Minutus

Question for anyone with knowledge and/or experience re treating epilepsy:

Would these rubrics below be considered useful and reasonably complete ones?
(In particuar, I thought that biting the tongue was quite common during an
epileptic convulsion. Is that rubric reliable, or incomplete?)

This pt was waiting for nat-m to arrive (on what seemed a clear picture),
but before it arrived she had yet another seizure, and is suffering
worse-than-usual aftereffects from it. They have increased in frequency in
past half-year -- used to be years apart, but has had I believe 6 in past
six months, apparently coinciding with a marriage-breakup which was
completely unexpected and deeply shocking to her.

Is this an appropriate situation to shift to specific "seizure remedies"?

MIND; MEMORY; weakness, loss of; convulsions; after; epileptic: absin.,
ars., calc., cic., zinc.
(This is very striking. She says it usually lasts about a week
after the seizure, but is now at about 9 days, and wow...
GENERALITIES; CONVULSIONS, spasms; epileptic; before epileptic paroxysm,
aura; absent: ars., art-v., atro., bell., camph., canth., cham., cic.,
cupr., cupr-ar., dios., hydr-ac., lach., nat-s., oena., plb., podo.,
tarent., valer., zinc., zinc-val.
(She has no aura, no warning at all.)
GENERALITIES; CONVULSIONS, spasms; epileptic; during epileptic paroxysm;
discharges, involuntary; urination: art-v., Bufo, caust., cocc., cupr.,
Hyos., lach., nat-m., nux-v., oena., plb., stry., zinc.
GENERALITIES; CONVULSIONS, spasms; falling, with; backwards (K1353,
SRII-128, G1117): ang., bell., camph., canth., chin., cic., cic-m., ign.,
ip., kalm., nux-v., oena., Op., rhus-t., spig., stram.
GENERALITIES; CONVULSIONS, spasms; epileptic; during epileptic paroxysm;
mouth; biting tongue (SRII-122)**: absin., art-v., bufo, camph., caust.,
cocc., cupr., oena., op., sec., stram., tarent., valer.
GENERALITIES; CONVULSIONS, spasms; injuries, from (K1354, SRII-131,
G1117): ang., arn., art-v., cic., con., cupr., cupr-acet., hep., hydr-ac.,
Hyper., land., led., meli., nat-s., oena., op., puls., rhus-t., sil.,
sulph., valer.

All of these are reliable, happen every time. The convulsion begins with
sort of a grunt, or yell, as air is forcibly expelled. On waking up, she
remembers nothing from the seizure, or for some time before (even forgets
things from weeks before!), and has severe short-term memory impairment for
some days afterwards. She's pretty frightened about all this (which I
haven't repped, as it seems so "natural"... She wonders what would happen
if a seizure strikes when she's just started down the staircase from her
apartment...)

The top contender here is Oenanthe, which seems to suit well, tho there are
few rubrics for it. Would I appropriately put her on that instead of nat-m,
or ???

Thanks for any thoughts...
Shannon

Shannon

From the "feel" of the case I think you need to look into fear and grief:
grief at marriage breakup, which would also cause fear for the future etc...
Nat Mur is an obvious one but have you thought of Ignatia? Also Oak is a
very good strengthening remedy to consider. Silly question perhaps, but
have you given the patient arnica? No offence meant but sometimes we
overlook the obvious?

Regards
Eleana
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Thanks Eleana,

Yep, we did Arnica at the start (nothing), she recently did very well on
Ign, then that began to agg and the picture shifted to nat-m. But this
latest seizure came before the nat-m arrived. She's using it now -- when
she remembers. And she mostly doesn't remember whether or not she's
remembered, which I guess is why I started looking to the "seizure and
memory" remedies...

I'll look into Oak. I know she's been using flower remedies already, so
I'll ask whether that's one she's looked at.

Thanks for the thoughts!
Shannon
on 2/4/03 7:01 PM, Eleana Needham at eleanan@hotmail.com wrote:

Dear Shannon, many symptoms are common to epilepsy but if they form part of
a very specific and characteristic type of seizure then they are important
and need to be repertorised along with all the other details of the seizure
which would include the moments before and reactions afterwards.

The first rubric you choose seems essential to the case but can also be
looked at more generally if this is seen throughout the rest of the case,
i.e. she is wanting to forget but cannot - so the simillimum might not be in
that rubric. Details of the loss of memory would be useful - for names,
events, total loss, hazy loss or ???

Not sure about the lack of aura - this becomes more special when there is
one and of course you could use 'seizures, sudden,' instead. Also when there
is no aura I often find that there is a substitution, something else happens
such as an outburst of anger, or fear or ??? So events before are very
important.

With involuntary discharges - does this occur at any other time, if so it
would give credibility to it as a more general rubric. If not then it is
very important.

How does the 'spasms from injuries' fit in.

The noises before the seizure are important as would be the form the seizure
takes - what do her limbs do, her fingers, toes, head, do the noises
continue throughout, what level of consciousness does she have throughout
etc etc. What temperature does she feel, is there any twitching, any foaming
at the mouth. How does it effect her thirst or appetite. Is she drowsy
after. Any vertigo. I would dig deep here for some more details.

Also, seizures from grief, disappointment or rage (or how ever else she felt
after the breakup) would be applicable. Also the frequency if there is a
pattern.

Sometimes the epilepsy needs to be treated as a top layer but in my
experience the exciting cause is always paramount.

Oenanthe is an interesting rx - the seizures are very much related to the
menstrual cycle (or lack of sometimes) and even during pregnancy, Lots of
skin conditions. Also the seizure type is very specific - worth reading up
in many MM's.

If she was about to be prescribed Nat Mur then why would this change? The
'rest' of the case needs to be incorporated and studied as I am sure you
have done. Hope this helps, if you need more information please let me know.

best wishes, Joy

Hi Shannon

When I mentioned Oak, I meant the homoeopathic remedy rather than the flower
essence. It can be used low (3x) daily as support for six months without
aggravation. You can also go high (10M) once a week for a few weeks so you
are supporting the patient both on the very physical level and the higher
level.

If you were using flower essences I would suggest you looked into the
Australian Bush Flower Essences range: indicated remedies for epilepsy are
Black-Eyed Susan, Bush Fuchsia, Emergency Essence in acutes, Grey Spider
Flower, Sundew and Wild Potato Bush. They can be used individually
depending on the patient type or in combination; they can be droppered under
the tongue, drank in water, put in a bath, room spray or dabbed on the skin
at the pulse points. And they can work wonders if they are well indicated!

Regards

Eleana
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