Minutus

Just for curiosity, I was trying to think that rubrics and remedies
might be considered for "flesh eating" staph infection. I thought I'd
seen a rubric for "ulcerating wounds", but can't now find it, so I
guess "ulcer" (under both Extremities and Generals) and subrubrics
might be one starting place? Would "wounds, gangrenous" apply?
Shannon

Dear Shannon, there is 'wounds, ulcerate and spread' + 'ulcers from
incised and lacerated wounds' but if infection is involved (and an
infection that involves 'eating'), I think I would be using the
'ulcers, phagedenic' rubric.

You can only really use gangrenous if gangrene is present. Best wishes,
Joy

http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.blogspot.com
http://homepage.mac.com/joylucas/
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Ah thank you, "phagedenic" is what I couldn't think of! And FWIW it's
under Eruptions as well as Ulcers.

I also see Generalities, Phagedenic, eating processes (ars, caust,
merc, sil, staph, sulph). Do you suppose that would apply to internal
infection with it? But that seems like far too small and polychrest a
list!

I was reading that it can also attack internal organs, can lead to
heart failure--which may explain a very weird tragedy to an
acquaintance this past year, whose heart was "destroyed" by causes
unknown, assumed to be "a virus or something" (I got this about
fourth-hand) and he is now awaiting heart transplant. Anyway, it has
left me wondering...

"Flesh-eating bacteria cases, fatal pneumonia and life-threatening
heart infections suddenly are popping up around the country, striking
healthy people and stunning their doctors.

The cause? Staph, a bacteria better known for causing skin boils easily
treated with standard antibiotic pills."

If I've understood right, this form of the bacterium isn't entirely new
in itself, but what's new is its increasing prevalence--presumably
because so many of its more benign competitors have been killed off?

And I seem have had a (thankfully minor) episode with it myself last
year. A cat scratch that was so light I hadn't noticed it at first (my
cat was startled while I was holding him, and gave me the barest
scratch on his way down), suddenly woke me in the night with burning.
Over the next couple of weeks it became an irregular wound which kept
slowly spreading, despite garlic, tea tree oil, golden seal, calendula,
a remedy here and there (I don't remember what I tried, only that
nothing was making any difference), until it finally stopped after I
started keeping it bandaged with (why???) castor oil. Which perhaps
worked only because it was such a small thing, and shallow, tho by the
end, the reddened area covered about an inch, and lasted for months! .
It was pretty creepy...
Shannon
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because it was such a small thing, and shallow, tho by the
months! .

*** Could have been the bacterium Bartonella hensalae (cat scratch
disease).

Toni

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(I don't remember what I tried, only that

*** Ricinoleic acid (homeopathic Ricinus communis). Castor oil has a
strong anti-microbial activity.

Toni

The thing that was weird, and that I'd never experienced before, is how
it seemed to be dissolving the tissue under the skin. Is that
something Bartonella hensalae does?
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Thanks, I'll remember that!

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--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, Robert & Shannon Nelson
wrote:
is how

*** Go to http://dermatlas.med.jhmi.edu/derm/result.cfm?
OutputSet=1&BO=AND&Author=1897730045 and scroll down 8 cases to
Diagnosis: OTHER. Click on the image for enlargement.

B. henselae can cause a necrotizing inflammation of the lymph nodes,
but my understanding of the bacterium is that the inoculation
lesions are not subcutaneous or necrotizing (that would be more akin
to Staph and Strep(?)). B. henselae-infected lesions are generally
nodular and cutaneous, commonly ulcerative and pustular and can
spread and persist for weeks. And, of course, the bacterium is
transmitted cross-species from cat to human via cat saliva (a bite
or a scratch). My dad was infected at one time. See if the photos
look familiar.

Toni

Hi Toni,
I don't find that "Other", just a page full of Sarcoidosis and one
erythema multiforme, but what I had doesn't sound like what you've
described.
Great pictures, tho!
Shannon
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Shannon, it looks like the URL was split in two within the post
below. Anyway, just thought you might want to take a peek.

Toni

--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, Robert & Shannon Nelson
wrote: