Although the two cases that I am bringing to your attention cannot be considered as obstetrical cases, I submit them in order to arouse your comment, thus gaining from your own personal experiences. One of them really belongs to the field of gynecology, but most obstetricians are also gynecologists. From this case I have learned that fibroma of the uterus can be cured with our homoeopathic remedies.
The condition to which I will refer in the second case developed in the same patient twice, as a complication of two different puerperal periods. It taught me definitely that the homoeopathic physician does not need to resort to the use of narcotics and should therefore never use them.
FIRST CASE.
Mrs. H. G. L., age 38, married 8 years, never having been pregnant. Came to my office for the first time on April 25, 1938, complaining of frequent metrorrhagias for the last two years, sometimes even twice in the same month and just recently she had had one that lasted for 45 consecutive days, but apparently without debilitating the patient. A new haemorrhage and just begun the day before. No vaginal examination was made at this time, following the rule of not examining those cases while they are bleeding to avoid the misleading information that the congested organs may give. Secale 200 was prescribed.
May 3. Patient still flowing with a bright red blood; slightly nauseated; tongue clean. Ipecac. 200.
May 14. Still bleeding although not quite so abundantly. Ipecac. 1M.
May 23. The haemorrhage ceased right after the 1M. potency. A vaginal examination revealed a hard, indurated cervix; uterus retroverted and almost twice the normal size, giving the examining fingers the impression of a hard, solid mass that was easily displaced upwardly by the fingers in the Douglas cul- de-sac.
No sign of tenderness in tubes or ovaries. Diagnosis: A fibromyoma of the uterine wall. A continuation of the remedy was given and the knee-chest position advised, twice daily.
May 30. Patient feeling fine; no sign of haemorrhage since May 14. A continuation of the remedy.
June 20. On June 12 the patient began glowing again, and still is, but rather scarcely, only every other day. Ipecac 1M.
June 28. Haemorrhage stopped two days before, lasted in all fourteen days, but not profuse; the last few days the blood darker in color, no pains or nausea. Sabina 1M.
July 13. Another haemorrhage and only fifteen days had passed since the previous one. Continuation.
July 20. No change; blood at times bright red, others darker; patient feels all right, except for the troublesome flowing and a slight constipation; tongue clean. Ipecac. 10M.
July 27. Six days, today, without haemorrhage. Continuation.
August 16. After twenty-seven days without haemorrhage, it began again today, but moderately. Ipecac. 10M.
August 31. Last flowing lasted only three days as it had not been for the last two years; appetite lost since the death of mother four weeks before. A vaginal examination showed uterus reduced to about two-thirds of previous size. Continuation, and patient advised to keep on with the knee-chest position.
September 28. No sign of haemorrhage or of menstrual flow since August 16. Continuation.
October 17. Two months already without any flow; no other complaints. Continuation.
October 24. On the 21st an apparently normal flowing that lasted only three days. A slight pain at this time at both ovarian regions, a pain that she had experienced when she was menstruating regularly, but that had disappeared since the haemorrhages. Continuation.
November 14. Patient complaining of a mild catarrhal condition, running a slight temperature. A continuation was given, seeing no sufficient reason to disturb the treatment if prescribing for the acute condition.
November 21. The catarrhal condition cleared up soon. On the 18th another normal menstruation at exactly twenty-seven days from previous one, of three days duration; no pains at this time. Continuation.
December 22. Five days ago began flowing again, twenty-nine days since last, but still flowing today. Ipecac. 10M.
Since then patient has been menstruating regularly, every twenty-seven to twenty-nine days, with no complaints, periods lasting only three days, except on last May when it extended over to five days and she received the last dose of Ipecac. 10M.
June 19, 1939. Nine months of regular periods. A new bimanual examination shows that the uterus is now in a normal position and has practically become normal in size. I believe the case cured.
For many years I had been under the impression that these cases could only be treated with surgery; but I now think that if a case of fibroma can be cured homoeopathically many others can, and we must always try our remedies first before sending this type of patients to the operating table.
SECOND CASE.
My second case was a patient at the time in the hands of another doctor, an American allopathic surgeon who lives in Monterrey, a very good friend of mine whom I respect very much for his surgical skill. He had delivered this lady, Mrs. O. A. T., of her second baby only four days before, on June 21, 1937. The morning of the fourth day she began complaining of pain along the right sciatic and the right anterior crural nerves, pain that was intensifying considerably every minute until it became excruciating and unbearable.
The doctor sent his nurse to the patients home with a 10 gram vial of a 2 percent morphine solution, with instructions to use it in fractional doses pre re nata. The pain was not relieved. That same afternoon, about five oclock, the doctor came personally to see the patient and decided to resort to a rather heroic measure of injecting a 2 percent novocain solution into the sacral canal.
While getting ready for the injection, and knowing that both the patient and her husband were related to me, the doctor asked that I should be called to assist him with the case. I came to the patients home immediately and this is how I came in contact with the case.
At the time of my arrival the patient was being prepared for the injection, lying in bed on her abdomen, and the doctor proceeded to inject 30 c.c. of the novocain solution, followed by 20 c.c. more of normal salt solution. The patient back to the recumbent position, a pulley was attached to the foot of the bed with a five kilogram weight to make traction on the leg. The doctors idea was that by painful nerves the pain could be relieved. Half an hour later the weight had to be cut off, because the patient was suffering tremendously and could not stand it any longer.
When the doctor asked me to help with the case, he also asked me to write a prescription for two ampules of sedol, a morphine preparation by that name to keep the patient from knowing what it really is. He wanted me to use them that night if it was necessary. I told him that I never used narcotics, but since the case was his and not mine, I would do it following his orders. I asked the patients husband to go with me to my office for the prescription, and when there I showed him any narcotic blank book unused.
While filling out the first blank, I made him clearly understand that it was the first prescription for narcotics I had written since practicing in Monterrey and that I was doing it on the condition that the two ampules should be returned to me in case they were not used. He agreed and went directly to the drug store to fill the prescription, in order to have them at hand when needed.
At nine oclock that night the husband called me up to say that his wife was still suffering terribly and begged of me to please go at once and give her one of the injections.
When I got to the door of the house I could hear the agonizing cries of the patient. Saturated as she was with narcotics, the suffering was still worse. It was unbearable to see her suffer. “All right,” I said to the husband, “I am ready to give your wife that injection, but this stuff is practically the same thing she has been getting all day long; in all probability we will not help her much by adding a little more to what she has already been given. Dr. Blank asked me to help with the case and I believe that we can help her more with a homoeopathic remedy, so I will try that first and if it fails, I will give her the sedol injection.”.
I went into the patients room to gather some symptoms and this is what I got: Agonizing pain coming on by spells on right hip extending down the sciatic and anterior crural nerves, < by pressure, she could not lie on the affected side; patient flatulent and constipated, would go several days without a bowel movement and when successful the stool would be hard, difficult and rather small; a slight elevation of temperature during the afternoon; her right foot, that of the affected side, was hot and the left cold. Lycopodium 200 in half a glass of boiled water, a teaspoonful every five minutes, was given, with definite instructions to discontinue it altogether at a sign of marked relief.
The patient took in all three teaspoonfuls, after which she went to sleep. After suffering so miserably all day long, the relief came after the first fifteen minutes under the influence of Lycopodium.
