The Stressed Autocrat
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 Sep / Oct VOL 5 NO 5.
Dr Vishpala Parthasarathy
'Kali-c / Thuja

In the early years of my practice, a lady aged 50 came to me, first in 1983-84 with asthma of 19 years standing, rheumatoid arthritis of 2 years, a lumbar and cervical spondylitis and sciatica. She took medicine sporadically, with some improvement for a year or so and then discontinued Homoeoathy and went through the whole gamut of steroids etc for the next decade or so.
Again in Aug of 1997, a full 13 years later, she came back, having given me a chance to fully mature and come into my own. I dug out her old case (so far I have been able to store all my cases and it is now 22 years!) and found that the prescription was still valid, her personality was still Kali-carb, but now I added to this some nosodes, some acutes, and the Vishpala-brand of counseling, and lo and behold ! the patient improved immensely.
With this brief introduction, I will now outline the case.
Her asthma, which usually came on in winter, damp, working in water and with sour, worse at 2-3 am or 11 pm, better sitting and warm drinks and accompanied by weakness, was now better and she had rare attacks.

Complaints:
Her main complaints now were :
1) pain, stiffness and swelling of the knee- began with [L] and now more on [R]
2) Both wrist pain-[L]3 [R]2
3) Backache with affection of L3-L4.
4) Thumb - very stiff and does not bend.
Pains - worst in the morning on waking, on walking, bending and squatting and sour food. Better rest and covers.

Patient As A Person: She was obese, 97 kg, with a tendency to bruising and suppuration.
Craving - for ice-cream, spices and sour.
Menstruation - She was menopausal since age of 45, with accompanying flushes and heat.
Mentals: Very irritable, fastidious, methodical and out spoken. She likes to speak out and clear misunderstandings. Recently she has become very weepy, and depressed. Very obstinate, strong willed and impatient.

Life-Story: She came from a Hindu Bengali family, converted to Christianity in her grandfather's time. Born in Calcutta, in 1933, the youngest of 17 children! So naturally, the father died when patient was young and she was brought up by brothers and sisters. She was in Calcutta till her 4th std in boarding school, but the climate did not suit her asthma and she was shifted to Bihar. She had a love marriage, a Catholic too, and came to Bombay in 1955.
Worked as a teacher and a telephone operator for some years.
When her children were small and her son was very mischievous, and no support from the husband, she had a lot of tension. Later she had major tensions with her daughter-in-law, who got pregnant before marriage, and was also very obstinate, so created a lot of stress even after marraige..

Understanding Of The Case:
1) When she came to me, her ESR was 50 and RA test was -ve. The pathology, therefore was not very advanced and chances of improvement were strong. 2) Her autocratic and fastidious nature pointed to Carcinocin along with Kali-carb as the constitutional Rhus-tox and Ruta as acutes. OA Nosode was the other intercurrent.

The patient is still under treatment, but well on the way to recovery. Here the Nosode and the counseling played a major role in her improvement.

Structure:

CASE 2: Another lady of 38, married with 2 children 13 and 6, came in Dec 96 with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She had early menopause in1995 when she was only 36 and her joint pain began in both her knees, then fingers and wrists. Pain, swelling and stiffness, worse in the morning, in sleep, while resting and in water; better when she was working. She also had abdomen pain every month, as if the menses would appear, with lower back pain, weakness and drowsiness.
Nothing else was very significant, except that she had recently become very irritable with brooding, had disturbed sleep with dreams of falling. She was a hot patient.
This case was solved by taking into account her menopause state, leading to joint affection. This clearly pointed to the Sycotic miasm playing havoc.
The selection to the anti-sycotic remedy was confirmed by the dreams of falling.

Follow-Up: She was given Rhus-tox to cover the acute totality followed by Thuj 200 - single doses. She improved well. has no pains., no swelling Abcominal pains are also better.
I have taken these 2 cases to show the different approaches used and the role of miasmsleasding to the intercurrent remedy, for the same disease.