Don't Panic When Acutes Attack! A tale of intestinal woe in India...
Even though I am the author of Impossible Cure, I'm still a "Nervous Nelly" when it comes to my kids' health. My older son Izaak just finished his Master's degree and is now on an exciting trip around the world before he
begins work in September. While traveling in India, he acquired a nasty intestinal bug. Imagine my panic when I received a call from Nepal. "Mom, I've got a fever and diarrhea every few minutes." To top this off, Izaak has a weak gut
to begin with, needing to be on a gluten-dairy-free diet. And his traveling partner had been hospitalized with the same problem a few days earlier and had been given an IV for dehydration and antibiotics. Others on their tour through
India were pressuring Izaak to take antibiotics too -- and he had bought a mystery batch of Cipro from a street vendor for $3! Yikes!
Luckily, Izaak is a well-trained homeopathic patient. He knew that homeopathy is always the best first option. I had sent him with a pretty complete kit of remedies and an instructional booklet. In fact, a few days before he called
me, he had taken Arsenicum 30c, which had helped somewhat. But anticipating a long train trip, Izaak had taken some Immodium which had blocked him up good for a few days. The bugs had been festering during that time, and when
the Immodium wore off, the situation was now complicated with a fever. Of course, his body was doing the right thing -- trying to kill off the bug with the heat of a fever. But what to do?
Despite feeling a bit panicky, I started investigating some remedies. I also managed to contact his homeopath who was able to Skype with him. Thank God for Skype! Because Izaak was still manifesting some of his more typical
constitutional symptoms, she recommended that he begin by just taking another dose of his constitutional remedy in water. After doing so, he went to bed and woke up the next morning feeling significantly better -- he texted me from
atop an elephant saying so! Nevertheless, he remained a bit weak and his stools somewhat frequent. Slowly, over the next few days, he regained strength while adhering to a very careful diet and staying hydrated. His traveling partner,
however, was not so lucky. He had developed a rash from the antibiotics given to him at the Indian hospital and -- even worse -- his IV wound was not healing. His stomach was still pretty bad too. In the end, Izaak's travel partner
left the trip and flew back to Australia, while Izaak continued on his way, adventuring on his own.
I thought this saga had ended, but not yet. About a week later, we got a late night call from Istanbul. The diarrhea had returned and Izaak felt very weak. It turns out, once he had left Nepal, Izaak was so thrilled to be back in
Europe that he had overdone it. He had resumed eating everything too quickly and hadn't tempered himself, spending long 13-hour days walking and touring around.
Luckily, Izaak had a private bathroom and an unusually long stay in Istanbul (most of his stopovers were just a couple of days). He had two more full days to rest and recover before his flight to Greece. Within hours, Izaak's
homeopath was on the phone with him (no Skype available this time!) and he ended up taking an acute remedy this time -- Podophyllum. In fact, Izaak had already selected this remedy himself using the travel kit guide. Luckily
he had both 30c and 200c available to him. After a few doses of Podophyllum 200c in water, the diarrhea slowed down and the urgency abated. And this time, Izaak knew he had to go slow and careful with himself. He made it to Greece OK,
and over the course of the next week, slowly recovered with a careful diet of rice, tea, and soup. By the time he got to Italy a week later, he felt fully recovered. Thank you Homeopathy!!
