Homoeopathy and Limits

I have found it hard this week, mainly because the clinics were full and that meant a lot of work. I don’t mind the work, in fact I am very grateful for the experience, but it does leave me knackered.

As I said last time, this week was when I intended to practice pacing my case-taking better and I have to say that it worked. Each clinic, instead of rushing headlong into it, I sat and took ten deep breaths and remembered what I was there for. On Monday I rearranged the seating (Patience, our translator, seemed to think I was mad but went along with it – thank you!) This meant that now the laptop & table were to one side and I was more directly facing the patient, making better contact and being able to observe more. For this clinic I also worked with Lorraine which reduced the writing load and thus eased the pressure. And finally, when I felt that I needed to, I stopped, drew breath and reminded myself of what I was doing. All this helped and by the end of Monday I felt like I was dealing with cases far better than last week.

 

On Tuesday we drove off towards the Pare mountains, and this time I noticed what wonderful scenery there was. Before we started I took a few minutes to draw inspiration from the beautiful hills around. This time I was working on my own, with input from Cynthia, but was now feeling more comfortable with my method. Things flowed better, even when Roger, the translator, and I moved into the second chicken coop there – the first one now being occupied by a rag-tag bunch of chickens. This again was a very busy day.

Wednesday proved to be busier still, with about 12 patients at a clinic, followed by a sad home visit. Then driving off back to another clinic where Michelle had been working flat out and still had eight patients waiting when I arrived (I could take some lessons in stamina from Michelle!!) So, knackered but knowing that we are a team, I settled down to take as many cases as I could. Here I have to say I was blessed with good fortune, as the three new cases I saw all had at least one very clear or unusual symptom, making prescribing much easier. For example, this was the first time I had met someone who was eating Pica (unusual substances) – in her case earth. She had some problems with heavy menses and when I got home and read about it, it seems that people who want to eat Pica usually have low iron levels. Interesting!

However the biggest lesson for the day was my final patient. She entered the room with a very miserable face and just looked like she was saying ‘poor me’. Normally I feel sympathy for most people I see, but at this point all I could think was how much she was complaining. Looking back I can see that I was at, or beyond, my limit. I am not sure how good a prescription I gave, with the hindsight of fresher eyes I suspect Pulsatilla would have been good. So – what is good is, that I have learned that I have my limits and there is a time to say ‘enough’ for if I stay longer, I am not giving as much help as I might.

We have been told to take a break when we need to, so that is what I did. Good advice.