A Case of Thuja occidentalis
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1996 Sep / Oct Vol V No 5. 
Mishra S C.
Cases.
` Thuj

"Oh what is it Sir, you know , these a small tiny buds of cauliflower growth stuck to your chin and neck ? These are warts, I presume. Please take thujaand they will simply  vanish." Nobody wonders today at this sort of layman prescription and I can say Thuja is the main medicine which has played an important role in popularising Homoeopathy. Even the practitioners of conventional medicine prescribe this medicine at random to their patients for shedding warts.

This can be called the first letter of the present day Homoeopathic alphabet as it is mostly required to be administered to open a case. Because most of the patients, now a days, come from other pathies and are exhausted, transfixed (moving round and round reaching nowhere at all, sad, hopeless, and cannot find a better direction to move any further). Here in such a condition an antisycotic medicine comes to his rescue, breaks the circle and established the path to recovery.

When a patient of chronic disease comes to you, it is difficult to assume the point where to start.

Throw a sycotic stone in the dense bush of his symptoms by giving some anti-sycotic remedy like Arsenic, Thuja, Staphys, Silica, Nit Acid. When the sycotic manifestation is pacified, then only you can knock at the door of another miasm peeping through the patient. It is an interesting adventure full of thrill and joy to peel off the miasmatic layers of the patient one by one and establish harmony in him.

No "Psoric haste", please. A new case is like a new bride who has to be unveiled softly, slowly, cautiously to win her heart; otherwise involvement with Psoric instigation at first sight may endanger both the patient and physician. So it is always better to play safe, go slow and steady with sycotic prescription.

Most of the Homoeopaths use this medicine to open the case especially when it comes from an allopathic hand.

In my practice too, I have seen this medicine acting marvellously well to eliminate the after effects of modern drugs, so much so that I need not use any other medicine in some cases.

As an example, I can cite a case study where I had not prescribed any other medicine after Thuja :.

Case 1:

Baby Sakshi, aged 3 years, used to soil her panty every day. She passed urine in a proper place but would never go to the latrine for passing stool, nor would pass it any where else. She had been trained well in many ways by her parents and grand parents but this habit remained incorrigible for about a year or so. For such acts, she had been punished many times and also lured by chocolate box and new dresses etc., but all in vain. Whenever she had an urge for stool she would go to one dark corner of her house (secretiveness) and wait there for passing stool in her panty till someone discovered her in this act.

Apparently she looked deplorably quite and silent, pulling a helpless face. In such a situation her grand parents used to come to her rescue from her mothers punishing hand. The child is very intelligent, sensitive, fair complexioned. Enquiry about her behaviour in the house revealed that she is extremely afraid of her uncle her father s young brother. He used to derive pleasure by terrifying small children and enjoy their fearful state. So whenever she refused milk and food, her mother used to threaten her by calling her uncle and the poor child had to gulp all of the milk, to the last drop in the glass without a word.

The child has been vaccinated as usual as per the health programme and no ill effects are found but the child had already become a sycotic subject as revealed by her behaviour.

ANALYSIS OF THE CASE.

The sight of stool must have been very condemnable and irksome to the patients mind. She might have taken defection work to be a nasty one which may call for punishment. Or, she might be thinking that she must not do any such work that would invite her scolding (Fear of being punished). Specially the fear of seeing her uncle in a furious mood might have perturbed her resulting in suppression of her normal reaction to the call of nature. Nevertheless she could not check it too and so she passed stool in her panty helplessly (feeling of incapability and cover up- Rajan Sankaran) or, she might have formed a guilt complex ( K 51 ), Reproaching herself ( K 71). Whatever may be the reason for her abnormal behaviour the sycotic condition and Thuja peeps in through the case. Along with this, Thuja has a strong mental symptoms of using wrong expression (Clarkes MM) which is vivid in this case. I gave her 4 doses of Thuja 200 to be taken once daily in the morning.

After the 4th dose of Thuja the childs urination increased. She could not check the urge of micturition during the day even but she started passing stool in latrine. No other medicine was given thereafter and after a fortnight I found the parents and grand parents of the child celebrating her cure with a dinner party in a posh hotel.

CASE 2:

Intractable vomiting.

Baba Rashu Jain, aged 10 months had been suffering from persistent vomiting since the age of 4 months for no apparent reason. In the beginning he was vomiting milk immediately or after some time of feeding. He was a breast fed child. Recently, after he started taking semi-solid food, he vomited solids retaining water in the stomach. the childs weight was not increasing at all. His chest X-ray and abdominal sonography revealed no abnormality. His parents became worried and frustrated of conventional treatment after visiting repute specialists of the city. Having no other way out, they decided to try Homoeopathic treatment and consulted me on 21/7/96 with the following history:.

F.T.N.D.

Vomiting of solids but retains liquid.
Stool : normal.
Appetite : good.
Mood : playful.
Sleep: good.
No H/o measles etc till date.
F/H : His father is a businessman and his insomnia and headache. Mother lean and thin. Grand parents are O.K.

On inquiring about the mothers health during pregnancy, she revealed that she had one abortion between 3-4 months when she went to Goa on an excursion tour from Jabalpur. After that when she conceived for the second time for this child she had been advised by her gynaecologist, to take bed rest to prevent any miscarriage. The pregnant mother had naturally an anxiety and fear of abortion this time. Also, she had been suffering from mental agony due to harsh criticism by her in-laws after the abortion.

I could not collect any other information or clues to base my prescription to cure this child of intractable vomiting since 6 months.

The only symptom was " Vomiting solids only" Phatak (page 400) which indicated Arn, Bry, Cup, Ferr, Sep, Ver-a, Kents repertory (Page 539) indicates Bry, Cupr and Verat only.

Looking at the physical appearance of the child mother and her history of abortion at 3-4 months (Abortion 4th month to 7th month Phataks rep, page no 7- Sep) I selected Sep for trial.

The child was given four doses of Sep 200, daily one dose every morning.

After a week, his parents reported that the child had stopped vomiting after the medicine and there was no recurrence of it till date.