppy seed sized medicated pill in sugar of milk. By now my colleagues and students were convinced about the prescription as the ailment shifted from left to right.
When she came back after two months she had regained normal vision. Both her eyes were perfectly alright.
Discussion
This was one of the challenging and amazing cases in my early professional life giving me great moments to cherish. Many Homoeopaths at times fail to see the essence of a case. The totality always reflects on one perfect similimum.
Two main features I would like to explain regarding this case are:
1. Basis of prescription
- Hot patient
- Climacteric period
- Talkative patient
- Onset from left side, shifting to right
Please note that these are all “General Symptoms.” Just by studying this case a student can understand the weightage one should give to general symptoms over particulars. Here, a constitutional remedy was chosen based on general symptoms. One should also notice how beneficial Lachesis is for a woman during climacteric, even for ailments unrelated to uterus or ovaries.
2. Importance of waiting
When you have selected a perfect similimum, you must give sufficient time for it to act beneficially. In this case, it took almost two months to bring about a favourable response. If you are confident about your prescription, if the quality of medicine is good, given in minimum dose and if the patient is strictly following the diet and regimen, a positive result will invariably follow. Sometimes with certain deep and slow acting medicines it might even take longer than what we saw in this case. These are gentle and perfect cures – to achieve these one should strictly follow the principles, should have the grit to wait and watch after administering the similimum and require thorough knowledge of the system.
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“The immediate cause is not always obvious. It was a long time before we understood the genetic derangement that causes hemophilia, and even now it could be argued that we do not know the true etiology of hemophilia because we do not know what caused the original genetic defect in some ancestor of the patient. Even diseases that prove to have a simple immediate etiologic agent, such as the organism that causes Legionnaire’s disease, can be baffling for a long time.” - Text Book of Pathology Structure and Function in Disease, 9th edition by William Boyd
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