In 1999, when my oldest child was 2, she developed quite a large and scary looking red spot on her hip. I took her to the pediatrician right away. He diagnosed her with cellulitis and sent us off with powerful antibiotics and strict follow up instructions. I was just learning about homeopathy and didn’t think about treating her with a remedy. But, when I arrived home and called my new friend Juliet, who is responsible for introducing me to homeopathy, she suggested I give it a shot.
I had not yet filled the prescription, but I knew I had it in case it was needed, so I felt comfortable trying a remedy first. I relayed the symptoms to Juliet…. sudden appearance, rapidly expanding, hot, painful, swollen. She asked me questions for clarification and came up with Belladonna. Looking back, it was classic Belladonna. Radiating heat, rapid onset, bright red… all keynote symptoms for this remedy.
I put two pellets of the remedy in my daughter’s mouth. I did not really know what I was looking for, but I soon found out. Within an hour I swore the area of redness and swelling was smaller. Incredibly, the heat coming from it also seemed to be much less. It seemed very odd to me; these tiny white pellets couldn’t possibly fix this, could they?
I kept an eye on my daughter through the night. Each time I checked things seemed better. She seemed fine overall, sleeping well and comfortably. By morning the area was a shadow of what it had been. I could see where it had been, but barely. There was no heat, a very slight pink color, no swelling, and apparently no pain.
The next day I dutifully returned to the pediatrician as instructed. He was flabbergasted. What had happened? How was it that it resolved so quickly? I told him about homeopathy. I was so amazed, I thought he would be as well. Instead, I got some version of “OK Sweetie, whatever you say”, which I have since gotten used to hearing from various health care professionals as well as many other people in my life. I’m not sure what he thought happened, but I imagine he thought he was seeing things before and somehow misdiagnosed it. It’s difficult to see past years of medical school and the expectations of practice.
This experience absolutely blew me away. I could not understand why no one wanted to hear about it. I still don’t, but I do understand better now how deeply ingrained allopathic ideas are in our society and how difficult it is to change ideas and thought processes. For me, it was miraculous. It jump started my desire to learn as much as I could about this amazing system of medicine.
Materia medica
Carbo vegetabilis (Carbo veg, Carb-v) shines in states of collapse. It is one of the first remedies to think of if someone has fainted. It's also helpful in other collapse states where the patient is very weak and cold. It seems as though they may not recover. They are indifferent, apathetic, and extremely irritable, especially when it comes to family members. The coldness affects every part of them. Even the breath and perspiration are cold. Despite this, they want to be fanned. There is a great deal of bloating and indigestion which is helped by frequent belching.
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