A Sanicula Experience
Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:39 pm
I had to share this one with you! For nearly two years I've been treating a woman with multiple chemical sensitivities. She's housebound as a result; if she ventures out, it's only with an oxygen tank. Lots of homeopathic and other alternative treatments over the years. I won't recap her history because the case is complex and was hopelessly muddled. Lots of issues from childhood (abuse, neglect), including inability to crawl because her feet were nailed to a board for her first year to straighten her crooked legs.
Each remedy helped a bit, especially Silica, but nothing seemed really to touch her core complaints. A few of the constant symptoms were chronic sinus infections and recurrent respiratory problems, digestive problems, chronic fatigue, extreme sensitivity to odors, noise, vibration, difficulty sleeping, lots of aches and pains, fever when the menses were due, aggravations in winter, spring, and fall, sores and scabs on her face, thin and falling hair, etc. She has been very patient, but we were both getting frustrated by the lack of progress.
I decided to treat her more aggressively, and when I saw her in September I gave her Sanicula aqua 200c to take once every two weeks for two months. Dr. Ramakrishnan uses this remedy a fair amount for M.S. and believes it deserves more attention. He also has found it particularly useful for clarifying confused cases. As Joy pointed out in an e-mail last year, it contains over a dozen different minerals, so it covers a multitude of bases.
Why Sanicula in this particular case? Because it's a good remedy for failure to thrive -- and this woman carried failure to thrive over into adulthood with numerous food allergies, difficulty digesting, extreme bloating ("pot-bellied children"). When I saw her in September, she also had a dry cough that was < talking and, more remarkably, she would have a strong urging for stool, but nothing would come out until she ate; then she'd defecate as soon as she ate a bite (RECTUM, urging, eating, during - Sanic. is the only remedy listed).
When we had follow-up a few days ago, she told me that she was starting to recover memories from her childhood and infancy. She'd also had a remarkable dream of being at a creative gathering with people of all ages where everyone was having a great time sharing their writing, making art, etc. The host was a movie star, and as she sat together on a hammock with him, talking long and deep of mutual interests, she realized he was dressed in her clothing and glasses. She also realized that she and the movie star were one and the same. There are various ways to interpret the dream, but to her it felt as if the star was a warm, loving presence that she was incorporating into herself.
Even better, the remedy made her believe "for the first time that there is some innate healthy state I can work for and that my body is responding and trying to do something rather than randomly reacting."
Best of all, from my point of view at least, the case had clarified, as if all the pieces of the puzzle fell neatly into place. She's now an obvious Nux-vomica.
'Twas beautiful to see a substance so seemingly innocuous have such a profound effect.
Peace,
Cinnabar
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Each remedy helped a bit, especially Silica, but nothing seemed really to touch her core complaints. A few of the constant symptoms were chronic sinus infections and recurrent respiratory problems, digestive problems, chronic fatigue, extreme sensitivity to odors, noise, vibration, difficulty sleeping, lots of aches and pains, fever when the menses were due, aggravations in winter, spring, and fall, sores and scabs on her face, thin and falling hair, etc. She has been very patient, but we were both getting frustrated by the lack of progress.
I decided to treat her more aggressively, and when I saw her in September I gave her Sanicula aqua 200c to take once every two weeks for two months. Dr. Ramakrishnan uses this remedy a fair amount for M.S. and believes it deserves more attention. He also has found it particularly useful for clarifying confused cases. As Joy pointed out in an e-mail last year, it contains over a dozen different minerals, so it covers a multitude of bases.
Why Sanicula in this particular case? Because it's a good remedy for failure to thrive -- and this woman carried failure to thrive over into adulthood with numerous food allergies, difficulty digesting, extreme bloating ("pot-bellied children"). When I saw her in September, she also had a dry cough that was < talking and, more remarkably, she would have a strong urging for stool, but nothing would come out until she ate; then she'd defecate as soon as she ate a bite (RECTUM, urging, eating, during - Sanic. is the only remedy listed).
When we had follow-up a few days ago, she told me that she was starting to recover memories from her childhood and infancy. She'd also had a remarkable dream of being at a creative gathering with people of all ages where everyone was having a great time sharing their writing, making art, etc. The host was a movie star, and as she sat together on a hammock with him, talking long and deep of mutual interests, she realized he was dressed in her clothing and glasses. She also realized that she and the movie star were one and the same. There are various ways to interpret the dream, but to her it felt as if the star was a warm, loving presence that she was incorporating into herself.
Even better, the remedy made her believe "for the first time that there is some innate healthy state I can work for and that my body is responding and trying to do something rather than randomly reacting."
Best of all, from my point of view at least, the case had clarified, as if all the pieces of the puzzle fell neatly into place. She's now an obvious Nux-vomica.
'Twas beautiful to see a substance so seemingly innocuous have such a profound effect.
Peace,
Cinnabar
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]