Casual Remarks led to Similimum
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 Mar / Apr VOL VIII NO 2.
Dr Rama Hariharan
'Kali-carb

Introduction: Here are two cases where chance and spontaneous remarks of patients only led to the similimum and better health. Till then I was treating them with no relief.

Case 1:
On 4-6-96, Mr AB, my neighbour's 26-year-old driver, complained of pain in the knees, elbows, shoulders and hips since one year. The knee pain has persisted off and on ever since he fell off a bicycle in childhood. Now the pain had gotten bad. It was worse standing, walking for long, sitting cross-legged and > slow walking. Other joint pains come and go with no specific modalities.

Patient as a Person:
He hates summers, sweat +++ and gets constipated in summer despite a large intake of water, fruits, vegetable and greens. Aversion to sweets, no alcohol, tea, coffee or cigarettes.

Past History: chickenpox and jaundice.
Family History: Not significant
Mind: Ever smiling, he loves the company of family and friends, though is a little reserved with strangers. He is very sensitive to anything said or done to him which he thinks unjust; this happens often. He becomes angry then and walks away from the scene with his whole body trembling. But he never shows his anger and hates fights. He wanted to be a driver since childhood, taught himself to drive and learnt car maintenance.

Towards the end of the case taking, he casually mentioned that there was burning during urination though the flow is unimpeded. He also said how he missed his wife who had gone to her village for the delivery of their first child, and was not expected to return for many months. The intensity and character of his anger and sensitivity to other's remarks, trying to always be a gentleman, clinched by his remarks about missing his wife and the burning, led me to prescribe Staph 200 - 3 mornings.

19.06.96 He came in smiling - only a little hip pain remained. SL
26.06.96 Intense pain in knees after getting drenched in the rains Rhus-tox 200 TDS for 3 days followed with Med 200 1 dose to remove the miasmatic block.
Till date he has no complaints.

Case 2:
A 52-year-old thin, wiry lady, always neatly dressed, constantly complained of pains in all her joints. She was my mother's maid since many years. The joint pains were present since approx. 15 years.
< Cold, rains
> Warmth, hard pressure.
She had numbness, sometimes.
Always chilly; suffered from blind piles when younger. This mother of 4 girls and grandmother of 5 did have a history of Dysmenorrhoea but was now menopausal since 4 years.

Mind: Extremely hard working, she was also very clean and scrupulously honest. Despite her children being well settled in life, she was not at all demanding from them; but "keeping up with the Jones's" was an all consuming passion. She ate and lived very frugally with a very silent husband and was never satisfied with whatever was given to her and was eternally in debt. She worked in 4 houses, going twice daily to each house, sometimes even thrice. No work was too much for her. But she was eternally envious about her neighbour's lavish life style and felt she herself was under paid. Whenever my parents would suggest that she retire or work in lesser number of houses she would be offended and work even harder.
The case was repertorised from Kent's

Rubrics:

The so-called indicated remedy was chosen and given many times but there was no change. I retook the case several times, tried Sulph, Med, Tub, Rescue Remedy to "break the case" but the relief would only be partial and temporary. This went on for 2 years. Last year when I was visiting my parents, she casually mentioned that she felt as if her stomach was full of water and that her aches and pains were so excruciating that she was getting weak. Still she refused to quit or cut down her workload as she had "given her word" to all the houses.

Suddenly the remedy emerged... KENT'S REP pg 540: stomach, water, sensation full of. Kali-carb is given in block letters. I gave Kali-carb in 200 potency OD X 3 days. 1 month later she asked for some more of "that last medicine" as the aches and pains were still there but in lesser intensity. So Kali-carb 200 was repeated OD X 3 days and again the next month. The following month, she had stopped working in 1 house, switched to cooking in another and even brought a young acquaintance to replace her at my mother's place!! She still meets my mother often and volunteers to come when there are too many guests or to take care of the house when she is out of town, but no longer comes for routine work.