I started studying homœopathy to try to help myself with extremely painful periods. It has been quite a journey but thankfully I am there now.
My symptoms first manifested as pain in the left groin. I thought I had a pulled groin muscle as I was practicing jujitsu at the time. However it just didn’t get better, I was in pain a lot of the time with my periods becoming more and more painful.
I was taking so many OTC painkillers. This was at the time that ibuprofen had just hit the market. I was told that this was the new wonder drug as it was a great anti-inflammatory and was safe to take. Well I went through a packet every month and after 12 months I was completely immune to it’s effects. Then I found Voltaren, another strong, anti-inflammatory pharmaceutical. I was in the doctor’s surgery obtaining a repeat prescription for this medication, I commented that it was such a successful medicine for my pain, the doctor replied ‘yes it is but if you are to continue taking it, we might have to look at another prescription to protect your stomach’. This set off an alarm bell in my head, to look at side effects of drugs and explore alternatives.
Meanwhile, I continued doing the rounds of different doctors and therapists to try and find out what was causing all this pain. This went on for 5 years. One explanation was irritable bowel syndrome.
The medical imaging department I was working for at the time (I have spent 35 years in this industry) had just installed a new MRI scanner. They tested all the different coils on the staff to set up the scanning parameters on the machine. Because I was known for having the pelvic issues, they did a pelvic scan on me. This showed I had massive chocolate cysts on my ovaries, the size of tennis balls! They had been missed on ultrasound initially as they were so large the boundary had not been identified and images had simply shown a homogenic signal. So this was considered a medical emergency as the large cysts can cause torsion.
My medical insurance didn’t cover me for an operation as I hadn’t had it for long enough to cover a chronic condition. I had been on the waiting list in the public system for ages and an appointment was finally due in 2 weeks time. I decided to wait for the appointment in the public system for a second opinion on the operation. At this appointment, I was told that yes I did need surgery but the waiting list was long and they couldn’t say when I would be able to have it. This made me feel better because I thought, well it can’t be that serious. However, I received a letter for an operation appointment one week later – to jump a public surgical waiting list like this meant it really was an emergency.
The operation was supposed to be a laparotomy, but the fluid in the cysts was too thick to be extracted this way, so I woke up with a 12 cm scar across my abdomen. I now had the definitive diagnosis of endometriosis and was told I ought to now take further medication. When I said I wanted to try homœopathy first the consultant, in a rather condescending manner, said well we can let you do that for a time and then we might have to look something more scientific.
I worked with my homœopath after the surgery but then received a job offer in the Middle East. My homœopath put me on a herbal formula that was available in tablet form so I was able to take a 12 month supply away with me. However, when I finished this, my period pain started to come back and I didn’t know where to turn to being in a foreign country.
I then began a chapter where my period pain was so bad, I would wake up in agony with vomiting and diarrhoea. I couldn’t take painkillers because of the vomiting. I would go to the ER department of the hospital I was working at and be put on a pethadine drip. This went on every month for a few months. My wonderful boss told me I couldn’t possibly have a day off every month because of my period, I had to DO something about it. So I was put on deprovera a medication that completely stops the menstrual cycle. So for 6 months, I had a reprieve from the pain. Then the pills finished. This ‘treatment’ is supposed to give relief for 6 to 12 months post drugging. I had 2 weeks! Then I had pain 3 weeks out of every 4. I took paracetamol with codeine for this pain, almost daily. I couldn’t function at work without it because of the pain. It says on the packet, ‘do not operate machinery under the influence of this drug’ I was operating a CT scanner in a major trauma hospital. I knew this type of drug is very addictive. Micheal Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor met in rehab trying to get off this type of medication. I was offered Zolotec, which is a gonadotropin releasing hormone blocker. This stops the menstrual cycle from the pituitary gland, placing a woman into a medically induced menopause with the side effects being the menopausal symptoms.
I had started studying homœoapthy in my spare time however the more I studied, the more I came to understand that this is an immense subject and it could well be 20 years before I knew enough to be able to treat myself. An oft repeated phrase is ‘a homœopath that treats themselves has a fool for a patient and an an idiot for a physician’ so I consulted a qualified homœopath to treat me.
At the time, Yahoo Groups was the method of using the internet to connect global interest groups. I was in one such group for homœopathy. One woman I noticed always wrote interesting and knowledgeable responses to I emailed her privately and asked if she would treat me. She said yes. Long emails followed and she posted me remedies. Within 6 weeks of taking the first remedy, my pain was back to once per month like it had been before the depro. Then the prescription was changed to a more constitutional remedy, this had me completely pain free in 6 months. After years and years of pain, it was almost a shock to have a period with no symptoms whatsoever but what a joy. With no symptoms now, I didn’t need to keep taking any remedies.
Then a year later I had a miscarriage, I was told it was a blighted ovum and not a real pregnancy. I had a curettage to remove uterine contents. Then I had a relapse of my previous symptoms. I contacted the same homœopath again and different remedies were required. After a few months, I was again pain free and went on to create a healthy, full-term pregnancy. I credit the very existence of my son to homœopathy.
Not only did my period pain completely vanish but during my pregnancy I had no issues with morning sickness or any other complications. When it came to menopause, I had zero issues here as well. Did my homœopathic treatment balance my vital force to the extent that I remained healthy during these other milestones in my life? I cannot say definitively, but I’ll wager heavily in favour of this idea.
It continues to amaze me that there is such a concerted campaign to discredit homœopathy and label it pseudoscience. I personally experienced all that the mainstream medical industry had to offer me for my ill health and saw it fundamentally fail me. The irony being that I didn’t have to pay for any of these offerings as the pharmaceutical industry works so closely to influence governments around the world to use their processes at the exclusion of all else. The drugs and surgery that I experienced costs thousands of dollars, paid for by governments and therefore tax payers. This causes the ultimate blow out of health care budgets. Homœopathy costs so little and is so effective, it truly is the medicine of the future. Anyone who denies this is just plain blind.
I have now completed my studies in homœopathy although I continue to study and probably will forever. There is so much to know about this subject and so many ways to practise it. Now I am in a position to help others achieve the good health I now enjoy.