My Easter weekend was rather ruined by a bout of Sinusitus. I am not ill often, but initially I sensed that I was showing cold or flu symptoms. I took the remedy 'Aconite', always a good suggestion if anyone is feeling they are 'going down' with something. It usually works, warding off the symptoms, but I was probably tardy in taking the first remedy. I am always better treating other people. After all, I never get ill!
But then I began to realise it was more than just a cold. I was feeling some facial pain, and I felt congested. I took a combination remedy, AGE, a mixture of Arsenicum, Gelsemium and Euphrasia, that would usually ward off flu, but I really would have to take this more seriously in the morning.
Yet by the morning, after not sleeping much, I was in no frame of mind for 'intellectual' activity - being the homeopath, working on the symptoms, doing a repertory (linking symptoms with remedies), and narrowing down the best remedy for me. I had no energy. My eyes were sore, and they were running. Ahh! I knew a remedy for that one, Euphrasia. I will take a stronger Euphrasia! But as with the Aconite and the AGE it did little good. The condition, whatever it was, was gaining a hold over me.
"You've got Sinusitis" said Carole, my wife. I am not a good patient, to say the least. I was annoyed about being ill. I hate being ill. "Will you take a painkiller?"
"No, I will not take a damned painkiller!"
I knew that wasn't a kind thing to say, but I was bad-tempered, I felt bearish. So perhaps the remedy I needed was the one that had cured my heart palpitations, alongside them my regular migraines. So I took Bryonia. It's the remedy for bad tempered, bearish people who hated being ill, and weren't very nice to their nurses! At least it seemed to fit my increasing mental state. But Bryonia did nothing. The condition got worse, much worse.
"Damn it", I thought, "I wish those damnable medical fundamentalists, the homeopathy deniers, were right, that homeopathy was a placebo, that all I had to do was to believe the remedy would work! If only it was that easy!"
At one point during the evening the pain in my right temple became unbearable. I did not know what to do with the pain. I paced the house, from one room to another. Carole got out her favourite homeopathy text, 'The Prescriber' by John H Clarke. She looked up 'pain', 'right temple'. It suggested Cuprum. So I took Cuprum. Within 5 minutes the excruciating pain had gone. So I was left now just with the constant gnawing pain around the eyes and face.
"You've got Sinusitis". I should have listened to what Carole said several hours earlier. Of course it was sinusitis! Normally, a few remedies might have come to mind, but not to my mind, not in that constant pain. So I checked my 'Sinusitis' page on my "Why Homeopathy?" website.
Kali Bich? I did not have that much mucous.
Mercurius. Not really my remedy.
Several more followed, none of them registering with what was happening to me, until I got to Hepar Sulph:
"Sinusitis with obstructive and thick nasal and post-nasal discharge after every exposure to cold or uncovering the head. Offensive discharges, odour like old cheese. Exquisitely painful inflammation of the sinuses."
So for the next 12 hours, during the night, I dosed myself with Hepar Sulph. I could feel the pain lifting after 10 to 15 minutes. I got no sleep, but by the morning I was feeling over the worse. By the afternoon I thought I had cracked it. But during late evening the symptoms returned, less painful now. So I started taking the remedy again. So not much sleep again, but by the morning I was okay. Well, perhaps as okay as someone who'd just spent 15 rounds with Mohammed Ali! But okay.
So after another couple of days doing not very much, today I have spent some time looking at my Sinusitis page, and I have rewritten it. The homeopathy section has stayed the same (homeopathy works so it never needs to change), but the conventional medical treatment section had to be changed because they no longer use some of the drugs they used when I first wrote the page. The usual thing - either they didn't work, or they were too dangerous.
I am glad I rewrote the page. It made me pleased that I knew about homeopathy. I was even more delighted that I did not have to rely on conventional medicine for treatment. These are some of the phrases used on the current NHS Choices website about the treatment of Sinusitis.
"Most people with sinusitis don't need to see their GP. The condition is normally caused by a viral infection that clears up on its own. Your symptoms will usually pass within two or three weeks (acute sinusitis) and you can look after yourself at home."
Well, that's okay then, I would only have the best part of two weeks to carry on suffering by this time! During that time, NHS Choices say, I could have looked after myself at home!
"If your symptoms are mild and have lasted less than a week or so, you can usually take care of yourself without seeing your GP. The following tips may help you feel better until you recover:
"Take over-the-counter painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen to relieve a high temperature and pain – check the leaflet that comes with your medication first to check it's suitable, and never give aspirin to children under 16 years of age."
Painkillers? These do not treat sinusitis, they don't even to pretend to treat the condition! And the dangerous of painkillers are well known. What else?
"Use over-the-counter decongestant nasal sprays or drops to help unblock your nose and allow you to breathe more easily – these shouldn't be used for more than a week at a time.
Again, these drugs don't treat the condition! Doesn't conventional medicine have ANYTHING to offer people suffering from sinusitis?
"Apply warm packs to your face to soothe your pain and help mucus drain from your sinuses."
"Regularly clean the inside of your nose with a salt water solution to help unblock your nose and reduce nasal discharge."
"If the condition is severe, gets worse, or doesn't improve (chronic sinusitis), you may need additional treatment from your GP or a hospital specialist. This can be difficult to treat and it may be several months before you're feeling better."
So thanks, homeopathy. I have had a bad few days, but not "several months" of pain. So I hope my experience is a lesson for everyone. We all need alternatives to conventional medicine and not just for sinusitis! We all need to have access to a medicine that actually works, that has something to offer when we need it most.
And please do note, the NHS Choices website, whilst not having much to offer itself, fails to offer any 'alternative' treatment - no mention of homeopathy certainly.
So over the next few days I will be writing some more chapters on my "Why Homeopathy?" website - just in case anyone needs to have them by their side!
But then I began to realise it was more than just a cold. I was feeling some facial pain, and I felt congested. I took a combination remedy, AGE, a mixture of Arsenicum, Gelsemium and Euphrasia, that would usually ward off flu, but I really would have to take this more seriously in the morning.
Yet by the morning, after not sleeping much, I was in no frame of mind for 'intellectual' activity - being the homeopath, working on the symptoms, doing a repertory (linking symptoms with remedies), and narrowing down the best remedy for me. I had no energy. My eyes were sore, and they were running. Ahh! I knew a remedy for that one, Euphrasia. I will take a stronger Euphrasia! But as with the Aconite and the AGE it did little good. The condition, whatever it was, was gaining a hold over me.
"You've got Sinusitis" said Carole, my wife. I am not a good patient, to say the least. I was annoyed about being ill. I hate being ill. "Will you take a painkiller?"
"No, I will not take a damned painkiller!"
I knew that wasn't a kind thing to say, but I was bad-tempered, I felt bearish. So perhaps the remedy I needed was the one that had cured my heart palpitations, alongside them my regular migraines. So I took Bryonia. It's the remedy for bad tempered, bearish people who hated being ill, and weren't very nice to their nurses! At least it seemed to fit my increasing mental state. But Bryonia did nothing. The condition got worse, much worse.
"Damn it", I thought, "I wish those damnable medical fundamentalists, the homeopathy deniers, were right, that homeopathy was a placebo, that all I had to do was to believe the remedy would work! If only it was that easy!"
At one point during the evening the pain in my right temple became unbearable. I did not know what to do with the pain. I paced the house, from one room to another. Carole got out her favourite homeopathy text, 'The Prescriber' by John H Clarke. She looked up 'pain', 'right temple'. It suggested Cuprum. So I took Cuprum. Within 5 minutes the excruciating pain had gone. So I was left now just with the constant gnawing pain around the eyes and face.
"You've got Sinusitis". I should have listened to what Carole said several hours earlier. Of course it was sinusitis! Normally, a few remedies might have come to mind, but not to my mind, not in that constant pain. So I checked my 'Sinusitis' page on my "Why Homeopathy?" website.
Kali Bich? I did not have that much mucous.
Mercurius. Not really my remedy.
Several more followed, none of them registering with what was happening to me, until I got to Hepar Sulph:
"Sinusitis with obstructive and thick nasal and post-nasal discharge after every exposure to cold or uncovering the head. Offensive discharges, odour like old cheese. Exquisitely painful inflammation of the sinuses."
So for the next 12 hours, during the night, I dosed myself with Hepar Sulph. I could feel the pain lifting after 10 to 15 minutes. I got no sleep, but by the morning I was feeling over the worse. By the afternoon I thought I had cracked it. But during late evening the symptoms returned, less painful now. So I started taking the remedy again. So not much sleep again, but by the morning I was okay. Well, perhaps as okay as someone who'd just spent 15 rounds with Mohammed Ali! But okay.
So after another couple of days doing not very much, today I have spent some time looking at my Sinusitis page, and I have rewritten it. The homeopathy section has stayed the same (homeopathy works so it never needs to change), but the conventional medical treatment section had to be changed because they no longer use some of the drugs they used when I first wrote the page. The usual thing - either they didn't work, or they were too dangerous.
I am glad I rewrote the page. It made me pleased that I knew about homeopathy. I was even more delighted that I did not have to rely on conventional medicine for treatment. These are some of the phrases used on the current NHS Choices website about the treatment of Sinusitis.
"Most people with sinusitis don't need to see their GP. The condition is normally caused by a viral infection that clears up on its own. Your symptoms will usually pass within two or three weeks (acute sinusitis) and you can look after yourself at home."
Well, that's okay then, I would only have the best part of two weeks to carry on suffering by this time! During that time, NHS Choices say, I could have looked after myself at home!
"If your symptoms are mild and have lasted less than a week or so, you can usually take care of yourself without seeing your GP. The following tips may help you feel better until you recover:
"Take over-the-counter painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen to relieve a high temperature and pain – check the leaflet that comes with your medication first to check it's suitable, and never give aspirin to children under 16 years of age."
Painkillers? These do not treat sinusitis, they don't even to pretend to treat the condition! And the dangerous of painkillers are well known. What else?
"Use over-the-counter decongestant nasal sprays or drops to help unblock your nose and allow you to breathe more easily – these shouldn't be used for more than a week at a time.
Again, these drugs don't treat the condition! Doesn't conventional medicine have ANYTHING to offer people suffering from sinusitis?
"Apply warm packs to your face to soothe your pain and help mucus drain from your sinuses."
"Regularly clean the inside of your nose with a salt water solution to help unblock your nose and reduce nasal discharge."
Obviously not! If were not for Hepar Sulph (and Carole) I would still be in pain, incapacitated, and being horribly bearish and irritable towards anyone who dared come near me, and for several weeks more, too! Or perhaps even longer than that!
"If the condition is severe, gets worse, or doesn't improve (chronic sinusitis), you may need additional treatment from your GP or a hospital specialist. This can be difficult to treat and it may be several months before you're feeling better."
So thanks, homeopathy. I have had a bad few days, but not "several months" of pain. So I hope my experience is a lesson for everyone. We all need alternatives to conventional medicine and not just for sinusitis! We all need to have access to a medicine that actually works, that has something to offer when we need it most.
And please do note, the NHS Choices website, whilst not having much to offer itself, fails to offer any 'alternative' treatment - no mention of homeopathy certainly.
So over the next few days I will be writing some more chapters on my "Why Homeopathy?" website - just in case anyone needs to have them by their side!
