Dear FF,

Ok, here we go. First comes the etiology. Etiology over-rules the totality of symptoms.
If your headache symptoms, or internal bleeding are from an injury, the remedy is Arnica, I don't care what the symptoms are. Don't waste time repertorizing "left-sided headache, better pressure, and so on, just give Arnica! If your headache came after a loss, don't bother repertorizing it, just give Ignatia. If ignatia doesn't work, then you can start examining the symptoms more closely, but, Ignatia is our big remedy for acute loss or grief. So, when a person says, "I have a headache," your first question should be: When did it start? What was going on in your life around the time that you got it? Any weather changes, any sort of stress, anything you might have eaten, etc.? Do you always get this complaint or is this something new?

Then you ask about onset. If a complaint comes on suddenly, this is a very good tip off as to what the remedy might be. Three remedies come to mind for sudden onset: Aconite, Belladonna and Baptisia. The Bapt. state is very besotted/septic, so easily distinguishable from Bell and Aco. So, just by knowing that there was a sudden onset, already you're down to three remedies.

After that, here's your list:
1. the medical diagnosis
2. sensation
3. location
4. modalities
5. concomitants
6. discharges--color, odor, consistency
7. mental state as it departs from normal

If the patient is always anxiety-ridden, then the fact that they're anxiety-ridden during their illness will not help you find a remedy. If a patient is always thirsty for cold drinks, then the fact that they are thirsty for cold drinks during their illness will not help you find a remedy.

Having some good therapeutic books rather than a repertory will really help you in prescribing for these cases. After two hundred years of experience, homeopaths have pretty much gotten a handle on what the remdedies are going to be for
asthma, croup, earaches, flus, sinusitis and so on, and a good therapeutic book will have a whole list of the remedies and their indications after each illness, and all you do is go down the list and say, "Yep, this is the one! Restless, burning pains, fearful, clingy, thirsty for sips of water...yep, it's gotta be arsenicum!" There's no point repertorizing that when you can find out simply in seconds or minutes.

Snoopy

[ 01. July 2003, 16:39: Message edited by: Snoopy ]