sharing a case - gastric acute

[Joy Lucas]

I am assuming people are still interested in sharing these cases - I went to
this acute a few days ago which I have permission to post.

55 year old man was 'coming down with something', was feeling very poorly,
worst sx being 'flu like sense of the body and abdominal pains and
heartburn. This was what his partner told me on the phone.

When I arrived I noted his appearance which was quite sallow looking and he
hadn't shaved for what seemed a couple of days - "too tired to bother".

He was stout, considerably overweight - he was trying very hard to be
cheerful even though in obvious discomfort but most of the time his nature
was one of weary absence.

Pain in abdomen, sore and tender, both sides, feels bloated and swollen,
rising flatulence, acid regurgitation, nauseous, not really lost appetite
but food generally > being still, laying on abdomen but slightly to the right
more than left, warmth on abdomen and rubbing. Feels very tired and
apathetic. Stool is hard. Neck feels swollen and stiff. Difficulty sleeping,
can't shut down. Headache over the eyes. Feels chilly. Sweats easily. Wants
to be covered. Quite difficult to get voluntary information.

No one else in the family had any sx, no one he had worked with had any sx,
he couldn't think of any causative factors except one meal of fish, but this
was just a guess. It was hard to tell if this was an acute or a developing
chronic condition, e.g. what had the stiff neck to do with a gastric
disturbance. I was also alert to the fact that this could be bacterial or
viral and could become quite serious. He said he was bitten by what looked
like a mosquito but couldn't remember if these sx had begun before or after
this happened. But none of this changed the symptoms as they were presented.

I gave Sulphur 30 and asked him to phone me in a few hours or before if
necessary - which he did, saying he felt a bit better, but I wasn't
convinced, I think he was just trying to please me!! (beware of this, it
happens a lot). I questioned more and in fact he seemed worse but not
because of a useful homeopathic aggravation in my opinion.

I visited him again and the neck was now inflamed and covered the whole
cervical area, it was hard and fatty like. All other sx were much the same
but overall worse especially the heartburn. He was getting anxious about his
state.

Many of the acid dyspepsia sx are common ones and there are hundreds of
remedies which might have acted. The only really unusual sx are the ones
concerning the neck and perhaps lying on the stomach.

I began thinking about Ammonium mur because of the neck sx but the rest of
the picture didn't fit so well. Being very closely allied to it I looked at
Ammonium carb instead and decided this was an excellent choice. The muriate
is much more weepy and sad than the carbonicum and also the digestive sx are
more intense with the carbonicum.

His partner came home with me to collect the rx - I only had 6c in stock and
gave her a few.

The report the next morning was that he took one 6c, went to bed, slept for
hours, woke up took another 6c, slept again and woke up next morning
absolutely fine, neck sx all gone, belching stopped, abdomen felt free but
still a bit tender, headache and chills gone, appetite good.

He had been thinking hard about what might have caused this and had
remembered that he had been fishing and had put fingers into mouth after
having them in the water - common enough amongst fishing people but there is
a communicable disease related to potential bacteria?

Either way, when confronted with common sx you have to investigate
thoroughly enough to find something unusual - always be curious.

Best wishes, Joy

www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Joy,

I know I ought to research the remedy and try to answer for myself ,
but can you say a bit about why the neck made you think of am-mur? (Was it
the skin that was inflamed, or muscle?) And, the ammoniums are a group I
have only a little information on, and would love to see some of your lovely
illumination on them, any or all!

(smiles hopefully!)
Shannon
on 10/11/03 8:08 AM, Joy Lucas at joy.lucas@ntlworld.com wrote:

[Joy Lucas]

Dear Shannon, yes, you should spend some time reading about this group of
remedies )

There is no straight answer to your question but it has something to do with
memory and affinity to certain remedies I suppose. When we read and learn
our memory seems to choose its own priorities, we seem to 'know' some
remedies more than and better than others. I don't really know why this is.
Likewise we all develop 'blocks' to some remedies.

I have to say I did ponder on this case a lot, it took up most of a day (not
very cost effective!). I spent time thinking this was the beginning of
chronic condition such as Spondylitis or a potentially dangerous acute, and
either way had to make a link between gastric sx and the neck sx - bacterial
infection or viral meningitis also came to mind. I think I wasted quite a
lot time eliminating so many of the remedies which covered the acid
dyspepsia sx.

Anyway it was the neck sx which I concentrated on in the end and I had in my
mind the little rubric 'fatty swelling of the neck' and for me that has only
been Amm mur, and the ammoniums are 'fat' and it was one of the word
connections in the memory. The swelling was just ever so slightly below the
cervical region and was swollen just like a layer of fat which felt hard to
the touch and red and hot. So I don't think it was muscle but a lower layer
of the skin. The swelling seemed to stretch almost from shoulder to
shoulder.

I will 'do' the ammoniums at some point as you requested but it might take a
while. Meanwhile, I quite like how Scholten writes about this group.

best wishes, Joy

www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
on 10/12/03 6:01 AM, Bob&Shannon at shannonnelson@tds.net wrote:

Hi Joy,

I know I ought to research the remedy and try to answer for myself ,
but can you say a bit about why the neck made you think of am-mur? (Was it
the skin that was inflamed, or muscle?) And, the ammoniums are a group I
have only a little information on, and would love to see some of your lovely
illumination on them, any or all!

(smiles hopefully!)
Shannon
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]