As my first born’s 10 year birthday approaches and as I reflect on the first 10 years of his life I am reminded of the many blessings he brought with him. Like the sweet kind gentle soul he is, he lights up my path, he opens up my doors, he shows me my way. And one of the first doors he opened for me, was the door that would not only change my career but also one of the main lenses by which I view the world and all my relationships in it. Among many other blessings, my son called me to homeopathy.
When I was about 4 months pregnant with him over 10 years ago I got tonsillitis. As per modern social norms that I had unquestionably accepted till then, I went to see an ENT. He took one look at my throat and without even a swab prescribed me antibiotics. I took them. The tonsillitis went away for a few days but came back within a week of finishing my prescription. I went back. He prescribed me another antibiotic. Same thing. The tonsillitis came back. I went back again. But this time when he wrote yet a 3rd prescription for another antibiotic I gave up on him. For the first time ever, after receiving substandard care from the medical establishment for most of my life, I finally admitted, “This is some bullshit, there must be another way. A better way!”
You see up until that point I had been relatively abusive with my body. I didn’t eat well and I experimented with just about everything in my younger years. I had also swallowed the modern mainstream belief that doctor’s know best, there is only one science, only one system of medicine and that system was the technocratic materialist model of modern industrialized medicine. But suddenly, for the first time ever it wasn’t just “MY” body and just “MY” life anymore. I had my little baby inside me. I didn’t want to give my baby another failing and toxic antibiotic again but I did genuinely want to heal for him.
My husband who is French and grew up with homeopathy as his primary form of medicine at home suggested I see a homeopath. I had never heard of homeopathy until I had met my husband a few years prior. And my only contact with it at that point had been through my in-laws when the women in his family would give me remedies like it was second nature to them. Still, I didn’t know what homeopathy was and assumed like many people that it was some kind of natural herbal medicine. I didn’t think much of it to be honest. So, I sort of scoffed at my husband’s suggestion and thought “there aren’t any homeopaths in Egypt”. (I was living in Egypt at the time). But I was desperate and didn’t know how to even begin to look for an alternative. So I did what any person in this day and age would do when they need info; i googled it. I googled “homeopathy Egypt” and was shocked when I found a whole directory of homeopaths! I found the closest one to me, reached out, made an appointment and went ,without any expectation, without any knowledge of this science or this method. I had no idea that homeopathy was about to become a lifelong passion, pursuit and journey. I had no idea that I had a homeopath inside me who had just been found and summoned.
I was floored at how thoughtful and caring my new homeopath was. I sat down in front of her for my first appointment thinking I would be there for a few minutes hopelessly trying to get some compassion, a listening ear or at the very least some eye contact before leaving and feeling disappointed and not heard like most doctor’s visits seemed to go for me. But wow was I in for a surprise paradigm shift. I sat there for two whole hours talking. She wanted to know everything about me, things I didn’t even know about myself, things I never even asked myself. She wanted to know every thought, feeling, ailment and symptom I ever had. She wanted to know what makes me happy, what makes cry, if I get angry, do I get jealous? How? When? What makes it better? What makes it worse? She even wanted to know graphic details of bodily functions. And she intently listened and wrote down everything. For the first time ever, the person in charge of my health wanted to know ME! She was not looking at some biochemical machine she already had all figured out and just needed to simply fit into a disease box. She was looking for me, at me! She wanted to know my essence, my soul, the energetic frequency I was vibrating at and all the particulars and peculiarities that manifest from this frequency.
After what felt like the catharsis of a lifetime, she handed me one dropper bottle of hepar sulph 30c with instructions to put a few drops in some water before I go to bed that night and that’s it. One dose. One time. That’s it.
I never got tonsillitis again.
I was impressed but I wasn’t convinced yet. I’m not an easy critic. [Apparently, that’s been a major problematic theme in my life and I’m working on it!] I remained a sceptic and I dismissed it as possibly placebo.
Fast forward several months later…. I’m a new mother. STRUGGLING! I mean, this is not the kind of struggling that can ever be explained but all you parents know what I’m talking about! I was a newborn mom with a newborn baby with colic! He would scream every night non-stop from 1-5am. Every night! Without fail! I. Tried. Everything!!!! I used every resource I had access to. I tried baby massage, gripe water, acupressure, a zillion swings, driving in cars, walking up and down my hallway hunched over in cesarean pain for hours and hours. Days and days. Weeks and weeks. I was deep down in the dark sticky gross labyrinth of postpartum.
We were about near breaking down the both of us. Its those times, after days and days of sleep deprivation and while standing helpless in a hurting postpartum body with chapped bleeding nipples in the complete dark drowning in the torturing screams of a wailing colicky baby that have gifted me with a compassion for parents who do lose it. Its only by the grace of God i didn’t lose it. In fact, it was only by God’s blessings that in the midst of complete despair I remembered homeopathy.
I called my homeopath the next day and she sent me a first aid kit with 50 remedies and told me which remedies to try for his colic. She gave me very specific instructions; first try Lycopodium and if that doesn’t work then carbo vegetalis and if that doesn’t work than colocynth and if that doesn’t work mag phos. “What? What’s this crazy women saying? Well, now we’ll know if it’s placebo or not!” I thought. Because placebo doesn’t work on babies.
The first two remedies didn’t work, he still kept screaming. And then something kind of unbelievable and definitely ground breaking happened when I gave him colocynth— his whole stiff cramped up body suddenly relaxed and he fell asleep. The colic came back the next night and colocynth worked again. Eventually the colicky episodes got fewer and fewer until they just stopped all together.
Homeopathy saved my life and my marriage! Literally! And it quite possibly saved my son’s life too.*
Homeopathy works! It can’t be placebo. If it was placebo how could it work on a newborn baby? And if it’s placebo than why didn’t any of the other remedies work for him? I was intrigued! I was more than intrigued! I was fascinated! What is this medicine? What is this science? Why haven’t I been using it my whole life like my husband and his family has? Why isn’t everyone using this medicine? The spark was lit. I wanted to learn more. I wanted to learn homeopathy.
I eventually went to see my homeopath again for postpartum recovery and I told her about feeling called to learn homeopathy. She smiled a huge smile and said “well, lucky for you. Our homeopathy teacher is starting a new 3 year homeopathy course in a few months. You can sign up with me.”
And the rest is history….
*(Shaken baby syndrome usually happens within the first 6 months of life and I totally understand why! There were many times I was worried I might go crazy from the lack of sleep and his excruciating screaming and that I’d throw him out the window. Chill out people, I obviously didn’t!)
#homeopathy #postpartum #birth #parenting #newmom #newborn #colic