SHINING THE LIGHT ON LYME DISEASE
"Last year my son was bitten by a tick and contracted Lyme disease. I believe that without homeopathy it might’ve been a very different story and a much more difficult battle with the disease." Georgina
Sudden griping stomach pains followed a week later by a strong pain in his knee, five year old Leo had been having a strange few weeks particularly uncharacteristic for him. His mother told me that in the weeks before she had noticed him irritably brush the back of his neck only to find that beneath his lovely long curls a tick had burrowed itself tightly into his skin.
The borrelia burgdorferi bacterium found in infected ticks, although prevalent in over 80 countries around the world with an approximate 400,000 cases diagnosed in the US each year – is not what one first thinks of when living in London. In fact its notoriously difficult to diagnose with any number of body systems throwing up a seemingly random array of symptoms anywhere from weeks to years after initial infection - from severe fatigue, joint pain to inflammation of the liver with the possibility of abnormalities both neurologically or with the heart. The clearest indication is the classic bullseye-rash erythema migrans that will appear within the first 30 days from infection however a large percentage of people do not report seeing a rash at all.
ERYTHEMA MIGRANS 'BULLSEYE RASH'
Ledum Palustre is one of our main 'go to' homeopathic medicines for puncture wounds, an 'anti-tetanus' medicine that is also indicated for insect bites. By this point Leo had not been showing any symptoms at all, and for all intensive purposes seemed well and recovered, I suggested that his mother give him some Ledum retrospectively to ensure his system had properly healed from the bite, “Lyme Disease” a faint voice at the back of my mind.
That night he woke with that same terrible knee pain - two days later the bullseye-rash appeared. The Ledum worked by kick-starting Leo's immune system into full operation, releasing a mass of energy that essentially shone-the-light on what is a very insidious bacterium. It did this by throwing it up to the surface - his skin. Leo was taken to his doctor and received antibiotics, supported alongside with various homeopathic medicines including the homeopathic nosode made out of the borrelia burgdorferi bacterium itself. Homeopathy is not a one-size fits all medicine system, prescribing is about matching the person’s state to a remedy. The ledum which had such an effect in Leo’s case may not be the correct remedy for someone in a similar situation, ultimately professional homeopathic advise is recommended.
Once recovered Leo had a run of excellent health however what is really interesting is that almost exactly a year later, he suddenly began limping. It was that same pain in his knee, and this time it had become so severe that he needed crutches to get around. Leo's mothers instinct was that this was some form of a resurgence of Lymes but this was disregarded by the doctor as the antibiotics had already “killed that off” - from a holistic perspective however her instincts made complete sense.
Although the bug itself had been killed its pattern or energetic-imprint if you will, had not been resolved – the symptoms were still being 'played out through his body' without the bacterium physically present. Resuming homeopathic treatment, Leo's fundamental susceptibility to the bacterium and his continued mode of expression of it - through symptoms like his knee pain, are being addressed. What is brilliant is that when we are given treatment that is based on us as a whole person, improvement happens in ways that we do not expect. For Leo there has not only been an improvement in his physical symptoms, but the ability to connect more directly with his emotions, all propelled alongside a dynamic surge of creativity – this is true whole-body healing.
Pailin Brzeski Bsc(Hons) Homeopathy LCHE