Swelling of the fingers and occasionally swelling of the lips and eyelids and would occasionally develop difficulty in breathing during the acute phase of urticaria.
26 year old female, Mrs. T. P. (Patient reference number L8517), reported to the clinic for complaints of urticaria since 1 year. Everyday she would develop rashes on her arms, legs, face, back, abdomen and chest. The urticarial wheals would last almost the entire day and as few of them would begin to disappear, others would appear. She would also develop swelling of the fingers and occasionally swelling of the lips and eyelids. She would occasionally develop difficulty in breathing during the acute phase of urticaria. Her complaints would be worse before menses, from heat, tomatoes, fermented foods, sour foods, etc. She would feel somewhat better with cold water application. She would have to take two different types of anti-allergic medicines daily and inspite of this, the rashes would be almost persistent. Finally she decided to opt for homeopathic treatment for her complaints since no other treatment was helping her much.
She was a vegetarian with a normal appetite and decreased thirst and was very fond of sour things and yogurt. She was sensitive to warmth in general and would like to be in a cool environment. Her sweating was average. She would frequently be constipated and would require straining at stools. Her menses were regular and she had no complaints pertaining to the same. Her sleep was sound and she would often dream of snakes.
She was a Chartered accountant but had taken a break from her career after the birth of her son who was 1 ½ years old. She stayed with her husband, son and in-laws. She said that she was going through lot of stress after the birth of her son since she could not go to work anymore. Since she was very career-oriented, this setback would make her feel quite sad and frustrated. She would like to keep herself busy as far as possible. She would mix easily with others and would generally prefer to be in the company of people. She was afraid of darkness and would be quite anxious about future. She also added that she was short tempered and would get angry at trifles; she would shout and express her anger but even later the anger would linger on her mind for long. She said that she would constantly compare her life with her husband's (who was also a chartered accountant) and wonder what had happened to her career.
She had not suffered from any other health problems in the past except for gastroenteritis as a child. Her father as well as her mother had suffered from urticaria and her mother would even develop angioedema; they both had been cured of urticaria. Her mother was also a diabetic and suffered from multiple food allergies.
Based on the above history she was prescribed Apis 200 for her urticaria along with doses of Kali Iodatum 200. Within 1 month of treatment, her urticaria was 90% better than before. She had stopped one of the two anti-allergic medicines that she was taking and the other one would be required only once in a while. The treatment was continued on similar lines and the next month she started taking tomatoes and yogurt which would worsen her complaints in the past. This time she had no aggravation from these foods. Lemons and tamarind would still give her occasional itchiness but no rashes. After yet another month of treatment, she was taking all kinds of foods without any aggravation whatsoever. She was off all anti-allergic medicines and was doing absolutely fine. She was very delighted because she had never seen so much improvement at all ever since she had developed urticaria 1 year ago. Her treatment was thereafter discontinued and she was asked to report to us in case there was any problem in future.