58 Year Old Male Ends His Back Pain

By Nabil Moghaddam

Main Complaints: Lower back pain on the right side when sitting (Ameliorated by motion and pressure. Aggravated from rising) & neck pain in the cervical region (Pain extends from neck to lower back).

With further enquiry the Totality of Symptoms was acquired:

• Pain in the right elbow (Aggravated by motion).
• Arthritic finger joints with stiffness.
• Red eyes in the morning & occasionally sees white flashes in the dark.
• Itch in inner ear as well as a hiss whenever it’s silent.
• Numbness of finger tips.
• Body feels too hot most of the time.
• Sleep disturbed often by nightmares.
• Small liver spots on limbs.

Symptoms of the Mind: Anxiety caused by work; Anxiety of conscience accompanied with a strong feeling of guilt; Feeling of being judged by others; Feels unappreciated and unloved; Feels to be a victim of injustice.

After completing each symptom with their modalities and filling in the repertorization chart I ended up with three top scoring remedies: Rhus Tox, Sulphur & Graphites.

Sulphur scored high for most presenting symptoms of the patient, and although it’s a warm remedy as well as a predominantly right-sided remedy, which is perfect for this case, it wasn’t until I enquired into the nature of the nightmares/dreams the patient was having that I was able to confirm the correct similimum. In these nightmares he stated that he was frequently being attacked and bitten by dogs. When I looked up the corresponding rubric (bitten by dogs) in the Repertory, I found out that Sulphur happened to be the only one to appear among the three possible remedies and also happened to be the top scoring remedy for this peculiar symptom.

I ended up prescribing one dose of Sulphur in the potency of 200c.

For the following two days after taking the prescription, the patient reported experiencing an aggravation of symptoms followed by a gradual improvement of all symptoms which is a great reaction of the vital force towards cure when the proper similimum has been chosen. This graph by G. Vithoulkas demonstrates the progress of this case:

Also, during the process the patient reported that the lower back pain on the right side began moving down the right leg, over the length of a few days, until it had completely disappeared. This process confirms one of the many directions of cure that abide by Homeopathic law, which in this case is the movement of symptoms from  Up —> Downwards.

At the follow-up session the patient reported being completely relieved of his main complaints, namely the intense neck and lower back pain, as well as most of his other secondary complaints (elbow pain, finger stiffness, eyes, itch in ears, numbness of tips of fingers, nightmares, improved quality of sleep, an improvement of liver spots and a better state of mind.)

I was extremely happy with the results and didn’t worry too much about the one symptom that wasn’t cured (Hissing in ears when in silence) because to the patient, this didn’t cause much discomfort.