It has been a wild old week for me (Megan). You may have seen my last post? It was a story about how I’d managed to move through a bout of the stomach flu with the help of homeopathy.
Well… things took a turn for the worst. There I was feeling energised and healthy, getting ready for a road trip to Raglan for some waves, when BAM! I had a very sudden sensation of getting punched in the front of my neck. I turned to my homeopathic remedies for help first. These tied me over for one night. But the pain got so bad I decided it was time to visit the hospital. Like you, I hate the hospital. Even when I was in tears from the pain, my responsible little sister still had a hard time convincing me to go!
Man am I glad she did though! A CT scan revealed an infected Thyroglossal Duct Cyst. These are the result of abnormal obliteration of the thyroglossal duct during embyronic development. The thyroglossal duct runs from the back of the tongue down to the thyroid. Usually this would close up once the thyroid has developed during gestation. Mine decided not to. So the potential for infection of this duct has been there since birth. I’m guessing it took the opportunity to flare up while my immune system was down with the flu.
By the next morning I had a neck twice the normal size. I was unable to eat, speak or move my head without pain medication. The intense swelling of all the soft tissue in my neck caused such violent pain. It felt like getting stabbed in the neck and strangled at the same time. Luckily I had sympathetic nurses to dry my tears! I started intravenous antibiotics. 3 days later the inflammation had still not subsided at all. I was panicking. The doctors could not operate on my cyst until the inflammation reduced. This was due to the sensitive location so close to my oesophagus and trachea.
So after 3 days taking strong doses of antibiotics I had noticed no change. I realised my body needed more support to clear this infection. I felt the antibiotics disrupt my digestive system too. Loose stools and bloating/flatulence began after my first dose. As much as I hated this, I did accept that in an acute situation like this, it was the best thing for me. And it was comforting that I knew all the tricks to getting my gut back in order once I was home. More on that later…
Now that I had a diagnosis (thanks docs!) to add to my list of symptoms, I text these through to Lee-Anne, since it was still very uncomfortable to talk. A couple of hours later Melissa very kindly delivered two remedies to the hospital. One was an old constitutional remedy that fit my current state very well. The other one was Pyrogen. This is a remedy prepared from decomposed lean beef. It is useful to support the body’s natural functioning during serious infections.
I slept for 15 hours that night and woke up the next day to find my neck 50% less swollen. I continued taking my remedies and the following day I only had about 20% of swelling remaining. No pain medication needed! I also got my period, which was 3 days late. All good signs that my body was coping much better.
As I lay in the hospital bed, I was imagining modern medicine and natural medicine joining forces. The potential for that in a hospital setting is huge! The girl in the bed beside me could be taking remedies to get home to her little boy faster. The 99 year old dear with pneumonia may have been able avoid some drug side effects. The 91 year old belle with dementia may have even found her long “lost” hair brush (hehe). Seriously though, the extra support I felt from my remedies were so profound. It makes me sad to think of all the missed opportunities for healing in our health care system.
I am also happy to report that my tummy is back to normal even though I’m still on antibiotics. Want to know my trick? I had probiotics and kombucha with every meal and a little diary-free coconut yoghurt. I also took homeopathic remedies that support the gut.
Integrated medicine for the win!