by Dr Preety Shah and Dr Prajakta Vaidya

CHIEF COMPLAINT

•76 years old female patient

•Allergic Rash on and off since many year, rash from the feet were spreading to legs and thighs. Rashes on feet have dried up and but the new patch itch a lot

•Mosquito bite like rash

•Itching is bothering. Itching is more when new rash starts and then it itches every now and then

•> applying ointment, calamine lotion

• Slight pain the stomach in upper abdomen > eating adrak (ginger)

D: Tell about your nature

•I am cool minded, I don’t get worked up

•I work a lot, I am always busy. I am working all the time

•I can’t sit idle, I just find work to do. If I sit idle, I feel I’m wasting my time.

•I feel guilty if I’m wasting my time. There’s so much to do because you know work never finishes.

•I should be utilizing my time in a more constructive manner.

•I never have time to chat with my friends on the telephone. Meaning I feel like I need to do something more useful

D:  So, the work you are trying to occupy yourself with, does that have to be productive?

•Yeah. It has to be productive work. I have a long list of jobs to do all the time on my telephone. And I keep looking at my list. And when I wake up in the morning or the previous day, I plan for tomorrow, I have to do this, this, this, and I must meet my target.

•I must meet my goal, what I plan to do. I don’t like to say, I didn’t get time. I feel no I should have done it and I must do it. So even if it means working through the evening, doesn’t matter. But when I finish my work, I feel very peaceful. I feel very contented.

•I want to get things done very thoroughly. I cannot do them by taking shortcuts or do them in a hurry. I’m not slow, but I’m thorough.

D:  Are you like a perfectionist?

•Nothing should be out of place. Everything should be neat and tidy. There’s only one way of doing something and that is the perfect way.

D: And if you have to work with somebody who is not that thorough or perfect?

•I get very impatient and I get very irritated and I will not work with them

•I feel like I can handle the things myself better

•I was going to open a small restaurant with some one. I was doing the catering part, I was working hard and tasting recipes, making recipes, trying everything. And then we would meet like once a week for a meeting and she had not done any work.  I said, forget it. I don’t want to do this business with her. I’ll give up.

Tell more about your nature

•I think I don’t like to get into arguments.

•I don’t like to have unpleasantness.

•I would rather give in and let the other person have their way. But I don’t like to get into it.

•It’s better for me to make the sacrifice and have peace of mind, you know, for instance of my husband and I, we have, he wants to do things one way and I want to do another way.

•I have insecurity generally, but I think under pressure, I can get very nervous if I do something in a hurry.

Cancer of ovary 11 years ago

•Since my chemotherapy, I have become very, very careful about what quality of food I eat. I take wheat grass juice, first thing every morning. I also take Haldi capsules.

•I am conscious of my weight also. So, don’t like to eat fried food.

•Also I’m careful and I get all my dals, masala, cooking oil, everything organic, of course the fear of cancer started it.

• I was surprised and shocked when diagnosed with cancer, but then I got so involved in getting myself treated that I had no time to think what has happened.I immediately started researching on doctors, bringing in visiting doctors, doing my test, got the surgery and then chemo.

D: So, you mentioned it was a shock, surprise

•It was a surprise. It was like, how come it’s happened to me…?? You know, like that, you know, you always feel bad things happen to other people. How can it happen to you that I know, but I didn’t have time to, I just got so involved with my treatment.

D: So you are not that kind of personalities who will sit and brood. So you are kind of a doer?

•Yeah, definitely. I am a doer definitely, positive thinking, looking forward, looking in the future planning.

•I don’t sit and think about the past at all, which is over, is over. It’s gone. I don’t even think about it.

•I do not miss meeting a good friend or anything, but more than that in the morning I get up, always my first thought is, today I have achieved this, this this this

FEARS

•Fear at the moment is COVID, my health is very important to me

•I’m very scared of the dark. Very scared. We live in a small two-bedroom apartment in a very secure building. We’ve got watchman downstairs, but if I had to go at night from my bedroom to my kitchen, I’ll be scared. Really? I’m not exaggerated, I am very scared of the dark.

•Very scared of Robbers

•I’m very scared, petrified of Snakes. I can’t even see a picture of a snake. If I see it, I have to turn away.

FEAR OF DARK, TELL MORE ABOUT IT?

•That somebody will be hiding there, and they’ll attack me

•Somebody will be hiding behind the door. If say my husband’s traveling, I’d be scared that somebody’s been hiding under the bed, I’m alone. You know, that kind of a thing.

•Somebody will come and get hold of me [HG]

•Attack me and hold me around their arms [HG]

•My daughter who is in abroad, is in her fifties, she lives in a one big, three storey house. And I can’t understand how she can live like that.

•If I am alone, my husband’s not here, I lock up my bedroom door orelse some will come and jump into my bed or something.

D: Scared of robbers?

•You read in the newspapers, they came and attacked and kill people, or, you know, kill women and drugs just for robbery, that kind of thing. ´I was all alone at home and somebody rang the doorbell. I will never open the door and I was scared a lot.

D: SNAKES?

•The way they move, they’ll bite me, it’s so slimy

HOBBIES & INTERESTS

• Music [Indian Music]
• Watching Movies
• Learning Foreign Languages [Portuguese à Daughter stays in Portugal]
• Cooking is my favourite past time and In Lockdown tried many new dishes and recipes. I have a cook at home, I don’t cook much, but I like to guide my cook.

Life Situation

• I lost my mother when I was 13 years old and I had a stepmother and life was very difficult.
• And then I had a husband who treated me very badly. So, after staying 10 years, we parted. I got a divorce.
• I’ve been through very bad phase and I didn’t have any confidence in myself because of my background. It’s only over the years I started working and I built confidence in myself
• I worked for an airline. I wasn’t flying, but I was working on ground with Air India. So, I started traveling and again, that confidence came to me. On my own, I built it up and I realized, you know, I’m capable of doing them

Confidence

•I find that I can reason things better than other people, and I’m not dumb I find people are not that intelligent.

•I find out why I’m better off than them. I built it up myself in the last maybe 20 years or so.

•So that is why I feel very unloved. You know, I feel, Oh, nobody loves me. Nobody likes me.

•When somebody sends an affectionate message to me, then it’s like, Oh, she really cares. She really cares for me. And then I’m scared to go too close to that person in case I get hurt or in case I find that I don’t like that person as much as I thought. I don’t want to get too close to people and then try to maintain a little bit of distance.

•I’m very confident I can manage. I don’t need anybody’s help or support. I bought properties or sold properties. I can go into a top lawyers meeting on my own and can face it

•I look after all my own affairs, financial affairs. I can handle it myself and over the years I’ve built this confidence.

•I’m very technically inclined, you know, if something was wrong at home with the telephone, the TV, the internet, or whatever, I handle it all on my own, you know, and I can manage, I understand.

•I don’t like talking loudly to a group of people socially. I’d much rather talk to one person at a time.

•Very shy of public speaking. I don’t know how people can do it. There I lack confidence.

D: WHAT YOU’LL DO IF YOU’LL GO VERY CLOSE TO PEOPLE?

•I may be disappointed in the person. I mean, there may be certain things about the person I may not like, and I feel because I expected something and I didn’t get it.

•Or the person may not be as affectionate as the person is today.

•And then again, not to get hurt. Because I’ve invested emotionally and I haven’t got those emotions back.

•My children are very strong personalities. They are grown ups now. They studied abroad and now living abroad. And they are very confident and they think they, they know everything well and they tend to argue with me about something.

•I keep quiet. I never argue, I know I, I know better than them. I’ve been more experienced in life and I’m not dumb and I’m not foolish, but I don’t like to argue. I’ll give my opinion and then just keep quiet, which is wrong.

•As a mother, I feel today, I don’t, if I don’t confront, control them today or argue with them today, or we have, you know, be stronger with them, what will happen when I’m older and I’m dependent on them?

•Today my position is strong financially. I’m independent. If they need anything, you know, I can help them out.

• But then why am I so weak with them…?? I can’t understand.

•I keep telling myself I should be stronger, but when the time comes, I just back off.

D: Tell us about your childhood with your step mother?

•Very bad, very bad. She was very jealous of me and my father and I could not even sit in a room together.

•She was always complaining about me to my father later on I realized my father’s position must have been so difficult to keep peace at home.

•She just thought that maybe I am a smarter person than her, because obviously firstly, she was not really educated, a very simple woman.

•My father was, he would never sort of find out who’s wrong and who he should correct. He will be diplomatic and pacify us.

•I’d like to wear nice clothes and makeup and all she would go and complain to my father.

•We couldn’t go out with girls, even to the movies. By chance if he allowed then my father would drop me and see who I’m going with.

Follow up

•3 days: Rashes disappeared

•1 month: Continued to do well

•3 months: Energy, Rash, continued to improve

After 1 year

•Overall, I am ok, I started treatment with you because of the skin rash. When you put me on medication, instantly my rash improved but still I continued with the medications. Once in a while its rash but otherwise it is ok, RASH IS 99% BETTER

•DIZZINESS IS 80% BETTER

•ENERGY LEVELS: My energy levels have improved and its surprising. I had been through different kinds of stress when I had been here for 6 Months (moved to London) and that was what that used to keep me awake at night

Remedy

Sepia 6C (4 doses)

Themes that came up during the case

• Strict father, stepmother and husband who treated badly
• Impatient
• Wants to keep herself busy
• Independent : they want to show that they can do whatever they want without support of the family. Want of confidence, developed confidence over the years
• They are unable to receive from his family the support that they feel they need and deserve. They do their best to show to the family how good they are.
• Seeking for a deep , emotional connection with their environment.
• Fear of dark, someone is hiding, someone will attack

Uderstanding of Sepia from Soul of remedies

 The main feeling of the Sepia woman is that she is forced to undertake things opposed to her intentions, to do what she doesn’t want to do. It is a chronic situation in which she has been dominated and not allowed to have her way.

She feels forced to accept situations against her will, because of her feeling of not being good enough. This makes her miserable and she feels unfortunate. So there is divorce or separation, or the patients remain spinsters. 

Sepia likes to occupy herself mentally and physically

Rubrics:

•         Undertakes things opposed to his intentions.
•         Anger, from contradiction.
•         Indifference, loved ones, to.
•         Cares, full of, about domestic affairs.
•         Delusion, that he is unfortunate.
•         Exertion, from mental, aggravates.
•         Fear, of poverty.
•         Hysteria.
•         Indifference to everything.
•         Occupation ameliorates.
•         Industrious.
•         Irritability, consolation aggravates.
•         Weeping when telling of her sickness.
•         Will, contradiction of.