A Trying Situation
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 May / Jun VOL VIII NO 3.
Dr Supriya Nayak
'

A crisis arose when my 31/2-year-old son suffered from acute bacillary dysentery, with frequent, loose, mucoid and bloody stools, at times accompanied by fever, projectile vomiting in the initial phase and anorexia. Various remedies like Nux-vom 200, Podo 1M, Bell 6, Sulph 30, 200, Merc-sol 30, Aloe 30, 200, Podo 1M, 10M, Merc-cor 6, 30, Kurchi Q, were of no use, since their use was based on the symptom of dysentery with bloody stools. Two weeks passed, without any signs of recovery and so I had to admit him in hospital where he was treated with modern medicine and prescribed antibiotic, antidiarrhoeal and ORS stat. But my troubles did not end here, since my child refused pointblank to take any of these and insisted on taking only sugar pills. This decided reluctance to allopathic drugs compelled me to reevaluate his case again. This time around, I concentrated more on his mental disposition. One thing that stood out was his irritability, becoming cross very soon and a tendency to 'strike others'. So I took the rubric 'striking' - children in and looked up Kent's repertory - chapter Mind, pg 84. I found only two remedies Cham and Cina both in first grade. Between the two, I felt Cham suited him more. Wonder of wonders! Just 2 doses of Cham 200 at 12 hourly interval, showed improvement and further 4 doses put an end to his dysenteric stools. Sometimes obstinacy in a child becomes a virtue and one feels thankful that instead of straying from the path we know, we must look for answers to our failures in our own science. . The lesson I learnt: that the most striking and characteristic personality trait in an individual should be taken into consideration for the selection of the remedy. And I must add here, that we must enhance our power of observation, train our eyes, to recognize the characteristics in every case since 'the eyes cannot see what the mind does not know.'