Cases From Our Rich Heritage
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 Jul / Aug VOL 5 NO 4.
Dr T K Kasiviswanthan
'Sacch-off / Thuja / Nat-ph
CASE 1
A 29 yrs old woman consulted Dr Tinus Smits in Dec 1989 for PMS from which she was suffering for the past 10 years. On examination one found a lot of small fibromas, an enlarged uterus and swollen ovaries. Before and during menses, she had a sore pain in her lower abdomen, a bearing-down feeling and also a swelling sensation in her whole abdomen with a lot of flatulence, difficult stool and nausea on rising and before meals, weariness and sleepiness and difficult concentration and irritability. Very changeable mood; very thirsty and craved chocolate, oranges lemon, sour fruits. Aversion to meat and bananas.
She had a lot of problems in her childhood. Being second of four children and the eldest girl, she had to shoulder the heavy responsibility for taking care of her younger siblings. She tried, without success, to get the attention of her mother including blackmailing her during puberty by not eating and refusing to talk for days. She was also critical of her. She was easily disgusted, washed her hands frequently up to 25 times a day. Loved dancing, reading and traveling. Wept with music. She is very fastidious. As there was a history of cancer in the family and there were enormous number of moles which grew during after her pregnancies and the fact that she was aggravated in a warm room and wanted windows to be open, the doctor prescribed Carcinosin 200 on 18/2/94.
After one week she felt very tired and fell asleep whenever she sat down. But her concentration improved; had no fits of anger, no sadness and PMS was also better. But the patient became worse in March; she was chilly, was eating bread the whole day but losing weight, cramps in abdomen, much flatus, very tired and dry hair and very thirst. These new symptoms clearly indicated Saccharum-off but as the doctor was not conversant with this remedy he prescribed Carcinosin 1M.
At first she was very restless and had an attack of 'flu' but no PMS. She got pregnant in September, whereafter she had constipation alternating with diarrhoea and cramps in abdomen before stool. She had, however, tremendous appetite. She was given Opium 10M on 30/1/91. The patient felt much better till March 91. It was repeated in the same potency more frequently till her delivery in June. Since her delivery she had persistent problems with her bowels, overwhelming sleepiness after each meal, chronic flu, very chilly and unconscious loss of urine. Opium 10M was given but there was not much amelioration. Nux-vom 10M was prescribed because of nausea before stool, cramps, backache, chilliness, bad concentration and forgetfulness.
Though some amelioration was there, no improvement was noticed after repetition.
Discouraged by lack of improvement, the patient did not turn up for one year. In the meantime she had salpingitis with high fever which was treated with antibiotics (Agg during ovulation is a strong Saccharum-off symptom). She had again her PMS and still a lot of bowel pain. She was in very bad humour and tired in the morning and had dry skin. Very thirsty and hungry all day and enormous desire for sweets. Preferred raw vegetables and bread to cooked vegetables. She was sensitive to pain.
She was prescribed Sacch-off 1M every three weeks on 27/10/93. She felt better and in December she was in bad shape, very ill with purulent discharge from her right ear. Earlier in that month she could not walk as if paralysed in her right leg which she had had as a child. Not being so sure of the remedy for the ear infection, the doctor repeated Sacch-off 30 in water for two days without success and then gave Opium 200 and then Hepar-sulph 200 without much relief.
Her ear continued to discharge on offensive pus for next three months and the patient again came for treatment in May. It was observed that she was very tired, but so restless that she could hardly sit; her PMS was worse and again she had an insatiable appetite. Dr Smits was convinced that the remedy Saccharum was the similimum but the potency given earlier was too high. Hence he prescribed Sacch-off 0/6, one pill a day.
There was remarkable improvement in the patient's symptoms thereafter. She was less angry, had a lot of energy, and her irresistible craving for food was gone. Her memory was much better and fear of mice gone. Discharge from ear and pain and chilliness were gone. PMS was much better. She was more independent and began to dress well and her relations with her mother, children and husband improved. Though she still had pain in lower abdomen around menses and constipated before menses she was emotionally much better off. (Dr Tinus Smits)
