Will I ever Walk Again?
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 Mar / Apr VOL VIII NO 2.
Dr Vibha Shah
'Mag-phos / Medh
Mr M MG, age 55 yrs, came to our clinic on 3-12-97, walking like a duck, which he found very embarrassing. Since one month, he developed pain and swelling in his Lt ankle with a cracking sound which was
< Walking
< Evening
< Flexing
.
Diagnosed as Ankle arthritis.
He also had Rt knee pain on walking, since 25/7/98
Associated Complaints:
- Circulatory - Low BP.98/65 mm HG.
- Resp - Sore throat - irritation and cough < dust, cold drinks, talking +++
- Extremities - Burning feet > night, cotton socks, AC. < touch
- Vertigo < looking down.
Patient as a Person:
SKIN: White spots on body
HAIR: Dandruff and hair loss
APPETITE: good
CRAVING: juicy; salt extra, for low BP
STOOL: No complaints
URINE: No complaints
SEX: N
THERMALS: Likes cool and pleasant weather. Does not mind summer. Fan direct < shoulder ache. Cover wants. Has a cold bath in Bombay.
More towards Chilly. C4H
SLEEP: Unrefreshing. Groaning in sleep with sneezing
Life Situation:
1942: Born at Dehradun. Parents came to Mumbai after his birth.
1949: Paternal Grand Father passed away. PGM lonely, so pt stayed on at Dehradun. Elder brother and he both studied there.
1957: Passed SSC in Dehradun itself.
1964: Graduated as an Electrical Engineer from Birla Institute at Ranchi. Came to Mumbai
1966: Married
1970: Started business
1981: Wife actively involved in Business, which is very unconventional for a Marwadi family.
1997: Grandchild - Stillborn. He dreamt of it (? Clairvoyance) 36 hours before the event. That whole period was very traumatic. They went & stayed at that time with daughter who is in USA, and found the husband not so suited. Worry about that continues. He is very close to his daughter, not so much to the son who is quite "khadus" - argues a lot and lot of fights.
Mental Disposition
Quiet. Now since last 4-5 years he has become irritable, because of expanding business & work pressure therefrom. Affectionate, but not overt. Finds it difficult to be demonstrative.
Fear of being alone, and looking down- gets vertigo. Fastidious3. Good Memory.
Dreams: Premonition: death of M, and grandchild. Robbery.
Aspiring for a contract after which he got it.
In this case, the diagnosis was troublesome, because of the location of the complaint:
Investigated for
Blood Sugar: F - 76 mg%; PP - 95 mg%
Uric Acid: 5.4
C reactive Protein: negative
In 1999: Bodyscan? Osteoporosis.
Diagnosis was still not clear. ? Gout, but uric acid- N.? Ankle arthritis. Meanwhile pt could not walk, had to take a stick and was very troubled.
Rubrics Taken:
| 1. K11 Clairvoyance 2. K42 Fastidious 3. K43 Fear alone 4. K254 Sleep Unrefreshing 5. K 70 Quiet Disposition |
6. K1237 Dr: clairvoyant 7. K1096 Feet pain- burning 8. K484 Cr: beer 9. Ro830 Lameness |
Remedies After Repertorization
Phos 7/14
Ars-alb 5/10
Puls 5/10
Calc 5/6
Nat-m 3/6
Lyco 3/7
Mag-m 1/3
Selection Of Remedy Not clear at the start. Only as the case progressed, did the remedy/ies become clear. This case worked out to Phos, but it was not a pure Phos. Only after some pitfalls, we came to Mag-phos as the Constitutional Rx
Follow-Up
| Date | Symptoms | Interpretation | Medicine |
| 3-12-97 | Ankle pain. Sycotic Miasm. Clairvoyant. Anxiety marked , Hot, cr juice | Medh 1M [1] | |
| 10-12-97 | Pt came limping. | To cover any injury aspect and arthritis, a combination of injury group remedies given. The only time we give a combination is with Injury group. | Arn 30+ Ruta 30 + Rhus-tox 30 TDS |
| 17-12-97 | Limping >50% Ankle support helps | Ro 830: Lameness- Ruta, Rhus-t | Ct all 1P=2 Nat-mur 30,200 |
| 7-1- 98 | Better generally | From now on, the treatment went a little zig-zag- we were thrown off the track by his normal uric-acid. | Mag-phos 6x Nux-v 30 |
| 14-1- 98 | Better 10% | Wait and Watch | Placebo |
| 21-1-98 | No further amel | Nat-mur 200[1] Rhus-tox 200 3p Alt HS |
|
| By Feb | No further amel | I decided that this was a form of Gout | Ledum 200 HS |
| 6-3-98 | Pain > 50 % but then SQBody pains > pressure | His constituional decided and given | Mag-phos 200 tds |
| 20-3-98 | Total Body bone scan: osteoporosis | Ro 168- Calc-ph 3 Calc-fl 1 | Mag-phos 200 tds Calc-ph 6x 3/7 |
| 25-3-98 | >2 Can walk. Can squat and stand since 2 days. | > Mag-phos 200 BD | Calc-phos 6x BD |
| 11-4-98 | Well, except weakness | Off to USA for 1 mth | Calc-phos 6x BD ct |
| 25-7-98 | > exc old injury back acting up | Nerves | Hypericum 30 HS/SOS |
| 1-8-98 | > Back> Sleep> | > IC | Medh 1M -2nd dose |
| 5-9-98 | Again acute attack. Pain ankles and burning | Acute | Ledum 200 BD |
| 5-10-98 | > | Constitutional | Mag-phos 200 |
| 14-12-98 | > 3 | Placebo | |
| 5-4-99 | Continues to be well | Occ IC and Constitutional given |
Editorial Comments:
Discussion: this case has been taken up to show how:
- We can be thrown off the track by within N- limits readings of Serum uric-acid. Then no remedy really makes a dent.
- There was a combination of problems - gout, ankle arthritis and osteoporosis.
- Therefore a 3-pronged attack was required - Ledum for the acute gout followed by constitutional Mag-phos which completed the cure.
- The pathological remedy Calc-phos in physiological doses was carried on for 3 mths.
- Yes a zig-zag cure, but the results proved that the approach finally worked.
- Yes, we know that a number of remedies were used which did not work. But we wanted to demonstrate what sometimes actually happens in practice. All cases, whether we like it or not, do not fetch us the classical response. There is no point in reporting ONLY such true to picture cases. The idea has to be to learn from our mistakes and benefit.
