Positive Health Online

Katherine had been a patient of mine for about 18 months and I had treated her for depression. She had a history of on/off depressive events, and when she came to see me she was on Prozac and wanting to come off it. That particular course of treatment was very successful and I signed her off with the confidence that although she might have the odd off day, as we all do, she was going to be all right.

I received a call from her for an appointment approximately a year after I had stopped seeing her. She sounded very agitated on the telephone, and I must admit my heart sank somewhat as I assumed her depression was back. However, she presented with a very different problem. During the interim year she had met a chap whom she was taken with and they had moved in together. Running through the natural course of events she had fallen pregnant and at the time of the consultation was 24 weeks. At 20 weeks an ultrasound scan had shown the baby to be larger than normal for that stage; until then everything had been fine. She had another scan just before the Homeopathic consultation and the diagnosis was that the baby had CCAM – Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation; this is a very grand name for saying that one of its lungs was not developing normally and had become very cystic and greatly enlarged. The outcome looked bleak, as Katherine was told that there was nothing that could be done except careful monitoring. There was a great risk that the baby could develop hydrops (generalized fluid build up in the fœtus) and that would probably be fatal. If the baby survived into later pregnancy Katherine would need a premature Caesarean delivery and the baby would probably need the affected lung removed shortly after birth. A private second opinion confirmed the diagnosis and outcome. I am sure you can imagine the state she was in.

Treating the fœtus posed certain problems, as a homeopathic prescription is based on the detailed characteristics of the individual and I had none to go on. I went back to my notes and also consulted a few colleagues; the consensus was the same – treat the mother and not the fœtus. Katherine’s remedy was very strongly indicated; the relationship was souring but they were caught in the trap of being financially better off while they lived together. She was worn out with the perpetual rows with her partner, and was fast coming to the conclusion that she did not like him anymore. She was exhausted with worry over the baby, panicked over how she would cope if it was born disabled, and was sure her depression would come back. I prescribed a split dose of Sepia 1M and booked her in for another appointment in three weeks time.

At Katherine’s follow-up the consultation was much calmer. She felt in a better place and was looking at strategies she could have in place for when the baby was born. Her partner could do his ‘own thing’; she was not going to stress over him anymore. She was also no longer fearful of the depression resurging as the worry and anxiety ‘felt different to then’. However, a scan just before the follow-up showed the fœtal lung situation was worse; the left lung was now compressing the heart causing it to shift to the right and squashing the normal right lung. The Sepia had not helped the fœtus and I had to go back to the drawing board.

I did not know anything about the fœtus so could not prescribe individually, all the ‘lung’ remedies were for lung diseases in the born individual. I could have prescribed anti-miasmatically, but was not sure what result I would get, and time was of the essence. I decided to prescribe Lung Sarcode instead. This is a remedy made from healthy lung tissue, and my rationale was that the fœtal lung is still developing and this remedy may correct any imbalance in its development which was causing the CCAM. I repeated the Sepia (for Katherine) and prescribed Lung Sarcode 9c once daily for two weeks, Katherine also took this with the hope it would reflect on the fœtus.

Things then began to progress quickly. At her next follow-up her scan showed the left lung had reduced in size and the heart had started to normalize in activity and position. Katherine herself still felt balanced. Her consultant said to her, “I can’t explain this but whatever you are doing – carry on doing it!”

I repeated this cycle of remedies twice more during which time the lung continued to normalize in size. A few months back Katherine had a normal birth at 40 weeks and the baby was fine. A small amount of shadow has been detected in the lung, but it is not known if this is of any consequence, so the baby is still being monitored, but basically he is thriving and growing.