CASE HISTORIES


Cases that were handled by the Dr(s) Nanduri:

Disclaimer- No medical system is complete and no doctor is a miracle worker.  Homeopathy and homeopathic doctors are no different.  The cases quoted here a just a few of the many we see here at the clinic.  We have had our shares of failures where despite the patient’s patience, we were of little help.  We do not claim to cure every case or have a 100% success rate.  These cases are presented to illustrate both the range of areas we have had successes in and also to show the process of diagnoses and treatment.

A 32 year old lady reported what she described as terrible headaches that started right after she got a divorce about 3 years before she saw us.  The headaches would start on the first day of her periods and continue to the last day.  Her periods were regular.  She would be totally incapacitated and felt slightly better when she slept in a darkened room.  Any motion could cause severe nausea and a dizzy attack.  She "generally slept through her periods," had no appetite and did not stir out of her darkened room.  She sought help for her headaches.

A little inquiry into her personal history indicated that she "was a sensitive soul", not very articulate about her feelings, had a tendency to be very clean to the point of being obsessive, had an unhappy childhood.  She was totally "devastated" with her divorce and "if only the headaches would be cured, then she would get on with her life".  Her family history revealed that there was cancer on both the paternal and the maternal side of her family.

A carefully selected homeopathic drug first based on her physical symptoms at the onset of her periods produced a lessening of the intensity and duration of her headaches in about 2 months.  The careful study of her personality and a few "quirks" that she mentioned in the subsequent visits, along with her family history gave us an indication about her constitution and we put her on a constitutional drug which she took for the next 3 months.  After the 5th month, when she reported that she was "symptom free" during her periods and now she was "much calmer; and actually made a few plans and was in the process of working on them.  We advised her to stop taking the homeopathic medication.  About an year later she called to say that she was doing better and once had a mild attack of headache, again at the beginning of her period.  She decided to "wait this one out" and the headache abated on it’s own without any medication.

We have had cases of "migraines" where the triggering factors have been dietetic (wheat products, diary, sweets, certain vegetables), climatic (exposure to sun, more during summers, winters, or rainy seasons, spring, at change of seasons), stress (before exams, at a particularly stress period in life like during/after divorce, death of a family member, having to look after a sick member of the family, at changes in jobs, having to work with people one cannot get along with, relocating to a new place etc.), change in "life" (in women-beginning of periods, before/during/after periods, during/after menopause).

The cause(s)/triggering factor(s) can be understood only after exhaustive and detailed case taking where there is a constant exchange of information between the patient and us.
There is a growing perception that homeopathy is "safe" for children especially those suffering with "developmental" (delayed milestones like cutting teeth, walking, talking, inability to gain weight etc.) problems and "low immunity" (frequent colds, coughs, respiratory problems, digestive problems, food sensitivities etc.). Many children have been helped with this natural way of healing.

Diarrhea – A 3-year female child was brought to us with the complaint of frequent "loose motions" since the time she was 2-years old.  She was a full term normal delivery child with no post vaccination history of fever, loose motion, weight loss etc. She was breastfed and all her milestones were normal.  Her parents were not able to decide what foods caused her problem.  She had a normal thirst/appetite with a craving for "sour foods"- pickles, citrus fruits etc. and seemed to have a loose motion after every meal.  She did not gain weight. Stool exam and blood tests were negative for worms and her iron was quite low.  Surprisingly, despite her appearance her activity levels were normal and she was active in her playschool.  She kicked off her blankets when she was sleeping and liked the windows to be opened even during winters.  She perspired quite a lot when she was sleeping and would wet her pillow.  She was restless in bed when she was sleeping and the bed was "quite a mess" when she got up in the morning.

Our first prescription was just based on her "physical generalities"-cravings for sour food, and open air.

This resulted in the decrease in the frequency of loose motions and the child began to "put on flesh" in about 3-4 weeks.   But the parents noticed that her "chest problems" that she had when she was an infant seemed to have "come back"- snuffles, tendency to catch cold easily, a dry rasping cough which was more during the night.

Our second prescription was based on this new information and the cough and the chest problems abated in about 10 days. She steadily gained weight, there was improvement in her appetite and her tendency to catch cold easily was "blunted".  The most noticeable thing in this child was that after she started homeopathy, she did not sweat at all during sleep!! We asked them to discontinue the medicines after about 3 months after giving this child a constitutional drug based on her family history.

Bleeding Disorder
A 28-year old bank teller complained of painless bleeding of the gums since he was a child.  Until he was a teenager, his family lived in a village and did not receive proper medical attention.  He remembered as a child that his injuries along took a long time to heal and his mom never allowed him to play with his friends.   When he was 24 years old, he was in a motorcycle accident and sustained a head injury.  He was taken to a nearby town unconscious – blood transfusion and all the tests were done.  Diabetes was ruled out and his blood tests revealed delayed clotting and bleeding times.  They also revealed a deficiency of Factor 8, a clotting factor.  He was diagnosed as a hemophiliac and was prescribed steroids to be taken "as long as he lived."  He was always prescribed an anticoagulant whenever he had "serious injuries".

He was referred to us by his family doctor who heard that "there were good medicines for these kinds of disorders " in homeopathy.

We started to question him and there were no "particular characteristic" symptoms except for his dreams and nothing of interest to us as homeopaths in his family history.  He was reluctant to talk about them in the beginning, because he felt that they were not relevant to his problem and was surprised when we gently insisted on knowing what they were.

He told us that right from childhood he had a recurrent dream the content of which changed very little with the passing years.  He had mentioned this to his mom and his friends.

He was made fully aware that this treatment would be of a long duration.  We started him off on a remedy with a low potency and asked him to see us every week.  At the end of the 2nd week when there was no perceptible difference in his complaints, we reviewed his complaints.  We changed his prescription, this time basing our prescription on the content of his dreams.  For the next 2-3 weeks, again we did not notice any difference in his complaints.  We increased the potency of the drug he was on and within a week, he noticed that his teeth were not "blood stained" as they would be first thing in the morning.   We decided to keep him on the same prescription for another 2 weeks. The improvement continued in the sense that he did not "bleed" in the morning.

We decided to send him for blood analysis.  His bleeding and clotting times were delayed, and factor 8 continued to be absent!!

His medicine was changed after 6 months when we decided to give him something stronger and long lasting to "sustain" he improvement.

He continued to improve- there was no bleeding from the gums and his cuts and bruises tended to heal quickly!!

At the end of one year, we sent him for a blood test and it showed slightly better clotting and bleeding times- but they were still outside the normal range and the factor 8 was till very much absent!!

After a year we slowly tapered off his medicines and at the end of the next 3 months he was completely drug free.

He has come back to us off and on, to "continue" his medicines for short periods of time.

We have treated hemophiliacs with a degree of success.  The homeopathic prescription is based not necessarily on the presenting symptoms (bleeding, diarrhea, rash etc) but those "characteristic" (dreams, moods, temperament, desires, aversions etc.) symptoms that "individualize" that person from another suffering with the same set of symptoms (allergies, dermatitis, asthma etc.). This unfortunately is not accepted as "science" because modern medical science tends to view every "disease" as similar symptoms-syndromes (physical characteristics) that are present in a majority of people.  Modern medical science tends to ignore those "changes in disposition" (mental and physical signs/symptoms), which occur with changes in health.  These changes in dispositions form the cornerstone for the homeopathic prescriptions.

Skin Problems (Psoriasis, Allergic Dermatitis)
Rheumatic Fevers
Allergies
Asthmas
Psychosomatic Disorders (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis etc.)

Rheumatic Joint Pains
A 28-year old software engineer in the U.S complained of repeated attacks of sore throat for a long time.  There was pain while swallowing which was relieved whenever he ate warm food and drank warm liquids.  His throat swab always revealed streptococcus infections, which were treated with antibiotics, which afforded him partial relief. This had been going on for about 2 years.  He developed "rheumatic" pain in the small joints of his hands and feet. His x-rays and other tests were normal. In addition to his antibiotic he was prescribed a painkiller.  He developed gastric disturbances-loose motion and a sense of heaviness of the abdomen after taking the medicines.  He decided to "try" homeopathy because his friend, a patient of ours, persuaded him to.  He filled out our online questionnaire and his queries about duration of the treatment and diet restrictions were answered.

His childhood medical history was significant in terms of the effects of vaccinations that he took as a child.  His mother told him that he was never well since he was given DPT and had a high fever after the vaccination.  He had to be hospitalized because he had fits with his fever.  He lost weight and from then on was a "sickly child", always had a runny nose and a "weak chest."  His other milestones of life were normal.  We started our prescription first with the intention of alleviating his acute problem- difficulty in swallowing.  He took medicines for about 2 weeks and the he felt "remarkably better".  He was able to eat and drink normal food.  He also felt "energetic" and wasn’t too sure if we had given him something to "pep" him up.  He did not feel any "sideeffects".  However, his joint problems persisted and he wanted some medicine to be given for that.

He was completely off antibiotics and wanted to get off painkillers too.  At the beginning of the 3rd week we decided to change his prescription and include something for the joint pains.  He reported, at the end of about 6 weeks that his throat problems had completely disappeared but his joint pains continued to be a "bother."   We took a look at the changed scenario in terms of the factors that aggravated/relieved his joint problems and changed his prescription again.  This time he reported a "significant change" in his condition and said that this medicine was much better than the last one.  He continued to take this medicine for about 4 weeks until the beginning of winter when the pains came back with "double the intensity".

He was frantic with worry and was depressed that he might have to go back to the painkillers.  We changed the prescription again and increased the potency of the remedy and asked him to email us every 2 days.  He religiously did and there was perceptible difference in his pain after about a week.  He continued to improve.  After a long time he celebrated Christmas vacation that year without being on pain medication and being pain free.  We advised him to stop taking the medication at the beginning of spring as he was doing much better.  He was afraid to stop.  But we persuaded him to go off medication and see for about 2 weeks.  We gave him an SOS medicine and told him to take it only when he gets an attack of the joint pains.  He has taken it occasionally and says that he now feels he’s completely OK.

As homeopaths we tend to look at the life-space situations, aggravating/relieving factors for a particular complaint, sensitivities (food/weather/stress etc.) and also family medical history to prescribe remedies.  As and when the character of the complaint changes with the above factors, we do change prescriptions.  We also advise against the constant use of any medicine when the patients are doing fine and we feel that the "system" has been put back on the rails.  The idea is to just "kickstart" the process of recovery with the use of medicines and once the body is making the a "comeback"- just allow it to return to normalcy without the aid of remedies.


Terminal diseases
Often we are asked, by physicians and patients, if homeopathy has any medicines to "cure" cancer.  Our (rather unsatisfactory) answer to that is that we have to talk to the patient and then assess the scenario. We lay no claim to having "cured" cancers and still do approach each case with caution trying our best not to give any "false hope" to the patients and their caretakers.  Most of the cases that are referred to us come to us after radiation and chemotherapy.  They usually present with the symptoms of radiation or chemotherapy – diarrhea, extreme weakness, bone pains, vomiting, inability to swallow, nausea, rash etc.  They just want "something" to relieve these distressing symptoms.

Many a time we work together with the attending oncologists who refer these patients to us.  We have had mixed results when we prescribed homeopathic remedies and asked these people to take them along with their chemo.  Some have improved to the point that they discontinued their regular medicines on the advise of their attending physicians and then were totally on homeopathic drugs.  Others continue to take their regular medicines with homeopathic drugs and report that they are doing well.  Others do not respond to homeopathic drugs at all.

The way we approach a terminal case is no different from others.  After extensive counseling sessions with the individual and their caretakers, consent is taken after explaining the "tenuous nature" of the treatment.  Our effort in these situations is to reduce the pain, improve the appetite, bowel habit and reduce post radiation/chemo effects.  We usually look for the "individualizing" and "characteristic" symptoms after an exhaustive case taking.