KALI BIC, is worthy of mention because of its affinity to accessory sinuses.
The typical Kali bic. influenza patient is rather pale, with red blotches about the face.
Discharges are irritating, and the upper lip swollen and reddish, due to coryza.
The mental state of typical Kali bic. influenza patients is one or mild discouragement. They have difficulty in thinking, any attempt at mental effort is almost impossible, and they are rather discouraged and hopeless. They feel very weak, tired and weary, and like to be left in peace.
Kali bic. influenzas are generally definitely chilly.
The patients have a good deal of generalised, wandering rheumatic pains-the wandering character is important-first in the shoulder, then in the elbow, the back or the knee, and so on. These pains grow worse if the patients are cold; in bed, with plenty of hot-water bottles, they are fairly comfortable.
A characteristic of Kali bic. influenza is the patients’ really bad period in the morning. they have a temperature aggravation about 2 or 3 in the morning. Their real discomfort, however, is between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.-very much later than one would expect from a Kali salt.
There is a very copious nasal discharge which feels hot and burning, and always accompanied by a feeling of extreme obstruction at the root of the nose. The patient feels as if the root of the nose were completely blocked, swollen, full and hot; he has violent sneezing attacks, with pain spreading out from the root of the nose to the external angle of the eye.
The same blockage occurs in the frontal sinuses or antrum, again with the feeling of tension. The headache, or face pain, is very much aggravated by movement, but definitely relieved by pressure. It usually tends to be confined to one side.
When the pain becomes intense, it is very liable to produce a sensation of nausea and may actually make the patient sick. It is definitely relieved by hot applications and is sensitive to cold.
Occasionally, one meets a case in which the pain is located in one small spot just above one of the frontal sinuses: this is almost diagnostic of Kali bic.
As a rule, the mouth is dry; and the tongue has a slight coating, either white or yellowish. there may be a certain amount of ropy saliva, but it is much more likely to be a postnasal discharge and stringy in character.
The throat in Kali bic. tends to be very red and swollen, with a very definite oedematous appearance. There may be very much swollen, oedematous uvula and, almost certainly, signs of acute follicular tonsillitis. The throat is always very painful, and a Kali bic. characteristic-it is very painful for the patient to put out his tongue; the pulling on the muscles at the root of the tongue hurts. Another characteristic is the strange sensation of a hair across the soft palate.
There is very early hoarseness in Kali bic. influenzas, with an accumulation of mucus in the larynx. It is the same kind of stringy white, or whitish yellow, mucus and is coughed up with great difficulty.
As a rule, there is a spread downwards from the larynx, with a feeling of great tightness in the chest. Very often, there os accompanied by wheezing. There is a very violent, difficult cough, and expectoration of large quantities of very stringy, adherent mucus.
Short of that, the accumulation of stuff on the larynx is liable to cause an intensely irritating, tickling sensation which excites a very spasmodic cough, almost like whooping cough.
The patients nearly always say that they are very exhausted by the effort of coughing; they are often sweaty, and get extreme palpitation.
There is some involvement of the ear, with blockage of the Eustachian tube and fullness in the ears; it may develop into a definite middle ear abscess. Where this occurs in Kali bic., there may be extreme swelling of the external ear as well as the involvement of the middle ear.
Most Kali bic. influenzas have gastric catarrh. they may have acute gastritis, with troublesome nausea and vomiting of a quantity of unpleasant glairy mucus. this is very difficulty to bring up, and the effort of vomiting is apt to produce a most intense headache. The gastric catarrh may spread down and become a duodenal catarrh, with a certain amount of jaundice.
The Kali bic. chilliness is rather “different”: it is particularly situated in the back of the neck. Patients hate to have their necks uncovered; they are much more comfortable with a hot-water bottle tucked into the nape of their neck. the chilliness sometimes spreads down the back, and they then complain of feeling chilly in the small of their back.
Some Kali bic. influenza patients have an astonishing sensitiveness of the hand; they feel as if their hands were bruised. Shaking hands is apt to cause them pain; they describe the same feeling of bruisedness in the soles of their feet if they stand on them.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.