Sara has a Sore Throat
Sara is 40ish, married with 3 children. She lives a busy life balancing family, work, social and other commitments.
Recently, with her husband working late most days and one of her children going through a difficult stage, she has been burning the candle at both ends just trying to find enough hours in the day. Now she has a sore throat and incipient cold. From past experience she knows this could go to her chest and she will be sick for a couple of weeks. This is really bad timing – she can’t afford to be sick right now.
Sara has heard a bit about homeopathy from a friend, Lani, who uses it for her own family. She calls Lani and asks if she has anything for a sore throat.
She is a little taken aback to learn that there are many remedies for sore throats. Her friend asks a number of questions about the throat symptoms and a few other seemingly unrelated things like whether or not she is thirstier than usual. Sara is surprised but impressed by the level of detail required. More importantly, Sara is impressed at how well the selected remedy works – within a few days she in fine form and the chest infection never eventuates.
A few months later, life being what it is, Sara is again under pressure to fit everything into her day and the sore throat comes back. She checks with Lani if she should repeat the remedy. Lani asks a few questions and gives the go-ahead. But she also explains that Sara should see a professional homeopath for a full constitutional consultation.
Lani sees the puzzled look on Sara’s face and goes on to explain that treating acute problems like sore throats is just scratching the surface of the possibilities of homeopathy. Sara’s tendency to develop sore throats and chest infections is a sign of poor immunity or underlying chronic disease or weaknesses in her constitution. By addressing these underlying issues, Sara will be better able to cope with stress in her life, less prone to sore throats and enjoy better overall health.
Acute vs Chronic Disease
Homeopaths define acute diseases as those which have a start point and an end point (either resolution or death) a relatively short time later. Examples of acute diseases include food poisoning, accidents, sore throats, flu, sun stroke, measles. Homeopathy can be a great help in these instances.
Other diseases, those that persist for a long time are called chronic. Chronic diseases may have a start point (often following a significant negative life event) or may be life-long.
Examples of chronic disease include insomnia, anxiety, IBS, chronic fatigue, diabetes and so forth.
Sara’s Constitutional Consultation
At Lani’s recommendation Sara books in for Constitutional treatment with a homeopath.
The homeopath listens to Sara’s story – her recurrent sore throats and chest infections, her life situation, how she is affected by people and their behavior, or by environmental factors (heat, cold, weather, air quality, noise etc); her food and drink preferences and sensitivities; her medical history and possible hereditary factors (family medical history).
No one has ever taken the time to really listen to Sara’s concerns before. More than the sore throats, Sara has for many years lived with low-level anxiety and has trouble sleeping. There were some incidents in the past that have left emotional scars. The homeopath wants to know about all this and more.
At the end of the consultation the homeopath explains to Sara that it has taken her many years to develop the state she is in now so it will take time to unravel, rebuild and strengthen her underlying constitution. A homeopathic remedy is prescribed to start the process. Sara will return in few weeks to assess what has improved, what has not and what to do next. She will build a partnership with the homeopath and together they will journey towards better health for Sara.
The homeopath has many tools in the toolbox to individualise treatment to Sara’s needs at each stage of the journey. Read Part II here.
