I had just opened my naturopathic practice in 1978 when a 25-year-old nursing mother entered my office.
Her complaint was mastitis, a painful infection of the breast. The problem had begun some five or six weeks earlier. She had just completed her second course of antibiotic therapy from her medical doctor. Each time the antibiotics ran out, the problem would recur with a vengeance. She had continued to breast-feed throughout the ordeal.
The patient was in a great deal of pain. She said it felt as if the pain radiated from her breast throughout her whole body.
She had a fever with a temperature of around 101 F. On examination her right breast showed an angry red streak extending along its side. It was very tender to touch.
I took her case according to the homeopathic system and prescribed a medicine for her. It was the homeopathic remedy known as Phytolacca 30C.
I was inexperienced at that time in treating complaints of this nature. I knew this could turn into a much worse condition, such as breast abscess, and thought perhaps she really should be on antibiotics. But she was fed up with the antibiotic approach and insisted on trying the remedy.
I told her to call the office first thing in the morning and report how she was doing. She agreed and went on her way.
That night I lay awake in bed with anxiety. I suspected it had been irresponsible for me to treat this patient homeopathically. I feared she had already taken a turn for the worse and perhaps was at the hospital emergency room.
The next morning when I arrived at the office, I pulled her chart and called her without waiting to see if she would report in as agreed.
She was surprised to receive a call from her doctor.
"How are you doing today?" I inquired.
"I'm fine," she said. "The pills worked."
"What do you mean 'the pills worked'?" I asked.
"Well, I mean they worked. It's all gone."
"You mean, the infection is all well, the fever and everything?" I asked, unable to hide my incredulity.
"Yes, it's all fine . . . isn't that what was supposed to happen?"
"Er, ah, why yes, of course that was what was supposed to happen. I was just checking up," I replied, regaining my professional composure. I told her to stop taking the medicine, and to call me if there was any recurrence.
From that moment, I gazed on my little white homeopathic globules with new found respect. I had not thought it was possible for such an infection, with such an acute presentation, to completely disappear overnight. On one dose of the remedy!
When I saw her a month or so later during a visit for her child, she told me the infection had started to come back about a week after the remedy, so she had taken a second dose and everything stayed well after that.
This kind of remarkable cure becomes more common as one gains experience in homeopathic prescribing. The secret is individualizing, treating each patient as a unique whole.
