about six months ago, I began seeing a homeopath. She has tried several remedies with minimal results. August 2001- First remedy caused an aggravation, with no positive results. Oct 2001 -new remedy, similar results. November 28,2001 -new remedy, no aggravation. Short lived positive results for two of my chronic problems. (Asthma improved markedly for about one hour, very unusual for me. Leg pains improved for a few days.) Emotional outlook exceptionally positive for about 30 min, five days after taking remedy.(sorry I do not know remedy or dose). Six days ago I began another remedy (actually it may be the same as the last remedy, I'm not sure).

I am being judicious about avoiding mint, coffee, eucalyptus, etc.

Current dose has again relieved (about 75%) my leg pains, but otherwise no other changes in my case.

My question is: Is it reasonable for the "right"remedy to only address one symptom? What if the improvement lasts only a short time as in my case?

Thanks for your help,
Merl

This is a difficult one. The similimum (your exact constitutional remedy) would address all your problems but this is very difficult to find these days because of all the pollution , vaccines,stress etc we subject ourselves to. The remedy that gave the aggravation was probably a similar remedy and may have brought out the next remedy more clearly. As for the one that you had the most improvement from I would have repeated it at the same potency to see if that improvement could be replicated. If not or if it was short lived again I would have gone up a potency before deciding on another remedy.

If a well chosen remedy still fails to hold I would then be looking for a miasmic remedy which would alleviate a blockage after which the remedy may well work .
Have your energy levels improved at all while on homeopathic treatment.

__________________
RSHom - Registered Homeopath

Ricky thank you very much for your detailed answer. My emotional, mental and energy have been unchanged over the entire course of treatment except for the short time I mentioned.

One other note -- in September I took a 30C dose of a remedy for an acute and had a marvelous attitude change(for the better) that lasted about three days. I mentioned this to my homeopath in November and after going over the remedy she planned to give me and the one that I took for the acute, she thought they probably had equal chances of working. We agreed to try "hers" first and then the other if hers had no effect. This is the only remedy that has ever had a substantial mental effect on me.

Hi Merl,
Nice to see you post again after all that hoopla! I think Snoopy, or someone, will pick up on this 30C, improving your mental state, 3 day timing and suggest checking what that remedy was and thinking in terms of dissolving a pellet in water for repeated doses (maybe every three days) with succussions for a few doses. Were there any physical improvements at all with the "attitude change"?

Hope things are going OK for you.

__________________
Sometimes on Earth, you can find something that resembles a little piece of Heaven. And sometimes on Earth, a little piece of Heaven can find you.

sorry. double post.

[ 08 February 2002, 05:27: Message edited by: Merl ]

Hi gpm,

Nice to be back. Support is always welcome. Hard to say about the physical changes with the 30C as I was in the midst of a major respiratory acute. It was an amazing thing, really. The symptoms changed so much over the course of 2 days. I was one sick cookie. Since asthma was my most constant chronic condition (the only one, at the time, that I knew would be with me all day every day) and since all respiratory events increase my asthmatic symptoms, it's hard to tell whether or not any improvement in my chronic conditions happened, for sure. If I had to guess, I would say , "No."
The positive mental change was so amazing, though. It was as if I had a cheerleader in my head telling me anything was possible all the time. Good deal, huh?

My homeopath seems at a loss. She wants to see me on the 25th of this month. I don't know
what to do. Clearly I am not a homeopath and have no opinion on the proper course of action. I am a fairly quick learner, though. And I trust my instincts. And this 30C that had such an impact on me keeps nagging at me (especially since my homeopath agrees that it fits my case as well as what she's given me).

I really wrote to you all because I wanted to know if what she was doing was a reasonable course of action. I don't want to start all over again with another homeopath. However, I don't want to waste precious time if she's not making good decisions for me. I will move on if I have to.

I don't really think I can take anything right now as I'm only 6 days into my current remedy. No one would have any idea what was what if I started taking something else at the same time, would they?

By the way, I gave myself the 30C so I know what it was ...It was Merc. Viv.

deleted

[ 25. September 2002, 02:32: Message edited by: Tomi Conner ]

Hi Tomi,
I can assure you that my homeopath has taken my complete case, boy has she! From the beginning three times. Hours and hours and more hours. To me she seems a bit stumped and frustrated. Currently I think that she's annoyed with me, but we'll get over that.
As far as my mentals go...depression is perhaps my biggest problem, but also (even during the times when I am not depressed) lack of energy, guilt and anger.
Perhaps I didn't describe the positive mental response from the Merc. Viv. well. Without it, I regularly have my own voice in my head basically telling me my shortcomings ( either in a nagging way, telling me I'm wasting time, being impatient, not doing a good enough job, etc. or in a sneaky way having me make lists of all the things I'm going to do to make myself better). On the three "cheerleader" days that I mentioned, none of that was going on. I was much more gentle with myself, the way I am with other people who need loving encouragement to get a job done. Mind you these are not auditory hallucinations. These are just the "tapes" that I allow to run in my head. Do you understand?
It has now been 11 days since I took my last dose of a remedy and I have improvement only in my sore knee (which was a very recent physical complaint---just started in the beginning of January). All of my other symptoms remain unchanged.

Hi Merl,

Glad to see you back! So....You say you took Merc. 30C and for three days you felt very positive? What happened after that, did it just fizzle? There's a well-known homeopath, Steve Olsen, ND, who regular gives 30C's once every 3 days, and I think he would say after day 3 that it was time for your next dose of Merc. So what happened, after it wore off did you just move on to another remedy? I would have stuck with the Merc. as this is the kind of response we're looking for. Hopefully you can go back to that, but I would put it in water this time--to raise the potency, as you may otherwise not respond again--and I would succuss the bottle 10 times before each dose to prevent antidoting the remedy. I hope you're able to return to Mercury soon.

How's Joe? Did he ever try Sulphur?

Snoopy

Hi Snoopy,

So here's the story of the merc 30C ...I was "between" constitutional remedies. Had my appointment with my homeopath while I was terribly ill with an acute. Temp>102, terrible headache,many respiratory symptoms. My homeopath insists that my constitutional should take care of any acutes (but we , of course, must actually find my constitutional first.). She had already decided that the last remedy had not worked and I was waiting for her to send the next. I was so sick that I decided, against what I thought would be her wishes, to dose myself the best I could with my first aid kit. I would take a different remedy each time the symptoms changed. Went through 4 or 5 in a two day period. Merc Viv was the last I took. I took nothing after that because I expected my new constitutional to arrive in the mail any day and I didn't want to mess it up. Wrote to my homepath (via e-mail) and let her know what I had done and what the results were. She didn't have much of a reaction, which surprised me because I thought I was on to something. So, I figured, "What do I know?", and proceeded according to her plan.

That was mid to late Sept. That remedy didn't do anything, but she wouldn't accept that until we'd waited til the end of Nov. At that point I reminded her of what had happened when I took the Merc and she looked it up with me in her office. We compared it with the unnamed remedy that she planned to give me. They seemed equal in terms of a match with me. She went with her remedy because she had it with her. Said we could try the Merc in two weeks if her remedy didn't have an effect.

As far as I know she still hasn't given me the Merc. Maybe the remedy I just started Feb 1st is it because it's the first remedy that she's given me that had any positive effect at all. It seems to have improved an arthritic knee. My mentals and most of my physicals remain unchanged. I certainly have not had that same wonderful feeling of all my burdens being lifted / everything being manageable that I experienced in Sept.

I hope to get back on Merc soon, too. (If that's the right remedy for me) That's why I started this thread. I wanted some expert input on how she's handling my case. Clearly I am in no position to know. She may be doing exactly what Ricky said she would do. That'd probably be good. I trust Ricky's advice.
I see her again on the 25th. I want to know what to make of all this by then.

On the subject of Joe. No he never did try the sulphur. Interestingly enough, he has mostly turned back into a human being. I trace the change in him back to me going back to work.
He is very money oriented. Also, always seemed to harbor a resentment of my being able to stay home.Never did quite get that whole "I was working my buns off 24/7 raising kids" concept. Anyway, he turned into a different person when I went back to work (well, almost.--he still regresses at times...like this past two weeks. Who knows what sets him off. Interesting to watch. Not so interesting to live through).

Sorry about the long post. I'm nothing if not thorough. Merl

[ 21 February 2002, 22:06: Message edited by: Merl ]