Miasm Research - Cases

Diverticulitis

 

(December 2006)
Case by Bev Barkway

 

INTRODUCTION
This case is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly it shows the importance of checking the facial analysis carefully until a strong result is shown. Also that a remedy of the wrong miasm (the first remedy) can bring about a sense of calm but not affect the whole case deeply enough to exert an influence on the physical symptoms. And that some faces take a few tries before the analysis is clear. Initially Cantharis looked so good that we listed it as a single star remedy for purple. It will stay at that level until further cases clarify its miasm, as it still provided the patient with strong relief. Even though there were a few false starts the result for the patient is wonderful and an operation wasn't required - VCCH Jan 2007

Female Aged 53
Case by Bev Barkway

23/3/06
Rosie is a counsellor and first came to me because she had recently been diagnosed with diverticulitis and had been suffering increasingly more +++urgent 'urging to urinate'. She was now waking almost continuously at night with this desire and found she now knew just about every toilet stop from home to her place of work 'just in case' she had to stop. If the desire came on, she was not able to hold the flow and would consequently, 'wet her knickers'. She had taken to wearing panty liners and felt she always smelt of urine.

The diverticulitis diagnosis was a bit of a shock to her because she had no history of symptoms, apart from the last 6 months where she had been experiencing intermittent aching and cramp-like pain in the lower abdomen, left hand side. The pain came on after eating, and was better if she laid down flat. It is localised pain, deep ache. Going to the toilet, although urgent, does not make better.

She had gained weight and felt bloated.

She had a history of being intimidated by women - firstly with her mum, who said she was never good enough and secondly with women at her work. She felt she was being harassed at work, and that her opinion was dismissed. She felt shunned, isolated and humiliated - as if they were keeping secrets from her. This had been going on for 8 years.

She said she was terrified of her mother who abused her emotionally. She recalls many instances of being 'locked out' of the house, for the entire day.

She hates +++injustice, and has a real aversion to horror or war movies She is extremely chilly. During the consultation she remained tightly wrapped in an oversized jumper and scarf and stood up frequently to stand over the heater.

Although her sleep is now constantly disturbed by the need to urinate, she can sleep for extremely long periods of time - as if in a coma and will not waken with the alarm clock. She does not feel refreshed when she awakens, no matter how late she gets up.

The diverticulitis has resulted in intermittent diarrhoea - +++urgent - gushing/sputtering and odorous/offensive it is green and watery. She remarks that it smells earthy or 'like vegetables'. She does eat meat, but not a lot.
She feels her energy is low.
She has a history of throat and chest infections, < getting or becoming cold.
She is allergic to dust, pollen, result is +++intense itchiness and inflammation.
There is only minimal asthma.
Presently she just feels like 'hibernating' and is quick to cry.
Her chest feels rattly and there is a deep cough and bringing up of yellow mucous.
She has arthritic pain in LH side of wrist and thumb - stabbing pain.
She is thirstless.

FACIAL ANALYSIS 1

Yellow (Psora)

Red (Sycosis)

Blue (Syphilis)

Ears 1

Bridge

Asymmetry

Ears 2

Eyes

Ears 3

Lids

Gums

Dimples

Forehead

Hairline

Teeth

Lines*

Smile

 

Front teeth*

 

 

6

5

4

There was some difficulty in deciding the analysis of her mouth and teeth so the decision was made not to classify them at this stage, making her ORANGE (Syco-psora)

Rubrics
MIND; AILMENTS from; mortification, humiliation, chagrin
MIND, SENSITIVE, OVERSENSITIVE
MIND; WEEPING, tearful mood; tendency
GENERALITIES; HEAT; vital, lack of
GENERALITIES; INFLAMMATION; internally
BLADDER; URGING to urinate, morbid desire; frequent
STOOL; FORCIBLE, sudden, gushing
STOOL; COLOR; green
MIND; AILMENTS from; mortification, humiliation, chagrin

Nat Mur 1M single dose was given.

11/4/06
Rosie said she had still been extremely chilly and had developed a deep cough, with tightness in the chest. She was finding it hard to breathe.
Her frequency to urinate was still urgent and 'awful' and she had become more incontinent with this urgency - not being able to get to a toilet in time.

She felt better in herself with her mood elevated and a sense of calmness. She felt she was talking to her husband on a much more intimate level and felt more 'inner peace'.

No treatment was given at this stage - decided to wait.

3/5/06
Urging to urinate more frequent than ever. Urine was a strong steady stream, and smelt strongly of ammonia. She was now unable to hold on now when the urgency hit her. She was urinating small amounts/often up to 7 times a night, and hourly during the day.
She felt +++humiliated by this.
She > sleep, rugging up.

Diverticulitis was still there and her doctor was suggesting she have an operation. She was very reluctant to do this. The pain was still dull and worse for any pressure.
She was still bloated.
Diarrhoea was greenish, gushing and stools runny.
She was breathless and was wheezing < exertion, < dust, < cold.
She felt +++tired, with energy levels very low.
Her appetite had diminished and she was thirstless.

Her facial analysis was redone, this time adding in an overbite (Blue) for the shape of her teeth, making her BROWN (Cancer).

RUBRICS
BLADDER; URGING to urinate, morbid desire (K652, G558) (Pain; urination; before - urinate, during urging to)
BLADDER; URINATION; involuntary
STOMACH; THIRSTLESSNESS
GENERALITIES; WEAKNESS, enervation, exhaustion, prostration, infirmity
RESPIRATION; WHEEZING
MIND; AILMENTS from; mortification, humiliation, chagrin
GENERALITIES; WARMTH; desires (SII-691) (32) : ars., caust., colch., hep., kali-c., sabad.
URINE; ODOR; strong

Causticum 1M single dose was given

31/5/06
No change to the bladder
Thumbs have been very painful - arthritic +++sharp and constant pain. Also in hips and knees +++ < cold
Feels very chilly and extremely cold
Diarrhoea is gushing, watery and lumpy
+++Breathlessness - changeable and variable
< inhalation
< on waking
Feels she can't breathe and it is causing anxiety

FACIAL ANALYSIS 3

Yellow (Psora)

Red (Sycosis)

Blue (Syphilis)

Ears 1

Bridge

Asymmetry

Ears 2

Eyes

Ears 3

Lids

Gums

Dimples

Forehead

Hairline

Teeth

 

Smile

Cheek bones

 

Line*

Overbite

4

5

6

*What a difference the wrong classification can make however it does happen. When a patient hasn't had a significant improvement it is important to check the analysis - the wrong miasm = a poor result.

The two lines in forehead in photo were adjusted after reanalysis face-to-face. Only one single line (therefore changed to red), and large front teeth were set to blue because of the deformity in shape. Her cheekbones were added. They were not visible on the photos but in person were quite strong.
MIASM - PURPLE (Syco-syphilis)

RUBRICS
GENERALITIES; SUDDEN manifestations (57)
BLADDER; URGING to urinate, morbid desire; frequent (236)
BLADDER; URINATION; frequent (272)
EXTREMITY PAIN; JOINTS (310)
ABDOMEN; INFLAMMATION, peritonitis, enteritis (292)
GENERALITIES; HEAT; vital, lack of (219)
RESPIRATION; DIFFICULT (420)
RECTUM; DIARRHEA (444)

All mental rubrics were removed and replaced with large general rubrics. In this way the remedy required is more likely to be found. Remedies that came up from this repertorisation were Lyc, Apis, Phos, Ars, Acon, Bar C, Kali B, Canth, Camph, Ign, Nit Ac, Thuja, Cact, Plb, Verat, Stann, Amm Carb, Con, Mez, Petr, Spig, Ran B, Cimic, Ox Ac, Sul Ac

The only known Purple remedies in this group were Nit Ac and Veratrum. A number of unclassified remedies were showing, however Cantharis (well known for urination symptoms) and mentioned as a possible Purple remedy by Grant Bentley was of interest.

RX - CANTHARIS 200c single dose

7/6/06
Still a little chilly
Incontinence is intermittent
Slight pain in joints
Breathlessness worse in morning (had gone away but recently returned)
Less anxiety
Diarrhoea had gone away, returned twice in the past week, gushing again
Stool is pungent - lime green and gurgling
Bladder symptoms have been much, much better - down to ¼ of what they were. Feeling great but dry throat all last week resulted in Laryngitis and stayed in bed all day.
Throat still a little hoarse but voice returned quickly.
WAIT

28/6/06
Has been a lot warmer since the remedy, and the urgency is now completely DIFFERENT. She was able to go up to four hours without urgency, and not waking up at night at all.
+++ she felt significantly better, probably because she has slept all night without waking to go to the toilet.
Throat symptoms cleared up quickly - no longer chesty and no asthmatic symptoms.
She feels her recuperative powers are strong.

She does feel forgetful - has been losing things (very normal for her)
No pain in her left side, no sudden gushings, no urgings
She laughingly mentions 'my libido has increased too' - with her sensations different and she feels very loving to husband
WAIT - no treatment

5/7/06
Still feeling very warm, in fact not wearing any thermals any more. She is still sleeping through the night. +++Urge to urinate quite strong though and is wearing panty liners again. Urine is in small dribbles and she needs to go 4 or 5 times a day.
There is significantly less pain in her wrists.
All gushings/diarrhoea has gone
Throat infection has cleared up marvellously. Whenever she gets a throat infection the usual pattern is for it to linger for weeks and weeks. This time it just went away very quickly, without deteriorating into her chest. There had been a significant decrease in her breathlessness and wheezing.
She was still feeling peaceful and relaxed even though she had had an enormous week at work Her bladder had been holding up better, being able to last up to five hours (and had managed to sleep through the night), but is becoming an issue again.
She was not waking frequently at night, and was having vivid dreams. She felt her clairvoyance ability had heightened (she now mentions she has always had this, but usually tries to ignore it).
She feels receptive, sensing things now and more intuitive. She is conscious of 'messages coming to her'
Repeat CANTHARIS 200c

26/7/06
Rosie dropped in for a chat (no appointment). Her bladder is becoming inconsistent again. She is incontinent 'consistently'
+++sudden urge to go - can't hold it at all now
Frequency every hour
Has to go at least three times a night - no pattern to it
Wrists aching pain 2/10, stabbing pain
Bladder is painless
CANTHARIS 10M - single dose (Note 1M was not available hence the jump to 10M)
Advised to call next week (or earlier if necessary). Retreat in 4 weeks time

23/8/06
Bladder has been AMAZING - says it has been transformed!
Chilliness completely gone - much, much warmer now. Extreme sense of urgency re bladder GONE.
Has many nights where doesn't have to go to the toilet at all
Sleep prolonged - feels body needs it now. Doesn't have to move
No diverticulitis symptoms
No nausea
No reaction, even though home has been a bit stressful
Wrists were aching more both left and right -more acute, but ok now.
NO TREATMENT - Wait. Call if required

December 2006
Rosie is still doing very, very well. The remedy started to wane, and after repeating the same dose (October - Cantharis 10M), it didn't hold for as long as we had hoped (even though some of the previous results were still great). She also had an ache in her thumbs/wrists which wouldn't go, so I decided to change the remedy to Staphisagria 1M single dose (Staphysagria featured in all rubrics except "sudden manifestations" - a Purple remedy and known for bladder problems). The results have been even more remarkable. No bladder issues, no diverticulitis at all, no aching wrist/thumbs, sleep is fantastic, and she is smiling A LOT. She admits herself that she has been completely in awe of the results as she only half believed Homoeopathy would do any good. Last spoke to her mid November - doing very well!

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