Minutus

Dear Shanon,
I was so happy you responded to my case. Any way, the girl was given
Graphites 1M about 5 times single pellet in a single dose every one month
was given. Then the potency was raised to 10M and 10 M was repeated for
about 5 times. Every time the potency was repeated only when the
aggravations appeared and the potency was raised only when the duration of
relief was shortened. Then when no oozing was found and thickening alone was
present i retook the case and Sepia 1 M was given. Sepia also was repeated
for about 5 months a single pellet dose a month. The patient was also
advised hydrocotyle tincture at times for reduction of the thickening of the
skin during this period. Now, the skin shows signs of oozing again and but
to a limited area in the hand. The patient showed slight aggravation with
swelling of the axillary lymph nodes. But in another 5 days time no new
eruptions appear at present (today) and the node has become painless.
Another point you asked was her associated symptoms. She was having
severe menstrual irregularities. But now all those symptoms are absent .
They are much better.
But I am worried about why the drug picture went back to Graphites
from Sepia. Does this happen like this? Is this a favourable reaction? Hope
to know from you regarding these. And if possible kindly mention something
about urself so that i can better understand you too.

Thanking you once again,

With Regards,
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Shiraz,

I'll start by saying a bit about myself! I'm mostly a "mama-at-home", don't
have a "real" practice--yet--but finished my three-year (parttime) program
about seven years ago, and have treated family and friends (and the
occasional pet) for a while longer than that. My training has been almost
entirely focused on classical approach. So I can't claim the broad
experience of some folks here! but have enough behind me to have developed
some opinions (smile).

Your experience with this case is one I would love to hear others weigh in
on! It touches on questions that have come up on the list in the past,
particularly the topic of "how long" a remedy "should" act for!

Another bit of personal history, our first family homeopath was a "very
Vithoulkian" prescriber, and extremely generous about explaining his
reasoning to me as he prescribed for us (starting some years before I took
any classes, so his ideas I suppose sort of shaped the way I have absorbed
my classwork etc.!). One of his beliefs (apparently from Vithoulkas) was
that if a dose does not hold for "long enough", that is a sign that the
remedy is not quite right--no matter how nice the response seems to be.
This is a guideline that I have found *extremely* useful, tho it's also one
I've come to realize that not everyone agrees with, so I'm not completely
sure what "the truth" is!

But in my understanding, if a 1M lasts for only one month, I would want to
see some really convincing reason about *why* she would need it so high and
so often, and unless I could find one, I would assume that the remedy is not
right, and is acting only palliatively, and after some number of doses
(which can vary widely!) the case will return to its prior state and a
better remedy will need to be found. Or perhaps depart in a "zig-zag"
direction...

There are some situations where this isn't true; there are some situations
that (apparently) really *need* to have the remedy (including the "correct"
remedy) given high and often, but these would be (according to my present,
tentative understanding) pretty extreme situations--e.g. the disease is very
deep and/or very strong (and *how* deep or strong would be a matter of
experience! but e.g. inborn severe errors of metabolism, improper bone
growth, or?); or the patient is *extremely* weak and ill, and cannot respond
very well to the energy of the remedy; and perhaps other situations that
aren't coming to mind.

But in a chronic functional (no structural defects or tissue damage) case
where the patient is not too old, not too weak, not too severely ill, I
would expect a single dose of 1M to hold for something like a year, perhaps
more. If there's a great deal of "stress" etc. I might be satisfied with a
bit less, but would be watching closely... (Again, I will be very
interested to hear if others' experience on this differs!)

On the other hand, apparently her situation now is not exactly where she
started out--you say that she'd had bad menstrual symptoms, and those are
now gone-- that sounds encouraging! Perhaps she simply needs to alternate
between the two remedies for now? But it seems puzzling that the skin would
improve and then worsen; I don't know what to make of that. I would watch
closely to see whether the menstrual symptoms return, or any further
symptoms develop?

Here is a *somewhat* similar experience I had about 10 years back, with my
then-toddler daughter. It was toward the begining of my classes, and my
daughter's treatment (with our family prescriber) wasn't going well; she got
a number of remedies for increasingly severe behavior (and other) problems,
but none of them did much. Then on basis of a very partial understanding of
a remedy, I decided it seemed very appropriate for her, and (dangers of a
mommy-frustrated-student-homeopath!!!) gave her a 200c. *Beautiful*
response for about six weeks, then began to slide. With some
rationalization, I repeated the dose. Another beautiful response, for about
five weeks; etc. 1M gave the same lovely response for about two months, and
on I went, one to three doses of each potency up to 10M, before realizing I
had better "confess" to our homeopath and see what he thought! He turned a
delicate shade of green and requested that I desist... Shortly after that
he worked out what she *really* needed, and one dose of 200c worked far
better, and had us sailing happily for some months (6? 8? don't remember!)
before the picture shifted, and we were off on the chase again. (Okay, it
wasn't the answer to "all our problems"... But a truly life-changing
--and permanent!--shift in her.) My repeated doses were initially effective
(and gave *me* a much-needed break!), but were not doing anything to help
her long-term.

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this question of "how long"! (As
well as Shiraz's overall case!)
Cheers,
Shannon
on 11/30/04 10:54 AM, shiraz at drshiraz@asianetindia.com wrote:

If we take the main question in these posts - why does a remedy appear to
stop working - vis - how long should a remedy act for - I think Shannon has
pretty much written the main scenario.

Firstly one has to be really sure that a remedy HAS stopped working. Many
cases come to a standstill, plateau and then start up again with no action
from the prescriber at all. So patience, in these cases, is a must.

If a remedy has stopped working you need to find out why. This isn't a
mystery as some cases just use up the energy of the remedy and it merely
needs repeating. This cycle can go on for a long time but during follow ups
you will be establishing that the case is actually moving forward and just
needs a boost via the repetition.

If the case isn't moving forward and there has been too much time gone by
what usually happens is that sx will start coming back, the client isn't
happy with the stalemate and the mind/body cannot settle for this and a
reversion begins, or even new sx appear.

Then is the time to assess the case, whether the remedy is the true
simillimum and if it is then maybe the potency needs to be changed or maybe
there is a block to the case and an intercurrent is required to remove that
block and then the simillimum can continue its good work.

But maybe the remedy never was the true simillimum, it was just one of those
satellite remedies that just shifted things around without really curing.
The case just needs to be looked at with 'different eyes' so the real
simillimum can be found.

Of course maintaining causes and any possible antidoting or new trauma has
to be taken into consideration re the above.

For me there is no situation where I would be alternating remedies, both of
which are considered to be simillimum, this doesn't make any sense to me.

In Shiraz' case, although I haven't read all the posts, if a Graphites state
is returning then she needed this all along and the Sepia, although shifted
some symptoms? probably wasn't needed at all. But you have to ask yourself
whether the case is really graphites. I have to say that I cringe at 1m and
10m given in eczema cases, but that is my own opinion. Also the use of
topical remedies as well (Hydrocotyle) = asking for problems.

If Graphites didn't cover the whole case, the totality of the symptoms then
it probably won't be the simillimum and you could end up suppressing sx
instead of curing them - and that is another reason why remedies APPEAR to
work, i.e. removing sx by suppressing them, but they keep trying to return
and if the remedy is repeated so often the case will be even further spoilt.

If the eczema is returning I would take this as a blessing and begin again
with the whole case and I personally would encourage the use of LM's with
eczema cases.

Hope useful, Joy

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