Ear fluid, laryngitis, teething etc. _{Page 4 of 11}

So what does it look like to you? Remedy not holding (so symptoms coming back) or are there symptoms that are stubbornly resisting the higher dose?

Yeah I agree sounds less like the Pulsatilla is precise enough - this usually becomes clear when you go up in potency.

So it looks like the symptoms that had gotten better have returned is that right? Has she gone all the way back to how she was?

Ok so some improvement has remained. Then Puls was not completely without its benefit.

I am without access to my materia medica resources for a few hours, will need to look at it again later. I am thinking Lycopodium though as an idea, but I will need to confirm it.

When is she due to go back to the doctor?

Yes many of those symptoms appear in Lycopodium. Do you have that remedy at home?

Start with 30c, dissolve the pillules in water as the other remedies. If you have bottles with other remedies in them you don't need, you can boil them to steralize them and remake the new remedy in them.

Give one dose every 4 hours, with no more than 3 doses given before reassessing the reaction with me.

It is early morning here - seems a lot goes on here in the forum while I am asleep :)

1 pillule is enough always. Just make sure you succuss the bottle twice, then 3 times, then 4 times.

Don't do more than 3 doses though - after that we need to reassess to see if the remedy is helping.

I am awake now so give me a report when you get a chance.

How many doses did you give?

How many hits of the bottle did you get up to?

What are the improvements from using the 3 doses?

Ok well let me know when the aggravation time comes.

Is the bowel movement something that happens to her?

I hope you won't mind me intervening, but I am doing so in the best interests of the patient.

A word of caution: This kind of repetition is rarely needed with Lycopodium, a remedy which always gives diminishing returns from successive doses. This is one of the deepest acting remedies of the materia medica and acts best in single doses.

I will quote Hahnemann himself on this, he says

'A moderate dose operates for forty to fifty days and longer. It may be repeated after the intermediate use of other antipsoric remedies, but with much less effect.'

This is a thing I have confirmed about the remedy many times in practice.

I have had cases where Lycopodium was repeated using the 5th edition prescribing by one of the strong American proponents of this technique and the proving symptoms took 2 years to go away. The patient started developing keynotes of the remedy like 'weeps when thanked', and these were symptoms he never has in his life time.

With medicines like Lycopodium, Thuja etc one must tread with extreme caution as far as repetition goes.

Just to clarify, I am not saying she has been overdosed yet, but any further 30c repetition will probably be treacherous.

Inappropriate repetitition of any remedy can cause problems and it is always good to repeat that. The remedy itself makes no difference. This is why I always insist on frequent reassessment in order to watch for any ill effects. This is also why the dose is diluted and succussed, to make sure the potency is changed enough each time to avoid problems.

However in acute situations repetition is usually necessary, and as long as follow-up is done regularly there should be no complication. Not repeating the remedy often enough is just as much a problem as too often. The trick is to find the middle path between too little and too much (Law of the Minimum dose - least amount necessary to effect a change).

Duration of action must be observed not assumed. Giving one dose of Lyc 30 and waiting 50 days in an acute would not be appropriate. Frankly I would not do that in a chronic case either - I would always reassess at suitable intervals, repeating the dose as the patient needs it.

Frequency of dose must be individualized just as the choice of remedy and potency must be. When a patient improves you wait, when a patient relapses you repeat, always watching for changes in the state, suppression, new symptoms, return of old symptoms etc, adapting treatment to suit.

As Kent says, it is almost impossible to find a remedy that will fit over any case like a glove, and even Hahnemann admits that minor new symptoms will often appear during treatment. These symptoms pass off as the artifical remedy-disease does, and the patient is left none the worse for it.

However, sensless repetition is very dangerous, and I am a vocal opponent of mechanical methods of prescribing on this forum (and others). This includes *any* mechanical reptition by the way - all aspects of treatment should be intelligently chosen and individually assessed.