SAMANTHA SPENCLEY
1. Which accomplishment/event/moment are you most proud of in your career as a Homeopath?
I've been blessed to have a number of proud moments in such a short time of practice. My first case after graduating was a Crohn's Disease case and the patient was about to go on immunosuppressant drugs. After one dose he saw immediate improvement. The case was so amazing, I wrote it up, submitted it and it was printed in The American Homeopath, Homeopathic Medical Journal, produced by NASH.
I've been able to help babies, kids and adults with homeopathy but I'm most proud of the fact that my own family hasn't stepped foot in a hospital or walk in clinic in 6 years because we strictly use homeopathy.
2. What 3 aspects of your Homeopathic education contributed the most to your success?
William Ellwood and his miasm lectures. He changed the way I look at dis-ease and the body, which I've found extremely helpful and effective in my practice
Externship and internship. Great to fail and succeed with the safety of having the instructors there to back you up and support you when you are learning
Case strategy and analysis. When I was in class, it was annoying to have to write everything out, but now I appreciate learning these skills because I'm able to articulate my strategy to the patient and manage the case properly.
3. Share with us a recent and successful case treated with Homeopathic Medicine.
The Nintendo Pen
A family I have been assisting with their health care for over 3 years now, called me one night while I was making a house call to another family. I literally was stepping up the porch when I answered the phone and the mother was frantic, her 2 year old poked himself in the ear and possibly injured his ear drum with a Nintendo DS pen. If you don’t know what this is, it’s a handheld game console that has a plastic pen to use on the screen. I could hear the panic in her voice, but of course I was on the stairs of my next appointment. I told her to give the child Arnica 200 every 15 mins and I would come over after my appointment. When I got to the house an hour and 15 mins later, the child was curled up on his fathers lap with a blanket and a very painful look on his face, tears streaming down his sweet cheeks. This child is very mischievous, rambunctious and resilient, but the look on his face was otherwise on this visit. I proceeded to check his inner ear with my ophthalma scope and saw what was normally pink with yellow discharge from previous checks, was black this time, which meant to me that he was suffering from a blood clot in his inner ear. The parents said that he had had roughly 6 doses of Arnica 200 at this point and that he had gone from an intensity of 10 with the pain to about a 7. I raced home, got Arnica 1M and returned to the house. By this time it was nearly 9pm and the child had been in pain for 2 hours. I told the parents, no matter what time it was during the night, that they were to call me, even if they were choosing to go to the hospital, I wanted to be able to guide them along their way. Well, the next morning came without a midnight wake up call and in the morning I called the family for an update. To which the Mom said she gave him the Arnica 1M once after I left and he fell asleep and didn’t wake up through the night, (which he tends to be a restless sleeper). I asked for her to bring the child by my office so I could check his ear out for myself. Once she brought him in, he was smiling and laughing, running around as if nothing had happened. I asked him to let me see and he cocked his head in anticipation of me looking in, and I tell you, it was pink with yellow discharge again! I asked him how he felt and he said, “Good”, with thumbs up. A week later, I spoke with the father and he said that his son is being his normal mischievous self, and that there was not any residual effect from the Nintendo pen. Gotta Love Homeopathy and Arnica.
4. Do you have anything else you would like to share?
I am happy I made a bold career change and took my training at Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine.
