1) headache - heavy pain (like a bunch of weights), difficult to keep head up, needed support
2) sharp pain, lower abdomen, (like a blade/knife)
3) intense nausea
4) diarrhoea > abdominal pain
4a) diarrhoea, dark coloured (went green almost black, could have been the A/B?)
5) loss of appetite
6) desires soup (liquid?)
7) weakness
8) chills, drenching sweats, mainly at night
9) throat = raw and sore
10) cough, tickling
10a) cough sometimes violent, made him feel as though he would be sick
11) expectoration = white, balls
12) muscles ache all over body, is liquids, usually water. Ipecac, grand keynotes of nausea and vomiting, although there was no vomiting in this case and this could be relevant as Ipecac is an anti-emetic (potentised that is), but certainly ruled by nausea, which is constant, cold drinks usually >
4) Diarrhoea can dominate Baptisia, stolls are dark and can be bloody - not sure if it > abdominal pain but interssting the diarrhoea is painless when there is a fever. Ipecac has a range of colours to the diarrhoea
ranging from green through to very dark brown and pitch like, very painful - again not sure if passing stool > abdominal pain5) Baptisia has loss of appetite and only wants water or liquid, very thirsty. Ipecac cannot eat due to the nausea and vomiting and is one of the thirstless rx.
6) Baptisia wants cold liquid. Ipecac won't drink, like sweet things when it can take anything. Soup is often considered a good nutrient to have when acutely ill so without a grading or context not sure how useful this sx is.
7) Baptisia is all about feverl sepsis and prostration so weakness is a big keynote. The body feels tired, weak and tremulous, muscles are sore, "indescribable sick feeling". The lower limbs feel this weakness particularly. Ipecac tends more towards being irritable when ill, but certainly the constant nausea and vomiting will cause a weakness - feel as if their bones are torn to pieces, can also become weak with the cough.
8) Baptisia has chills, sudden high fevers, burnings, perspiration (the sweating actually >> but we don't know this for this case), the body is sore with both the chills and the fevers. The sweat smells bad. Ipecac can have alternating chills/fevers, sweat often cold, intermittent fevers - always with nausea.
9) Baptisia throat has a sense of constriction, interestingly the pain is felt externally not internally, but a sore throat is noted. Ipecac has a sore throat with difficulty swallowing, pain is stinging and sore, feels dry.
10) Baptisia craves air, lungs feel tight, feels as if suffocating, chest is weak. Ipecac also has constriction and suffocation and the cough makes them gag. You can hear the mucous but it can't be raised - a croup like cough. The case says the violent cough was occasional
11) With Baptisia there is ulceration of the mucous membranes so expectoration is usually foul or bloody. Ipecac has a wheezing cough or croup like and expectoration usually bloody (both are haemorraghic rx). This sx lower ranked as it didn't happen often? Whatever the grading not characteristic of either rx.
12) Baptisia is prostrated, feels tired and bruised all over with muscular soreness, sx radiate from the small of the back, stiff lame and very weak especially in lower back. Ipecac feels bruised in the bones but any weakness comes from the constant nausea, vomiting or coughing - coughing might cause muscular aches and pains
13) Baptisia dreams of being bound or tied and frightful dreams. Ipecac has frightful dreams.
14) Baptisia can be suddenly prostrated (see fever and chills above). Ipecac can pass out with the cough.
15) Not sure whether fluid will linger in the lungs of Baptisia, if so fluids tend to decompose so would be foul probably. Ipecac has fluid in the lungs, can't get it up. (not sure when the A/B were taken and what effect they might have had).
Hope useful. The case is below.
Joy
http://www.joylucashomeopathy.com
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/homeopathystudy/
42 yo male of generally strong constitution and solid build
c/o influenza beginning March 27, 2009
Symptoms began the night before with a vague feeling "like something
was coming on." The patient woke March 27 with a mild sore throat and
a headache "like a bunch of weights in there." Halfway through his
day at work, he began to have "really sharp pain in the lower
abdomen, really pretty sharp ... like a blade was stuck in my gut."
This pain was accompanied by intense nausea. He knocked off work
early (the first time he's ever felt that sick in his adult life) and
went home to have diarrhea that got rid of the abdominal pain.
Although he continued to have diarrhea daily for a week, he never had
the abdominal pain again. The early diarrhea might have been darkly
colored, he's not sure. After he started taking antibiotics on Day 6,
it was definitely a very dark green, almost black.
He never ate much after that first bout of diarrhea, as the nausea
continued for the entire course of the illness and "nothing sounded
good to eat." He never vomited, even though he often felt he needed
to. The only food that felt good to him during the week was chicken
soup. Sometimes he would nibble on crackers, but they "didn't do much
for me."
Feeling very weak, he fell asleep after that first stool and began a
cycle of chills and drenching sweat. He felt miserably hot during the
sweating and better during the chills. At first, the sweats tended to
be at night, all over his body. Later he had an episode during the
day. He did not remember having any dry heat. Unfortunately, there
was no thermometer in the house, so he never got a temperature measured.
The sore throat persisted, "raw and sore, not unbearable, just
nagging." He doesn't remember anything making it better or worse. A
cough started that first day, a cough from a little tickle, though he
couldn't say where exactly the tickle was. When the cough was
productive, his sputum was "white gunk." Every now and again he would
get the feeling he needed to get something out of his chest, and he
would manage to "dislodge" something. It would come up as "little
white balls." There was also a raw feeling from dislodging it, but he
didn't describe it as painful. Sometimes the cough was violent and
paroxysmal, making him feel like he would vomit.
Of course, he had the usual flu muscle aches, all over his body and
worst in the lumbar region. I didn't get more details than that.
The headache persisted throughout the week with a feeling of
heaviness and difficulty keeping the head up, needing to "support"
the head with either pillows or his arm. He often spoke of extreme
weakness and of leaning either his head or body on things for "support."
He described the fever as "fever hitting the brain." He had very
vivid, repetitive dreams. He would wake thinking, "okay, I don't want
to dream about that anymore." One dream was about "different kinds of
knots" and lasted an entire night.
On Day 5, he went back to work and could feel that he had made a bad
decision. Although he made it through the day, he felt progressively
weaker through the day. On Day 6, he went to a doctor, who heard
rales in his chest and prescribed antibiotics. His temperature was
measured at 100.2 degrees Fahrenheit. From numerous blood tests they
determined only that his platelets were low.
While waiting in line at the drug store, the patient began to feel
"really hot and sweaty," "leaned my arm out to support myself on a
rack" and "got a little bit of that tunnel vision thing." He woke on
the floor with people around him, having been unconscious for about
15 seconds. He had hit his forehead on the floor. When the paramedics
checked his vital signs, they found him drenched in sweat. He
declined a visit to the hospital.
The patient took more work days off and felt fully recovered two
weeks after the onset of his illness. He made a full recovery and
feels "great" now.