Colic and headache

Colic and headache 

 Case no. 3 

- BENERJEE.P
 Mr.-; a blacksmith; age 30 or 31. Had acquired gonorrhœa at the age of 21, and it was cured (?) by Ayurvedic medicines. Was practically in good health since then, except that he developed a colic from which he had been suffering for the last three years. This colic was not however, so severe in the beginning but it had become rather serious now.
 Symptoms:-The colic was just above the umbelicus. It was a pricking, stitching pain, ameliorated by hard pressure, by lying on the abdomen, and by application of heat. There was no particular time for the onset, but it used to come on generally in the afternoon. If vomiting could be induced by introducing the finger into the throat, the pain would be relieved at once. A late meal in the night used to cause distress at times. Walking about during the colic also relieved it at times, as this induced passage of flatus per anus and it was the passing of flatus that used to bring immediate relief. Cold weather and cold in any form were not tolerated. This susceptibility to cold was not so pronounced before, but it had grown remarkably since the acquirement of gonorrhœa. Heat was preferred, and the patient liked the fire while working in the smithy.

 Magnesia Phos.-200, one dose every morning for a few days, but there were yet 4 or 5 attacks of pain, in course of the day. Two doses of the 30th potency were then tried. There was some improvement then, but it lasted for 3 days only, and the pain returned again at the rate of 4 or 5 fits every day. The 30th and the 200th potencies were thus tried practically without any benefit. Then Sulphur, both in the 30th and 200th potency, was given, but to no purpose. There was no change. This made the patient impatient, and his people too; and some injection was being contemplated. One dose of Thuja-200 was given, and this caused a disappearance of the pain for 5 or 6 days, but there was no re-appearance of gonorrhœal discharge yet. Then one dose of Kali Carb-1000, and from the very next day the colic began to grow less and less, and then gradually re-appeared the suppressed (cured by Ayurvedic medicines!) gonorrhœa, and in 15 or 16 days' time, the colic was totally gone. Instead of a colic patient, he became a gonorrhœa patient now. A whole phial of placebo to be taken one dose morning and evening was given. The discharge ran on, and then appeared a severe headache. But it was not a new appearance. The patient stated at this stage, that he had a similar headache before the acquirement of gonorrhœa.

  However, the gonorrhœal discharge and the headache continued for about two long months. Then the discharge stopped gradually, while the headache continued on. No medicine was however given at this stage. Then disappeared the headache after the lapse of another month, but the colic returned again. This was a return of the stage on which the first dose of Kali Carb was given, and was therefore an indication for a repetition of the same medicine. Another dose of Kali Carb-1000 was repeated. No action was visible even after 10 or 12 days; and another dose again, but no action even after a whole month. Kali Carb-10m, three doses in three days were given, and this brought back the discharge again in 7 or 8 days' time. Along with the discharge came also the headache, and with this fresh re-appearance of an old symptom, the colic was relieved. Thus continued the disappearance of the colic and the re-appearance of the old symptom, and the disappearance of the old symptom and the re-appearance of the colic, for about 6 long months, when at last all the three-colic, gonorrhœa and headache made their final disappearance never to return. All medicine was then stopped, and no report of the return of these symptoms was ever received afterwards.

 Remarks:-
 (1) There can be no cure of a gonorrhœa patient without a bringing back of the suppressed discharge.
 (2) The appearance and disappearance of the old symptoms in this case are simply remarkable.
 (3) There was no difference in the modality of the miasmatic and local symptoms of the patient. The patient himself had a liking for heat, while the colic also was relieved by heat. The patient had not, however, this liking for heat before the acquirement of gonorrhœa, and as such, it was a valuable symptom. If there was any difference between the modality of the miasmatic element of the patient on the one hand, and the modality of the local symptoms on the other, the selection would have been decided by the miasmatic modality, because the prescription in a chronic case, must be miasmatic besides being in accordance with the totality of symptoms.

 (4) "Relief from passage of flatus" is a characteristic symptom of Kali Carb, and it seems to me that the selection of all the other remedies-Magnesia Phos. and Thuja etc.-was not quite correct and that Kali Carb should have been the first remedy to be prescribed.
 (5) The patient did not give indication of satisfactory re-action from low potencies, and it was for this reason that Kali Carb was given at once in the 1000th potency. And when no re-action was perceived from 1000th, 10m had to be tried. If after the dose of 10m there had been a return of the symptoms (on which the first prescription was made), c.m.  would have been given. But there was no return, and as such, it is doubtful if a complete miasmatic cure was effected, as 10m is too low a potency to effect a radical cure. If however, there was no return of the symptoms even after c.m.  the certain conclusion would have been, that the patient was cured of the Sycotic element, as the c.m.  potency is high enough to act on the miasmatic plane. This is science.