Spectrum - Palliative

Jürgen Hansel ¦

VARIOUS REMEDIES

SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY

PALLIATIVE

remedy, we now need a purely palliative remedy with a strong

affinity to the local symptom “vomiting without nausea”.

Prescription:

Apomorphinum

30C, dissolved, one teaspoon

as required

September 23:

since

Apomorphinum

, the patient vomits less

severely and more infrequently.

October 2:

in the previous week, the patient’s energy severely

declined and she feels great weakness. She complains of breath-

lessness and coughing, and has repeated pain “as if there’s a

war going on there, as if people are attacking one another

with swords.” She feels an unusual desire for fatty fried food.

She is very preoccupied with a dream: “First, I’m cleaning a

garden fork and then I get in an old bus that’s going to Siberia,

where I’m supposed to dig. At a watchtower, a guard shoots

three times in the air and three ravens drop from the sky. Then,

I carry on traveling forever in the bus, without arriving.”

In a second dream, she is traveling with an empty suitcase. She

sees an indication of impending death in these dreams and she

feels great sadness that she has to go; “I toe the line from a

sense of helplessness.”

Comments:

the patient’s increasing weakness together with

the ominous dreams mark a turning point in the progress of

the illness. She feels the end approaching and would now like

palliative outpatient treatment with the local outpatient pallia-

tive care team, with whom she has developed a special relation-

ship. In the last two years before retiring from social work, she

herself helped to set up this outpatient hospice and palliative

consultation service; she was responsible for the psychosocial

care of the severely ill and their relatives.

While receiving palliative care, she would like to continue with

primarily homeopathic care, although she definitely does not

want to suffer from unbearable pain or similarly burdensome

symptoms. She wants to continue consultations so that all pos-

sible remedies can be used to treat her symptoms. The palliative

medicine required should be agreed as far as possible with the

homeopathic doctor.

Since symptom control now occurs increasingly with allopathic

remedies, the focus of homeopathic treatment is especially on

strengthening the life force, both in the physical and emotional

area. Due to the recent desire for fat, I first prescribe

Hepar sulfuris

Prescription:

Hepar sulfuris

LM 6, five drops a day

October 17:

for the first time, there is no particular reaction to

a remedy. The patient feels even weaker and is constantly cold.

Yet, she is neither anxious nor restless.

Comments:

Hepar sulfuris

was evidently an incorrect prescrip-

tion. The error was to go back to the repertorisation used

for the first prescription. In this situation, it is better to rely

on the tried-and-tested remedies for the final phase of life,

prescribed on the basis of the current illness symptoms: an

exhausted life force, a feeling of cold, breathlessness or rest-

lessness and anxiety.

Prescription:

Carbo vegetabilis

LM6, three times, three drops.

October 22:

the patient has more energy and can again get

up. “I just feel better.”

October 25:

since yesterday, she has been having diarrhea with

watery, foul-smelling tarry stools “like a greeting from hell.” At

the same time, her energy has collapsed and she is very weak.

The pain in the thigh has increased once again.

Allopathic analgesics are now administered, with homeopathy

used for the local symptoms.

Prescription:

Phosphorus

LM6, five drops, once

October 29:

for the last three days, she is again feeling better.

The pain is tolerable and there have been no more tarry stools.

She even had enough energy today to go out.

November 12:

for the last four days, the patient has been very

weak and she even finds it an exertion to talk. She can hold

nothing down and vomits repeatedly with blood and the stool

is once again black. She is very thirsty but only drinks small

amounts and is restless at night. She no longer feels cold, she

tends to feel warm instead.

Comments:

due to the recent

Arsenicum

symptoms (nightly

restlessness, thirsty for small amounts) but without feeling cold,

I prescribe

Arsenicum iodatum

Prescription:

Arsenicum iodatum

LM6, five drops, twice a day.

Contrary to the rules of classical homeopathy, I continue with

the prescription of

Phosphorus

LM6, five drops daily, due to the

vomiting and stomach bleeding.

November 19:

the patient talks in a commanding tone to her

relatives, picks her nose until the blood comes, and is as rest-

less as before.

Comments:

due to the current symptoms (dictatorial – talks

in a commanding tone: arn. cupr. DULC. falco-pe. lac-leo. lyc.

Phos. ruta spong. tax. / picking the nose with the finger – bleeds;

until it: arum-t. cina phos. spig.) I continue with Phosphorus.

Prescription:

Phosphorus

LM6, five drops daily.

Arsenicum

iodatum

is discontinued.

November 20:

the patient dies peacefully in the presence of

her husband and her two grown-up children.

FINAL REMEDIES

Thanks to our cooperation with the homeopathic care of this

patient, the leader of the local outpatient palliative care team

expressed an interest in using homeopathy in her work. She