what is behind the symptoms

[Irene de Villiers]

Robert & Shannon Nelson wrote:

Oh! If so, sorry I did not get that intention:-(
The real problem is that "All tests normal" only covers what was tested.
The problem often is (as in my case) that the test which would find the
problem, was not done. There are millions of tests - and no doctor
orders them all - the patient would be out of time before they all could
be done anyway.
They only order a "few" tests (however many it might seem!) according to
the best guesses from the symptoms reported.

So - The patient can indeed be on the verge of dropping dead, and have
"all tests normal"! All the ones that were used:-)

Namaste,
IRene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[Dr. Joe Rozencwajg, NMD]

It is worse than that.
Some of you may remember a few cases I have described, like the lady unsuccessfully treated for hemorrhoids.....because it was a fissure and nobody looked, or the other lady treated and tested for everything, except for the one and only important test....because nobody bothered to auscultate her abdomen, or the gentleman thrown at me because 2 GP and a vascular surgeon forgot about peripheral neuralgia due to vitamin B deficiency.........and many others.
The point I am trying to make is that very few conventional former colleagues of mine still know how to think in terms of differential diagnosis and order the proper, targeted investigation; instead, most do turn towards batteries of tests, screenings, and if that does not produce any results, then you are nuts and you need Prozac.........
How is it relevant to homeopaths? If you lack a nutrient in your diet, no amount of homeopathic remedy will supply it to you, and you have to know whether it is from improper food, in which case nutritional therapy is needed, or for a lack of absorption, in which case homeopathy can help.
Getting a proper diagnosis allows us to give targeted remedies where the actual complaint (what has to be treated) is addressed first, then the origin/root of the problem.
Let me give a recent example: patient comes in with cough, chills, fever; diagnosed as left lower pneumonia simply on auscultation; remedy: Nat Sulph.
The pneumonia is treated; what caused the pneumonia: the association of very cold weather while the patient was at a funeral, and he describes very precisely that he felt the first symptom when the coffin was lowered in the ground: root of the disease = unfinished grief, will be treated later, after the pneumonia is resolved.........and it fits well with the TCM notion that the emotion of the Lung is grief.........
I also mean to say that even though many homeopaths do not have the clinical training, the hospital and field experience of medicine, the intellectual knowledge of differential diagnosis is relevant inasmuch as you can think about conditions, then suggest what to do. It also makes you more confident and avoid unnecessary referral or delayed referral, all of which is in the interest of the patient.
Because the conventional world has become sloppy does not justify that we should too.........
Dr. J. Rozencwajg, MD, PhD, NMD.
"The greatest enemy of any science is a closed mind".

[Shannon Nelson]

But that would not *usually* be the case...
One has to start somewhere in making guidelines :-/
But--I do take your point.
Shannon