A few doses of Ledum pal took him back to the football ground!

A young boy named Firoz was brought to me by his mother for his chronic pain in the lower limbs, especially the ankle and knee joints. She told me, he was worried not because of the pain, but was not being able to play football, the one and only game he likes to play. Many times he had to play with severe pain as he was the captain of his school football team, but now abstained from playing for a few months because of severe pain and recurrent spraining of ankles. Recently, he received the last call from his school football      coach for the selection of a new team, which doubled his tension.
Earlier he was treated by a number of doctors including a pediatrician and later by an orthopedic surgeon in a famous hospital in Kerala. They had done several blood tests and investigations, but the reports were not given to him and kept there itself as a secret. However, they informed his parents that he is having Juvenile Arthritis and advised for long time medication. He was getting worse even after repeated medication and their financial status was not good enough to
continue with modern medicine. Hence, as an alternative they took treatment from a Government Ayurvedic Hospital. He felt slight relief from his problems and needless to say the first thing to do after reaching home was playing football. But his first attempt itself was quite disappointing. There was a sudden return of his pain and was not able to move, and his schoolmates brought him home from the playground. Finally they consulted me for homeopathic treatment; with a question, can homeopathy do something?
I took his case, but not in a detailed manner as I had some patients waiting in my visiting room to whom I had already given appointment for a detailed case taking. So, I decided to give him an acute drug on the basis of presenting complaints. Since they have not brought any investigation reports such as RA factor, ASO titer etc. I asked them do the blood investigations to diagnose the type of arthritis. As per the information given by his mother, he had history of repeated minor injuries. He was a successful player and was the main target of his opposite team. While playing they used to play foul by kicking on his legs to prevent his attempt to score. I thought repeated injury as causation for his pain. Drugs like Arnica, Ruta, Rhus tox came to my mind. As usual, I decided to start the battle with Arnica, which is the synonym of injury for most of us. Though I decided a remedy, I thought I should satisfy the patient by some sort of clinical examination. So I asked him to lie down on the examination table and started gently palpating the joints of his lower extremity. To my surprise, the joints that were swollen and painful were cold to touch. Immediately Ledum pal came to my mind. Even without searching for other characteristics of Ledum such as cold water amelioration and ascending pains, I prescribed him 5 doses of Ledum pal 200 and asked him to take one dose every alternate day. Of course placebo was given to satisfy the patient and his panic stricken mother. The above prescription was not made after a detailed case taking and evaluation of symptoms; it was rather a blind prescription. Hence I asked them to see me after 10 days with the lab reports.
However they didn’t turn up. I felt he might have got cured completely or consulted someone else for quick relief. After about a month his mother came back with an apology for the late information because of his exams and his father’s transfer. She informed that his pain is completely disappeared and now he plays football without any kind of discomfort and again got selected to the school team. Because of great ease of symptoms, they even forgot to do the lab   investigations. Though I got result with Ledum pal, I wanted to watch the flow of his condition rather than declaring the case as completely cured. So I told his mother to inform his symptoms on regular basis.
His mother followed my instruction and used to report his condition. There was no recurrence of pain and no other new symptoms. Mentally   also he was perfect. However occasionally he used to get throat pain just after taking soft drinks and ice cream. Prescription of drugs   like Bryonia 3x, Rhustox 6c etc. on different occasions helped him from acute complaints. A strong instruction to avoid cold items also helped.
Meanwhile he had a sprain of his elbow after falling during a football match and his friends took him to the same orthopedic surgeon from whom he had taken treatment initially. While taking his case, the surgeon asked about his leg pain. They disclosed the result with the homoeopathic treatment. Sadly, the surgeon denied it and told them that it is not because of Homeopathy, the disease itself was self-limiting!
For the surgeon the cure is just a placebo effect but for thepatient it was a kind of new life. This boy is now playing for the District Junior Football Team, scoring goals for his team. And for me, the selection of Ledum pal itself was a goal.