Healing with Homoeopathie

March 26th, 2012.

This is not yet a true case study but for people following my posts on my website, I wanted to write about the great healing potential this remedy, Carcinosinum (58T) seems to have.

The basic Carcinosinum that we use is a remedy prepared from a single tumour – a breast tumour. This is the remedy of which Foubister made a detailed proving. Tinus Smits from Netherlands has used Carcinosinum (15T) with good results, better than those got from our regular single tumour Carcinosinum.

On a forum post at hpathy.com, there was a detailed discussion on the use of Carcinosinum (58T) http://forum.hpathy.com/forum/students-corner/carcinosinum/#p8599

Having my interest triggered, I ordered Carcinosinum (58T) in two potencies, 200c and 1M from Remedia Homoeopathic Pharmacy, in Austria.

I got the chance to use it after a few months of procuring it in a case of thrombocytosis and bone marrow fibrosis (that was secondary to the chemotherapeutic treatment for the thrombocytosis).

His allopathic treatment still continues but he has started concurrent homeopathy to prevent rapid degradation of his condition.

I have judged Carcinosin to be his remedy. I can say that there has been some amount of improvement in energy levels and the wild fluctuations in his counts are now a rare occurrence. However, his Haemoglobin that was remaining at around 8 or 8.5 gm% improved only marginally to settle at around 9.5 or 10 gm% despite his taking weekly erythropoetin injections as well. His ESR too has remained in the range of 80-100 since a long time now.

Since improvement seemed stuck at this level, I decided to give the Carcinosin (58T) a try. (I have already used Carcinosin 15T for him).

It is early days yet and only 3 weeks have passed since the dose of Carcinosin (58T) 200c was given. However, his recent reports show the Haemoglobin to have jumped from 10.3 gm% to 11 gm% and the ESR has come down to 49. Energy has been very good as well.  This makes me feel very positively towards this Carcinosin 58T and I hope, that there is a lot of improvement in the cards for this patient, even for his platelets and bone marrow fibrosis.

I hope to be able to continue to post about his improvement and about any more Carcinosinum (58T) cases that I may have.

Spinal canal stenosis occurs due to the compression of nerve roots in the spinal canal. Here, there is a combination of narrowing of the disc space, bulging of the disc into the spinal canal and degeneration of the facet joints. This occurs due to wear and tear. A certain degree of spinal canal stenosis is common in the elderly and may not be associated with any discomfort. A diagnosis of spinal canal stenosis is not adequate reason for surgery – surgery is only to be considered when symptoms are severe and disabling. Even then, conservative treatment is first recommended and homoeopathy often plays an important role in avoiding surgery and enabling the patient to live a more normal life.

The case described below is of an elderly gentleman who was diagnosed with Spinal Canal Stenosis and was offered surgery as a last resort to ameliorate his complaints.

This 68-year-old man who lives in Jalgaon, came to my clinic in October 2006. His son’s family lives in Mumbai and they brought him for consultation after recommendation from a neighbour.
The patient had an accident that had injured the spine in 1996. Since then, he used to suffer from pain on and off. The pain had increased in intensity and frequency in the last 2 years, becoming quite unbearable in the last one month.

When he came in for consultation, his symptoms were as follows:
Throbbing pain in the right hip and right sacral region. The pain increased terribly on walking and after walking about half a kilometer, he would have to sit down for a while. The pain was better while sitting, better by support, better by pressure and better by hot fomentation.
There was tingling numbness from the soles up the entire lower limbs that came on while walking, worse in the left lower limb.

He is a vegetarian and has a balanced life, eating all vegetarian foods with no particular cravings or aversions. He drank 8-10 glasses of water per day and bowel and bladder functions were normal. He slept at 8 at night, waking at 5 in the morning. His sleep was deep and he liked to sleep for 2 hours in the afternoons. No significant dreams were elicited. There was a past history of smoking that he’d given up many years ago.

There were no major illnesses in his past history or in his family. His mother was still alive at 90.

He had a helpful nature and was well-respected in his village. People would go to him for advice. He had no fears and had firm religious beliefs. He insisted that there had been nothing unusual in his life and he lived happily with his routines. His ‘routine’ consisted of farming his land.

Based on his presenting symptoms, he was prescribed Sepia 200, once a day, with instructions to reduce the dosing if improvement set in. He was to report after a week.

After a week, he was 75% better where his pain was concerned. He said he could walk longer too. At this point, it was decided that a remedy for long-term improvement has to be selected. Kali Carb 200 was chosen. He was to report after a fortnight. He continued to improve. At the end of 6 weeks, he had no pain on walking, but the tingling numbness would occur on walking about 1/2 a km. Rest, however, even for a minute, would ease the numbness.

6 weeks further down the line, improvement continued. Few more Kali Carb 200 doses were repeated over the next 6 months with a couple of Sulphur 200 doses being given as an intercurrent. Kali Carb 1M was later given and in November 2007, he was completely free of his complaints.

They have referred several people from their village for treatment. The last report I received from the son (in July 2010) stated that his father was doing very well with no complaints whatsoever.

Nowadays, it is becoming extremely common for patients to report ailments that arise because of prescription drugs. The problem is that people are not aware that these ailments are side-effects and consider them to be a new illness that they have developed. In the last couple of weeks, I experienced this a number of times and that’s what prompted this write-up.

One of my patients has been on Eptoin¹, an anti-convulsant medicine, for almost 1.5 years. He has been instructed by his allopathic physician to continue it for a minimum of 3 years.

In the beginning, he was on a regimen of Olimelt (Olanzapine – an antipsychotic), Mirnite (Mirtazapine – an antidepressant), Valparin (Valproic acid – an anticonvulsant) along with Eptoin. When on these drugs, there was a drastic change in his personality and behaviour – he started behaving like a robot, he wouldn’t smile, etc. His mother was very concerned and it was brought to the notice of his physician who stopped Valparin and started him on Epsolin (Phenytoin). Then began slurring of speech, difficulty in finding the right words (word hunting), he would not recognise roads he knew well earlier, his ability to spell words correctly reduced dramatically, he could not concentrate and his studies suffered badly. His sleep was restless and he began talking in his sleep.

With homoeopathy, he was able to concentrate better and his sleep pattern improved. His concentration improved further after Olimelt was stopped completely. Mirnite was gradually withdrawn a few months later.

Since then, he has been only on Eptoin. His mother informed me a month ago that he vomits almost every day and this has her worried. He used to laugh it off but, a few days ago, he came alone and told me that he was quite worried about his vomiting as it had increased to a minimum of two episodes a day – especially after eating or even drinking a large quantity of water. It happened easily, without any effort.

In recent times, I have realised that it is essential to check whether any symptom a patient has could be due to side effects of conventional medicines. So I looked for side-effects of Eptoin —

Headache, nausea, vomiting, constipation, dizziness, drowsiness, trouble sleeping, or nervousness. Swelling and bleeding of the gums.

Serious side effects like: unusual eye movements, loss of coordination, slurred speech, confusion, muscle twitching, double or blurred vision, tingling of the hands/feet, facial changes (e.g., swollen lips, butterfly-shaped rash around the nose/cheeks), excessive hair growth, increased thirst or urination, unusual tiredness, bone or joint pain, easily broken bones. Mood or behavior changes, such as anxiety, agitation, hostility, pressured/rapid speech, or thoughts of suicide.

Very serious side effects like: uncontrolled muscle movements, swollen glands (lymph nodes), stomach/abdominal pain, persistent nausea/vomiting, yellowing eyes or skin, dark urine, easy bruising/bleeding, signs of infection (e.g., persistent sore throat or fever).

Serious allergic reaction to this drug is unlikely, however, symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include: rash, high fever, itching, swelling, severe dizziness, trouble breathing.

I realised that the vomiting my patient had was probably because of the ongoing Eptoin intake. Besides the vomiting, he had also suffered from a fracture of the ankle a few months ago. His mood swings and easy irritability, that were not a part of his basic nature, were also explained by the list of side-effects. Once I discussed this with him, he was relieved to realise that there was nothing wrong with HIM, but all these issues were explainable.

Maybe it’s time to ask the question whether we are helping matters or complicating matters further by the use of strong chemical drugs.

Footnotes:

1. Eptoin (Phenytoin sodium) contains the active ingredient Phenytoin, commonly sold in the US under the brand name Dilantin.

For references and further reading:

1. http://www.prescriptiondrug-info.com/drug_details.asp?title=Phenytoin&page=1001578&ad=true

2. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682022.html

3. http://www.mims.com/Page.aspx?menuid=mng&name=phenytoin

4. http://www.drugs.com/phenytoin.html

This was a case of a 14 year old boy who had received a back injury 6 months previously. He had then developed pain in the lumbar region, on either side of the spinal column. X-Ray had showed oedema of the disc. He had been advised bed rest and pain relieving drugs which had apparently cured him.

When I saw him in early 2006, he had a recurrence of the pain for the last 15 days.
There was back pain with tightness all over the back. It was worse by standing long (about 1/2 an hour), worse on lying down initially for 5-10 minutes. He was better on walking, sitting, lying on his sides and by pressure.
Since about 2 weeks, he had pricking and aching pains in both his heels which was worse on rising after sitting for some time.
He had a tendency to dry lips. His lips chapped all the year round and bled in winter. He also complained of headaches on returning from school. It was located in the forehead and over the eyes and was better by lying down and by pressure. He also had visual blackouts on playing in the sun.

He loved sweets, ice cream, sour foods like lemons and tamarind which he ate with sugar and salt. He was very fond of cheese and loved cold milk. He drank about 10 glasses of water daily and was fresh after 8 hours of deep sleep; he slept mainly on his left side.

He was born during the 7th month of pregnancy and was in an incubator for about 2 weeks. His mother was 17 years old at the time and she went into labour following the exertion of travel on a bumpy road. He had pneumonia at 1 year, typhoid at 4 years and jaundice at 9 years.

He was an obedient boy but enjoyed teasing his younger brother who was 10 years old. He was friendly by nature, mixed easily with others and enjoyed entertaining people with magic tricks. He enjoyed movies and music and was scared of dogs. He enjoyed physical activities like cricket, football, volleyball and wanted to join the National Defence Academy when older.

Considering the old injury, my initial prescription was of Arnica 1M. After a week, he was much better and was asked to see me again after a fortnight. When he came to the clinic again, he still had a backache though his heel pain was much better. Based on his general characteristics, he was given a dose of Phosphorus 200 along with the biochemic Calcarea Phos 6x, three times daily.

His backache cleared up along with his other constitutional symptoms and he didn’t show up again for 6 months after which he returned since the dryness of his lips was recurring. One more dose of Phosphorus 200 was repeated. I presume he has been fine since he hasn’t visited the clinic again.

This 70 year old gentleman, a retired plumber, came to me in July 2003. He had been suffering from what had been diagnosed, with the help of an MRI, as lumbar canal stenosis and disc herniation since 2000. There had been a sudden onset whilst on a visit to Kuwait. There was difficulty in walking, with veering to the left side. There had been a history of prior lumbosacral pain.

He came to me with the symptoms of pain in the lumbosacral region above the buttocks. The pain was worse on walking even 5-10 minutes and was relieved by sitting down, lying on the left side, pressure and hot fomentations. There were cracking sounds in the hip joint during the act of rising and sitting. There were sudden electric shock like sensations from the calf up to the hip, extending along the back of the lower limbs, worse on the right side. The thigh muscles would twitch on initial motion and there was great weakness of the lower limbs. The soles felt numb and cottony in the morning on rising. He had difficulties in maintaining his balance while walking and often fell and injured himself.

He had knee pains for 10 years, worse on bending the knee and relieved by stretching. There were cracking sounds and a history of swelling of the knees. He also suffered from cramps in the calves at night in winter and from a draft of air.

He was hypertensive and diabetic for over 15 years and was on medication. He had a myocardial infarction (heart attack) in 1993. He used to be an alcoholic but said he’d reduced his drinking after developing hallucinations and suspiciousness.

One of his brothers had tuberculosis and another brother had died of tongue cancer.

His appetite had reduced and he would feel ‘full’ on eating a small quantity. Flatulence troubled him and passing gas would relieve. He was constipated and stools were hard, compelling him to strain initially. He never felt satisfied after passing stools. He took the occasional laxative. He loves fish and meat but avoids red meat on medical advice. He enjoys sweet things and dislikes sour. He used to eat heavily spiced food earlier.

He lives alone whilst his family is in Kuwait. He suffers from sleeplessness due to thoughts of his sad past. He feels guilty about his alcoholism and the troubles he put his family through. He cannot fall asleep until 1-2 a.m. He used to get nightmares of someone, usually some animal, coming to hurt or bite him. He said that he had a forgiving nature and did not like to hurt anyone. He likes to make treat his friends and make them happy, esp. when he was under the influence of alcohol. There is a great weakness; he would like to exercise but was not motivated enough for it. He had 2 sons, both were married and abroad and had no love for him.

An MRI of the spine showed posterior disc herniations with peridiscal osteophytes. Lumbar canal stenosis maximum over L3-4 to L5-S1 level. MRI of the brain showed mild cerebral and cerebellar atrophy with narrowing of several arteries and a lacunar infarct.

I started him with Rhus Tox 200, twice a day for a fortnight and this gave him considerable symptomatic relief. However, I doubted that Rhus Tox would go much deeper. Analysis of the case brought Sulphur very high though Lycopodium and Nux Vomica were also in the rating. Causticum and Phosphorus were also to be considered. I put him on Sulphur 200, single doses every week and gradually his symptoms relieved. He felt better within himself and promised to quit alcohol completely. His stools were better and he slept better. Within a few months, the cottony sensation in his soles, the shock-like pain and the trembling of his muscles disappeared. I gradually raised the potency of Sulphur and this benefited him further. There were periods of aggravation for which I gave him Rhus Tox 200 off and on in repeated doses. Since Lycopodium was also coming up, I prescribed Calcarea Carb, Lycopodium and Sulphur in their cycle, with gaps of a fortnight between doses. He was much better after a year and did not come for follow ups for quite a while. When he returned after about 4 months, he sorrowfully told me that his son had passed away and to ease the pain he took refuge in alcohol once again. In that phase, he had a fall and fractured his nose and broke off some of his teeth. His back complaints had all recurred. For a while, I put him on Ignatia to ease the shock of his son’s demise. Gradually we moved back to the previous prescriptions and the whole process of slow relief started again.

I last saw him in 2005 when he was very much better and could walk comfortably again. He said he would return if he needed to.

Prescribing for this case took a zig-zag approach. There were deep disturbances and no single remedy covered his case in entirety. In such a case, at the age he was, I was happy to be able to relieve him, if not completely, to a great extent so that he could live a more comfortable life.

“My standpoint is that a tumour is the product of the organism and to be really cured, the power to produce the same must be eliminated, got rid of; cutting it off merely rids the organism of the product, leaving the producing power where it was before, often the operative interference acting like pruning a vine, i.e., the tumour-producing power is increased and the fatal issue is brought nearer.”
— Dr. James Compton Burnett

After I started my practice, I had quite a few cases of cancer coming my way due to my study of the Iscador Therapy for Cancer. Since the use of Iscador is rather expensive by Indian standards, especially since it involves long-term use, I always offer my patients the choice of treatment: either Homoeopathy along with Iscador, or just Homoeopathic medicines.

This was a woman, 66 years of age, who came to me in 2001. In 1994, she had been diagnosed with carcinoma of the ovary with endometrial cancer, which is a cancer of the lining of the uterus. She had undergone a hysterectomy and chemotherapy. In 1996, she developed peritoneal metastases for which she was again operated open and had 3 cycles of chemotherapy. She then remained free of symptoms and monitored the CA-125 tumour marker counts twice a year. She decided to take Homoeopathic treatment because of a steadily rising CA-125.

She came to me with a count of 10.00 U/ml which was well within the normal range (upto 35 U/ml) but had steadily risen from 4.3 U/ml in the previous year. Apart from the cancer and its treatment, she had suffered from typhoid when young and had undergone a coronary bypass surgery in 1996. Her father had died of a heart attack (myocardial infarction) and several of her 6 siblings had heart ailments.

She enjoyed a good appetite, ate quite fast and suffered from hyperacidity if she had to remain hungry. She drank about 2.5 litres of water everyday. She loved sweet things, fruits, ice cream and chocolates. Curd (yoghurt) gave her acidity. She passed motions daily but felt mentally and physically uneasy if she were constipated even for one day. She was always constipated when she was away from home. She had profuse sweat which would occasionally leave a white powdery deposit on the clothes. She slept more on her right side and had sound sleep. She was rather chilly and disliked the fan or A.C. She couldn’t remember her dreams.

Her menopause was at 51 and did not remember having any problems then apart from an increase in irritability. She had been pregnant 5 times, had one pregnancy terminated and one child had died at the age of one. She said she had no interest in sex right from the beginning. She was scared of lifts. She was very fond of perfumes but said that she developed a skin allergy to perfumes occasionally.

For protecting her identity, I will not divulge details of her family situation. She was a talkative woman, very strong-minded. She used to come to the clinic with her husband and it was obvious who wore the pants in the family. She wept very easily and often wept in my clinic while narrating her problems and was much relieved by consolation. She was emotionally very expressive and held a grievance against her husband for not being so and giving her no attention. She was also easily angered and she always wanted things going her way. She had hasty speech and was impatient. She enjoyed cleaning-up and was particular about her things. She enjoyed partying, socialising, dressing-up; she was particular about her appearance and wanted attention from everyone around her. I noticed she was haughty with the clinic staff. She was careful with money to the point of being stingy and wanted a reduction in charges even though she could well afford the fees. She loved travelling and enjoyed doing embroidery when at home. She was a shrewd woman and did not trust others easily. Her greatest grief was the death of one of her children.

My first prescription was that of Lachesis but it did her no good; 2 months later when it was time for the CA-125 count again, it had shot up to 19.70 U/ml.

Since the constipation while travelling was a prominent physical symptom (and it didn’t fit Lachesis), I reviewed her case once again and chose Platina. I repeated Platina about twice a month and inbetween gave her the Bach Flower remedy Holly three times a day. About once in 2 months, a dose of Carcinosin was given. She did well on this regime and 6 months later, the CA-125 levels were down at 7.50 U/ml. She was relieved and so was I.

I kept her on this regime, gradually having increased the potency of Carcinosin, with some placebo treatment off and on. The counts were being monitored and the CA-125 levels were steady at around 4 U/ml. She is now no longer being regularly treated for the cancer, but once in a while, if she wants medicines for an acute problem, she contacts the clinic.

Many of my cancer patients have been treated with only Homoeopathy since Iscador was too expensive for long-term treatment. Many cancer patients arrive for treatment rather late in the course of the disease and by that time, only palliation is possible. Some decide to take Homoeopathic treatment and Iscador only after completing the Allopathic treatments of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. In most of these cases, this delay proves expensive as the disease usually progresses and the patient’s vitality is also much reduced following strong chemical treatment. It is advisable for cancer patients to begin Homoeopathy and Iscador treatment along with conventional treatments so that no time is lost. Homoeopathy and Iscador can also help in keeping side-effects of conventional treatment to a minimum.

A young college-going girl came to me complaining of pain in her left foot due to ‘corns’. On examination, it was clear that this was a case of plantar warts. Plantar warts are sometimes difficult to distinguish from corns and callosities. Plantar warts usually have little black dots on their surface which are the ends of capillaries. Corns do not have them. Plantar warts are usually multiple as they spread to other parts of the foot, while corns are only found on weight-bearing areas. In cases of plantar warts, the striations on the skin go around the lesion unlike in corns where the striations continue across the top layer of the corn. Warts on other parts of the body grow outward, but on the foot, due to the pressure while walking, they grow inward and cause great pain.

She had a tendency to develop boils on the buttocks and in the groin region. This was worse from sweat and friction and would bleed on scratching. She loved sweets, fish, chicken and ice cream and was completely averse to tea. She perspired the most on the neck and her sweat had a sour odour. She slept on her abdomen.

She was a plump, cheerful, friendly girl and laughed a lot, very easily.

Knowing the propensity of Antimonium Crudum for corns and warts, I started by giving her Antimonium Crudum 30, three times daily for a week. She started improving and I continued with the same dosage for 2 more weeks, at the end of which her foot was showing distinct signs of improvement and she was pain-free. After a month I gave her a dose of Phosphorus 1M which I considered to be her constitutional remedy.

I didn’t see her for a number of months when she remained well; about a year later I called her for a follow-up photograph. She remains well and happy, her tendency to boils has also disappeared.

This was a very satisfying case, especially from the point of view of the speed of action of the Homoeopathic remedy. It took me by surprise!!

This young man came to me in the month of June 2007 with a complaint of warts which he had initially developed since about June 2006. Multiple warts had initially come up on the neck; later a couple of them arose on the scalp, followed by more warts on both upper eyelids and arms. They were approximately 50 in number. 6 months prior to coming for Homoeopathic treatment, he had all of them cauterized by a dermatologist. Within 2-3 months of the cauterization, they began to recur on the neck and by the time he came for Homoeopathic treatment, most of them had returned. They were asymptomatic but bothered him due to their appearance. There had been no history of any chemical exposure and there was no family history of warts either. Another problem for which he wanted treatment was generalised hair fall and flaky dandruff which made his scalp itch. He easily caught a cold from getting wet.

He enjoys meat and fish, loves sweet things including ice cream. He doesn’t feel thirsty. He sleeps on his back with his arms over his head.

He is the youngest sibling with two brothers and a sister. He had an arranged marriage 1 and 1/2 years back and has no problems. He loves nature – all animals, birds and plants. He has a pet dog. He used to be hot-tempered with violent anger but now thinks before reacting. He played professional cricket earlier; cricket was his passion. He believes in ‘karma’, destiny, spirituality. He’s not a materialist and is content with his life. He is helpful by nature, does some honorary work as well. He trusts easily and takes people at face value.

During the analysis and repertorization process, many other remedies covered his symptoms prominently, however, due to the main complaint of warts and the previous suppression by cauterization, I chose Medorrhinum as the remedy with which to start the case. I called him after 15 days so that I could take a photograph of his warts.

15 days later, at the follow-up, the warts on his scalp had already fallen off and those on his neck had started to itch. The photograph was taken and he was asked to report again after another fortnight.

He returned more than a month later with his neck looking smooth and wart-free. Most of them fell off during the night after the last follow-up. I had been just in time to click the first photographs!

This quick result surprised me as well and I decided to give him no further treatment for his hairfall and dandruff which remained to be cured. Fresh photographs were taken and are posted on this page. The scar marks seen on the 2nd photograph are remnants from the cauterization; the Homoeopathic treatment of the warts has left no scars.

I expect that the dose of Medorrhinum will continue to work in his system for a longer period and his hairfall and dandruff will reduce. He has been asked to report after 2 months. This post will be updated soon!

Not all cases of warts respond this quickly. Time to cure depends also on how deep-rooted different illnesses in the family are; more complex the illnesses, more the time the people in the family line take to respond even to the right remedy. Sometimes locating the right remedy takes time as well and remedies may need to be changed over a period of 2-4 months before the right remedy is prescribed. This case was more a case of serendipity for me as I had just finished reading ‘The Chronic Miasms’ by J. Henry Allen. This book lays emphasis on the treatment and eradication of deep-rooted miasms which are genetic taints of illness that get passed down the family line. It is a must-read book for every Homoeopath who wishes to attempt the cure of chronic diseases.

This 17-year-old patient came to be with a patch of eczema on the right hand. She had a history of eczema on the left ankle and the left wrist some years ago. She had been treated for those eczema patches and had developed scarring over the lesion on the left wrist. Her family now wanted her to have Homoeopathic treatment for the new lesion on the right hand. It had started with itching, followed by vesicle formation which gave out a non-sticky discharge. The lesion still itched, more so when dry. There was a family history of eczema from her father’s side. Her mother was diabetic. She had come to Bombay about 6 months ago and was living with her aunt and uncle.

She loved spicy and sour food and had an aversion to milk. She slept on her abdomen. She had her first menses at the age of 15 and said that recently her cycles were getting delayed by about 2-15 days and they lasted just 1-2 days. She had dysmenorrhoea which continued for 2 days.

She liked the company of friends and said she was social, though she appeared to be a quiet, soft-spoken person. She was particular about being on time. She was not easily angered and when she did get angry, cooled down fast and held no grievances. She wept easily and was scared of the dark and of ghosts. She was studying in Class XI in the science stream and had not yet decided on her future career plan. She enjoyed travelling, sewing and embroidery. She liked being in open air. She was the eldest child of her parents with a younger brother and sister who she said was even more quiet than her.

My first prescription on the 4th of February 2005 was Phosphorus. On the 14th of February, she reported that her eczema had increased and her periods which had started on the 1st, re-started on the 8th and continued till the 13th. Her eczema patch was oozing a watery and sticky liquid. I then gave her a dose of Graphites 30 to be taken in water. A fortnight later she was better but a month later, her eczema had increased again. I switched remedies and this continued until mid-March with not much improvement; Graphites helped her temporarily but did not help the improvement to go further.

In mid-March, her aunt was rather perturbed because her periods were very erratic. She had some spotting and then a scanty flow set in which just did not stop. I probed more into her history and she revealed that her periods had become scanty since over a year. Her eczema was also fluctuating.
On the 1st of April, I reviewed her case again and gave her Pulsatilla in a high potency as a single dose. On the 11th, she came for a follow-up and reported that her periods had finally stopped on the 6th, having lasted almost 23 days. After the Pulsatilla, her eczema had flared up for about 3 days and then grew progressively better. I repeated the dose of Pulsatilla again in mid-May. In June, she mentioned that her periods had settled into a 5 day flow. The active eczema lesion had cleared up almost completely and the scarring on the other wrist looked fainter according to her relatives, though I was not too sure about that.

I decided to terminate the treatment here as she was going back to her home in North India. She was asked to keep me informed and the last time I heard from her relatives (they are also patients) she was doing fine.