Flu for 3 weeks

[Rochelle Marsden]

This is a 11 yr old boy I haven't seen since 2004 when he was noted for his restlessness and jealousy of siblings. At the time he did well on Ars and Hyos. Mum has a reasonable first aid knowledge of homeopathy and has a Helios kit.

He has come because he has had a possible flu for 3 weeks. The Doctor is not interested and says he should go back to school. He presented as very pale , very heavy looking in the face, eyes droopy, dressed very warmly- he even had 3 pairs of socks on. He was quiet, sat still. I saw a sort of shivering. His brow felt warm and sweaty but not feverish.
Mum said it started on a Thursday as a stomach bug. He was then active at the weekend but on the Monday was floppy with no energy with headaches. He was kept off school. Mum called the homeopathic helpline and Gels 30 was suggested . He was given 2 and then on phoning again was advised to go up to the 200. The Gels got rid of the headaches but not much more. Mum sent him to school the following week but he was sent home. She tried again this week and he was sent home.
"I'm cold. My ribcage feels weak (no cough or breathing problems). My legs feel wobbly and my chest feels weird. I have had a tummy ache all morning. It feels sore. Weird means bubbly. My tummy feels bubbly and the bubble want to go upwards. The other day when I breathed out it had a horrid taste like eggy. Yes I am belching. Yes I am better from belching. Head is sweaty. Eyes can be fuzzy when I tried to concentrate at school. Eyes were twitching and sore but not now. Yes I am a bit achy."
Mum said that at one point he had an acute sense of smell for things that were not there. Thought his smelt of coca cola.
There is still some nausea now and again. He is having problems sleeping and confirm he slept better when it was time to get up!!
His lips are dry and cracked and Mum thinks blue as he usually has quite red lips but there is no throat problem (I was thinking glandular fever). If glands in neck and groin are up it is very minor.
Not much appetite but mum is trying to keep him drinking water and giving him homemade soup and hot drinks. He has a dairy allergy which had improved up until this flu but when he had some milk chocolate bar which he has been able to tolerate lately he got heartburn and came out in hives again.
The main thing here that I saw was the chilliness, pallor and lack of energy. Because of the chilliness I gave him Nux Vom 30. Within 10 mins he did have far more colour in his face. I spoke to mum later and he felt he was going down again after a couple of hours and she repeated. Again it seemed to help for a couple of hours. I suggested another 30C and a 200C before bed. I will see how he is tomorrow. I would think of Ars because of the way it started and the chilliness except he is still not restless. I am also thinking of China because of the lack of energy and the pallor but there is no fever. It is possible worse every other day.
Has anyone come across anything like this? Can anyone see any other remedies I could consider here.?
Thanks

Rochelle
Registered Homeopath with The Society of Homeopaths
EFT (Advanced) Practitioner
www.southporthomeopathy.co.uk

[Joy Lucas]

Can I make few points - 3 weeks for a tummy bug so called seems a long time without any resolve. It does appear to be digestive (what state are his intestines in, i.e. constipation, blocked, trapped wind etc) and he has allergies but that would be a chronic case.

There is a 'bubble' sensation in the abdomen rubrics - Stannum? has the very sore chest as well and incarcerated wind, very weak rx, has migraine like headaches.

If it were me I would get him back and although I don't know if you examined him or even do much of this with clients I think you should, especially looking at the chest and abdomen, get him to point where the pains are - hypochrondria, hypergastrium, right, side, left side, heart region (you definitely want to rule out any possible aortic aneurysm in the chest - the bubble sensation, weakness and headaches) and this will give you much more reliable sx to work with.

Those headaches need defining more specifically as well I would suggest and I wouldn't confine myself to a 'flu dx either - is meaningless in the long run anyway.

Joy

http://www.joylucashomeopathy.com
http://www.streetcollege.co.uk

[Rochelle Marsden]

Thanks for your thoughts Joy.
This morning's report from Dad (mum is more observant!!) is via the boy, legs and arms still heavy, sick feeling only sometimes, headache for a little while, blocked noise, chilly only sometimes now. I asked him to estimate how much better he feels and he said 20% (he is only 11 so not sure of his understanding of percentages). I told him to take another Ars 30 and get back to me this afternoon. Mum will be around then and I will get more information. Arsenicum is a remedy he did well on 5 years ago.
No I don't do physical examinations as I am not a doctor - however from what you said I can tell mum to take him back to the doctor and insist on more investigation. I need to find out what is the most distressing symptoms for him. I will find out more about the headaches.
His bowels are usually more on the looser side and although he is not constipated his stools are firmer than usual but he is not eating much.
If the chill is better I would reckon the heaviness maybe the most important symptom to look at. Ars and Stannum are both there but have just found

Chill; chilliness; heaviness of lower limbs, with: (1) ARG-N,

This maybe is worth a look.

Rochelle

Registered Homeopath with The Society of Homeopaths
EFT (Advanced) Practitioner
www.southporthomeopathy.co.uk

[Joy Lucas]

Yes, he would present with the typical Arg nit impulsiveness and be noticeably apprehensive to help choose this rx.

Thought also Colchicum where the pain is mostly across the transverse colon (so that could mean 'chest' to him), pain comes from incarcerated flatulence again - very weak but acute to smells and noises, pressive headaches, nausea, very chilly (usually sweaty though and the pain is usually unbearable - doesn't seem to be like that here).

You don't have to be a doctor to do a gentle observable exam, very important in getting locations correct for repping, especially good if you get a child or even an adult to point to where it hurts and gentle palpation can reveal pain or not. I certainly wouldn't rely on a GP's 'get back to school' ideas

Joy

http://www.joylucashomeopathy.com
http://www.streetcollege.co.uk

[Carol Boyce]

Hi Rochelle,

FWIW - I just went through an horrendous 'stomach bug' in the UK - unfortunately I went through it for almost a week unable to think clearly enough to prescribe for myself - tried Ars and got temp slight relief only - but as I was coming out of it my daughter went down with the exact same Sx as I had had - of course seeing it in her I saw the remedy immediately - Verat a - it reminded me somewhat of your case.

We had - chilliness, exhaustion, weakness, heaviness of limbs so it was hard to even walk to the bathroom. Began with vom and diarr - but this calmed down after a couple of days leaving nausea and LOTS of bubbling in abdomen, VERY sensitive to smells - incl delusions of smell at times, desire for cold drinks, fizzy drinks - my daughter also craved ice and juicy fruits but I did not. For me in retrospect it felt like a verat collapse - I could not think of anything while lying there but how awful I felt.

I gave my daughter verat a 200 and it helped immed but she needed a couple of doses of !M the following day to finish it off. She was back on her feet in 48 hours and made a fast recovery - I took a dose myself and it moved my own recovery - which had been slow - along.

Might be worth asking some differentiating questions to confirm or eliminate verat a ?

Carol B
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[Rochelle Marsden]

Dear Joy,
I certainly don't get the impression that any pain is unbearable . Will ask him to assess on a out of 10 basis when I speak later. Will get mum to tell me where the pain is and if it hurts on pressure. Mum is very sensible with the kids.
Don't worry - Mum is not at all impressed with the doctor's attitude as this is normally a very lively child or at least he was 5 years ago!!! She says she won't be seeing that one again in the practice!!
Interesting that his reoccurring dream - going down stairs , never getting to the end but when he looks back it is dark could be represented by
Mind; dreams; darkness: (23) alli-m, amet, ARS, aur, choc, frax, gink, harp, loxo-r, maia-l, neon, nept-m, nico-r, onc-t, pin-lo, rhus-g, sol, taosc, tax, telo-s, thul-f, til-c, uv-lux,

Rochelle

Rochelle
Registered Homeopath with The Society of Homeopaths
EFT (Advanced) Practitioner
www.southporthomeopathy.co.uk

[Rochelle Marsden]

Carol - thanks for that as this is another remedy he has had in the past!! However if I remember it didn't do much except make him more hyper - but maybe that is what he needs now!!!. Yes the nausea with chilliness - cold sweat as opposed to the hot sweat of Arsenicum is the differentiating symptom . I need to check if he would prefer cold food and drink rather than the hot soup mum is providing!! I don't think he has had any diarrhoea with the initial tummy bug but I will check on this.
Rochelle
Registered Homeopath with The Society of Homeopaths
EFT (Advanced) Practitioner
www.southporthomeopathy.co.uk