A case of Glaucoma
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1998 Mar / Apr VOL VII NO 2.
Dr Satish Rana
'Phos

A thin lady in her thirties came in Feb '96 for severe headaches. For the last one year she was wearing spectacles with power : [L] eye : 1.5 D; [R] eye : 0.5 D 
Sobbing, she narrated the story of her illness, which started from a minor fall from the stairs. 

In Dec 1994 while getting down, she suddenly lost her vision, with slight vertigo and slipped down some 6-8 steps. She had some contusions and abrasions near the [L] side of her cheek. In Jan 1995 she again felt loss of vision followed by severe headache. Consulted a G.P who after checking her BP, gave some medicines and advised an ophthalmic check up. In March 1995 she was operated for iridectomy. Still, there was sudden loss of vision inspite of regular intake of oral medication and eye drops.

The day she visited me, she suffered very severe headache, followed by total loss of vision. She had vomited thrice with pain in abdomen. At first I considered it as a case of acute abdomen and finding the patient chilly and irritable thought of prescribing Nux-vom. But, instead I just prescribed a few doses of Sac-lac and advised her to see an ophthalmologist at Jalandhar and to report after 2 days. She never came. I met her after a week, by chance, in the market with her husband. On inquiry, she said that the ophthalmologist had advised one more similar operation. Patient was worried. I asked her to visit my clinic the next day and promised to save her from operation. This was my blind faith; I had not even seen the reports. To my surprise she was suffering from Glaucoma with the intraocular pressure of 28 mm of Hg. After her case taking, the choice of remedies lay between Phosphorous, Pulsatilla and Nux- vomica.Then I suddenly came across a rubric vitreous, glaucoma, after Iridectomy on pg 231 of Knerr's Repertory. Here, only two medicines are indicated - Calab and Phos. 

I administered a dose of Phosphorous 1M, considering her constitution, her thermal state [chilly] and her sympathetic nature, plus causative factor- Iridectomy. It took about three four months to get completely cured with that single dose of Phos 1M and Sac lac of course. 

Comment: Calab i.e. Calabar bean is the common name of Physostigma which is said to be a specific medicine for Glaucoma in the Homoeopathic circles. Therefore, I avoided using a specific. I could have tried to use it on the base of cause but the other symptoms and the constitution were not indicative. Hence Phos was the similimum. As there was improvement in patient's general health, I preferred not to frighten the patient to send her to the surgeon for tonometry. However, the last report of her tonometry was 21 mm of Hg when the patient was advised to stop all medicines i.e. sac lac. 

(Issue editor comments: It is good that Phos worked. The premise that Iridectomy was the cause of Glaucoma is NOT correct. If Dr Rana goes through the history, she had similar symptoms in 1995 for which Iridectomy was performed. Iridectomy is a surgery to facilitate drainage of Aqueous Humor. This patient had Glaucoma since 1994. It is advisable to keep a constant watch on her IO pressure (1/6mths), as next time she may not be so lucky to get symptoms; she may lose her vision - completely and permanently.)