By Allyson McQuinn, Intern
Arcanum Wholistic Clinic
Doctors of Homeopathic Medicine
As I sit down to write about Fibromyalgia, I have to go back to the early days of when I was considering my own treatment using homeopathy. I remember that I was feeling very disillusioned about the prognosis of my own chronic fatigue, monthly PMS, chronic sinus infections and painful migraines every time a low pressure system moved into the area. I would watch the weather forecasts with a heightened sense of anticipation. The question inevitably would arise, "Would I be able to function effectively today?" Or would I be laid out in bed where sleep was my only solace from my ailing body and my failing mind.
My small children were conditioned to ask me, "Is this a good day or a bad day, Mommy?" The guilt I felt after repeatedly answering in the negative was paramount and reverberated through my depressed psyche. I wondered how I was ever going to move past these issues if the Physicians I saw could not even see my conditions on their radar screens. It seemed I wasn't measurable by their standards. I was miserable, but it seems not miserable enough to be considered for any real form of medical treatment.
I felt stuck and frustrated. The worst part was that I knew I was playing a waiting game until I developed something significant enough to register on the medical Richter scale. In essence, I knew it would take a small time bomb to qualify for medicine and the ticking was more audible daily. The numbness of my senses was becoming more profound, my mental acuity was diminishing and my emotional and physical pain shrouded my former health and vitality.
My three year old son was also very ill with chronic constipation and he consistently raged through daily tantrums. I tried to shelve the noise from my own symptoms in an effort to find the root cause of his ills. By three and a half, he had been to the Hospital Emergency seven times where I held his trembling body while the nurses administered the milk and molasses enemas. He screamed in protest while I cried and attempted to sooth him. On one occasion, he was even put under general anesthetic to have the impacted stool removed. I felt sick with the level of powerlessness I felt to help him.
The Specialist recommended I increase his fiber, water and put him on stool softener for the rest of his childhood as this issue was just, "common to boys" of his age. This prognosis was enough to bolster the ounce of anger I needed to move forward on my mission. This was no quality of life for Jordan. What about the root cause of his issue? The silence in response was deadening. Little did I know that the answer I was about to find for him would also contain my own personal salvation.
Like 80% of North Americans, I entered the realm of alternative medicine. The Chiropractor began seeing us regularly. I took some basic courses in Homeopathy and I began to take my son to an energetic therapist who barely touched him as she performed what look like un-invasive exorcisms on his trauma ridden body. The results at best were limited and my skepticism increased. "What was the root cause of my baby's ills?" I pondered. On a very personal level, I questioned a Universe that was so cruel to abandon me without the capacity to heal my little boy or myself.
I finally found my answers in a broader system of Homeopathy entitled Heilkunst. This system of medicine uses homeopathic remedies and therapeutic regimen to address the patient's symptoms while simultaneously getting at the root cause. They recognize an intrinsic principle know to few. There are in effect two sides to disease!
This discovery came about as a result of two researchers; one Homeopath by the name of Rudolf Verspoor and another by the name of Steven Decker who is a German scholar. Mr. Decker was translating homeopathy's most important text written by the founder, Dr. Samual Hahnemann's. The work is entitled the sixth edition of the Organon der Heilkunde, which in English means Organon of The Medical Art.
To Steven's utter amazement, he saw clearly that this German Physician, born in Meissen Germany in 1755, had meticulously charted a blueprint for cure which honors two sides to disease and two sides to every human being. The "Physis" or the "Sustentive side" where the physical body produces symptoms in an effort to sustain health and restore balance, and the "Generative" which is where the true anchors of disease lie.
In essence this means that you can take vitamins, have a massage or even take drugs to palliate or suppress symptoms, but the law of nature dictates that "Like Cures Like" possesses dominion over the Generative side of disease where the anchors lie.
"Like Cures Like" is derived from Homeopathy which is derived from the Greek "Homois" for "similar" and "pathos" which means "suffering." If you send in a remedy similar to the patient's suffering it acts like a heat seeking missile to annihilate it.
While Steven was wondering how to apply what he was unearthing in Dr. Hahnemann's vast works, Rudi Verspoor was having some challenges with some of his own patients who would get much better in the short term, but inevitably they would have a recurrence of old symptoms. For the most part, this is much of the reason why people are so skeptical of homeopathy. Naturally, if it is a legitimate form of medicine why doesn't it cure long term?
Through a sequence of events, Rudi Verspoor and Steven Decker met in California one fateful day to discuss the implications of both their findings. History was made and Rudi returned to his patients to put into practice the principles that Steven had uncovered. By respecting both sides of a person's living principle and by prescribing the bio-energetic remedies to treat symptoms at the same time as annihilating the root cause of disease, he began to the get the results he had always hoped for. The effects of remediation became more effective and the results more permanent. It wasn't a shortfall on the part of the homeopathic remedies; the system had been underutilized for the past 200 years!
Even as I approached the Hahnemann College for Heilkunst Clinic, I was very skeptical at the onset until I saw the undeniable results with Jordan. Within three month of treatment, he was entirely cured from his constipation and his behavior improved markedly. Within the first year, Jordan gained 12 pounds and 2.5 shoe sizes. I was dumbfounded. The treatment was easy, un-invasive, there was no cost for the remedies and most importantly there was no further harm to his physical or emotional well-being. Jordan is nine and a half years old, now, and has had no recurrence of his old symptoms.
Shortly, after Jordan had stabilized and I felt his health had been restored, I wanted to know what this treatment held for me. Less surprisingly, every remedy I took brought me closer to health and well-being. I began sleeping better at night, my energy increased and I experienced less pain and associated symptoms. Enroute, I began learning about the system of medicine that respects the Laws of Nature just as Gravity does. "Like Cures Like" began to make sense to me as I undeniably became healthier and healthier. My fear and skepticism diminished.
Later, I realized how lucky I was that my symptoms did not qualify for allopathic medicine as the realm of contraries makes cases more complex and more difficult to address and reverse. I woke up to the realization that even the word antibiotics literally means "against life."
As my awareness increased I felt as if I had swallowed the red pill and I was leaving the Matrix of unprincipled medicine behind. My path to cure lay in energetic medicine and therapeutic regimen, where the founding principles have remained constant for over 200 years. No side effects, no drug recalls and a healthy respect of humanity and the environment called strongly to me.
It was a further testament to my health that I was able to embark on the three year intensive program of study. I wanted to understand intellectually what I was learning about myself emotionally and spiritually as my physical symptoms diminished. At the time I was a financial advisor working as a high priced consultant for the upper echelons in government. Imagine my surprise as my beliefs, myths and understanding of medicine were shaken to their materialistic foundations. I was being inspired to journal and write poetry in an effort to unravel my own healing.
At the Hahnemann College of Heilkunst in Ottawa, Canada I studied under Rudi Verspoor who led us through the Organon of the Medical Art inspiring us with his knowledge about homeopathic medicine. I never imagined finding my own freedom amongst these pages. Dr. Hahnemann left his own private practice of medicine due to the unprincipled practices of leeching and bloodletting where he had witnessed patients getting sicker and dying. After discovering Homeopathy, he challenged his Colleagues of his time by spouting, "It is high time for all those who call themselves Physicians, once and for all, to stop deceiving suffering humanity."
I'm not sure it is enough to say that I have witnessed many recoveries of Fibromyalgia patients over the past four years that I have worked at two Heilkunst Clinics. I have heard many testimonials from patients who no longer experience chronic pain who also found personal freedom on their own path to healing. I recall one woman who left her chronic pain behind over six months of treatment. She had recently left her husband and was providing support to other Fibromyalgia sufferers and telling her own story just as I was. Mostly, I'll never forget how her dull lifeless eyes became full of animation over the course of those months.
Like me, she had taken a leap of faith because something about homeopathy made sense to her. As I open my practice, I look forward to supporting others through this process of healing. If I have the honor of treating you as my patient, I can assure you when I look into your eyes; it is with empathy and an arsenal of principles in my back pocket!
Allyson McQuinn, Intern
Arcanum Wholistic Clinic
Doctors of Homeopathic Medicine
February 19, 2004
Author of "My Path to Cure"