Mar 24, 2017
This month I bring you another round of "Repertory with Roger".
If you missed our first round, this is a regular monthly component where Roger Van Zandvoort of Complete Dynamics and I look at a case from his Clinical Case Comparison Project. Roger chooses cases from the old Homeopathic Recorder Journal issues, and enhances his repertory by making sure the remedies in those cured cases are represented under their corresponding rubrics. In this way, he is expanding the CD repertory, and small and lesser known remedies are better represented and more likely to come up- all from reliable cured cases.
All of these cases are accessible on his Facebook page, and as always there will be a link in the show notes to that Facebook page, as well as the case.
I have gone through and chosen about a dozen cases, copied, pasted and removed the remedy information so that when I sit down to repertorize them, they are “blind” to me.
I apologize for the audio on my end, which has an echo. I hope it’s not too distracting to listen to… I’m going to do some troubleshooting to see what can be done to prevent that on future recordings.
The case chosen for this month is a pediatric case, a young girl with restlessness keeping her up at night, with symptoms you likely run into in your own practices today- croupy cough, nasal obstruction, aggravations at night keeping everyone up!
I chose this case because while many of the old Homeopathic Recorder cases might feel so different from the longer, more involved cases of today, this pediatric case felt like I could have taken it yesterday in my own clinic.
Here's the write up of the case, as published in the Journal:
Homoeopathic Recorder 1939, vol. 9., p. 33. Julia M. Green:
A child of five years, plump with firm flesh, light complexion, has many common symptoms and some unusual ones, e. g.: Tendency to mouth breathing. Nose stopped tight with mucus welling forth. Tonsils not large, uvula long, swollen. Grinding teeth in sleep. Perspiration free, head, neck, hands, feet. Desire sweets, rich foods. Cannot stand soap around nose, causes sneezing. Tendency to chest colds and asthma. Cough croupy, alternating with sneezing all night long. Wheezing all over chest. Dyspnoea accompanied by yawning. Extreme restlessness. Pulling hair, clapping hands, throwing herself, finally weeping. Itching all over so cannot sleep, very restless. Attacks of pain mid-abdomen, cramp-like, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Aching legs prevent sleep, wants them rubbed. Itching eyes and nose, keeps rubbing them. Nose red; sore. xxxx has made this child over in six months; potencies from 2c. to 1M. to 10M. so far. She has milder attacks farther apart, is far less nervous, can sleep all night.
Before the call, I previewed some of the main points that came out of our discussion of how to repertorize this case, with suggestions that will hopefully help you in clinic.
First- Determine the where the deepest pathology is- what tissues are affected?
In the heavily mentalized cases of the west, we can quickly become distracted by the story and emotions. But we must never forget the physical pathology- what is affected the most, and is of the most important. In a case where there are many symptoms, in order not to over repertorize, focus your rubrics on the deepest pathology.
Second-
To cover the specific symptom of your patient, choose the specific rubric that may be smaller- a sub-rurbic- but also choose the larger General Rubric. That way, you will not omit a potential remedy in the sub-rubric. By including the smaller more descriptive rubric- rather than only going with the General- you are more likely to push the smaller remedies to the surface.
Third-
The descriptive rubrics of the patient’s symptoms are always better than the clinically defined rubrics. You will miss some remedies if you only rely on the clinical rubrics… the descriptive symptoms show you the dynamics of what is going on in the person- and that is what we are treating, the dynamic vital action of the patient.
Fourth-
Listen closely to the section where Roger talks about crossing three rubrics to give you a dimension to the final rubric that make it like repertorizing in 3D!
For example- two concomitants and a modality or direction-
Fifth-
Have you ever wondered when to use coryza, catarrh or discharge? Me too. Roger clears it up!
(pun intended!!)
Sixth-
The idea that an aggravation or amelioration can be - an often should be- looked at beyond face value. In this case, we talk about a nighttime aggravation, but *why* nighttime makes more sense if you consider the overall pathology of the case, rather than simply taking aggravation at night as a one dimensional descriptor.
I don’t spend as much time on these cases as I would my own, but it was a good reminder that the way I typically work a case- to find connections and themes across all dimensions of the case: generals, particulars, mentals, modalities, etc… to find the coherent whole, supports this idea.
The Bottom Line:
Understand what is happening in the case, that is the ‘red line’ that Roger refers to, and where the deepest pathology is.
And then, choose rubrics that represent that line, and when you may pick the smaller rubrics for the SRP’s or the exact sx of your patient, be sure to use some larger general rubrics as well.
Seems so simple, doesn’t it?
But whatever you do- make sure it is, as Roger says a “ Patien-tien” repertorization.
Thanks again for listening, and for all you do to support the podcast, sharing it with others and giving me feedback.
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I’ll be back next month with a regular episode, diving deeper into how we fail, so we can rise up higher.
Until then, take care and stay observant!
Very interesting. Thank you.
very pleased with the way you have structured the talk. Thumbs up!