consultation
Consult Info
I need to know in as much detail as possible the actual symptoms you experience. (not only test results – which are only an aspect of your whole condition) This is required for a high degree of certainty what the required medicine will be.
Its best to think about your problems and take some notes which you can show me at the clinic (or email them for phone consults) before your consultation.
Writing down a time line of events is the most important aspect.
The main areas we will need to explore are:
your main complaint (location, sensations & modalities)
other complaints you have had in the past
symptoms which you may feel are not important or relevant (this information can often help in this system of medicine)
knowing about you as a PERSON, your nature, personality, life story & major events, impacts in your life – this is the Holistic aspect of treatment, and often part of the causative factors.
You can download a worksheet to help record your symptoms:
Main Complaint
Most importantly I will need detailed Information about your main complaint. You will need to pay particular attention to these areas.
Location
I need to know the locations you feel symptoms. I need very accurate locations. Where possible you will need to actually point to locality.
Sensations
I also need to know the actual sensations you feel, in your own words. The word ‘pain’, is inadequate. It’s a starting point but with some self observation you will be able to express words to describe in more detail.
At the end of the page I will give some examples of different types of pain/modalities.
Be aware that pain is a sensation which can be expressed as a quality and an intensity.
Intensity can be expressed from 1-10, however sensation is more subtle and needs descriptive language. Only you personally can know & express this information.
Examples of sensations
Boring / penetrating
as if blows, jerks, punches, shocks, thrust, jarring
as if broken
as if Bruised
as if Burning
Burrowing (churning, rummaging, stirring)
as if coated
Constriction or contraction (band like or ligature)
Retraction
Squeezing together
Cramping (clamped, as if in a clamp or vice)
Cracking sensation
Cutting pain
Dull pain
Emptiness
Fullness
Gnawing (corroding, eating away at)
Grasping ( clutching, griping, as in colic)
Pinching
Fullness
as if from Growing pains
Gurgling
Hanging down sensation
Heaviness
Lightness
Lump sensation
Narrowing sensation
Blocked or Obstructed sensation
Paralytic pain (crippling, lameness)
Pressing (aching)
Urgings (forcing, pressing, as in stool) sensation
Pulsation or Throbbing
Scraping sensation
Crawling
Vibrating
Fullness
prickling (pins & needles)
Numbing
Sensitivity, increased sensation in general
Soreness (excoriating pain)
as if Sprained
Stinging (biting, smarting)
Stitching ( piercing, pricking)
Tearing (drawing or dragging)
Tension (tightness)
Twinges (sudden or fleeting pains)
Twitching sensations
Ulcerating pain
Water beating, bubbling sensation.
Modalities
I need to know about the modalities of the sensation/complaint/condition. What are the influencing factors of the sensation? What action or situations temporarily alleviate or aggravate the pain or condition?
For example what makes the pain go from 3 to 9? Or from 7 to 4? (I don’t mean from painkillers)
As pain killers or prescription drugs may be masking the true underlying condition, you may need to think back in time to when you didn’t take the medications. This way you can try and remember what you previously experienced.
Some examples of modalities or conditions which make a symptom better or worse;
Effects from Temperature, Hot or Cold (applications, becoming)?
Effects from Weather (hot, cold, humid, rainy, windy, fogy, before storms etc) ?
Changes of weather or Season?
Effects on your condition from different Emotions?
Definite effects from specific Foods or Beverage?
Examples of modalities
Ascending (stairs, incline etc)
Bending – affected parts
Blowing nose
Boring with the finger ( in ear or nose)
Chewing
Clothing (pressure from)
Being in Company or Crowds
During, before or after Coughing
Crossing limbs
in the Dark
Drinking
before, during or after Eating
from Burping
from mental Exertion
Physical exertion (what type?)
Exerting the Eyes
closing Eyes
before, during or after Fever or Chill
after passing Flatus?
Brushing Hair
Holding or grasping something
from Hiccoughing
from Hunger
Since Injuries in general?
Jarring
effects from Riding in a car?
effects on Rising, from chair, from bed etc?
effects from a closed Room?
effects from Rubbing the part?
effects from Sexual excess or activities on your condition in general?
effects from Sitting, bent or upright?
effects before, during & after Sleep?
effects from Sneezing?
from smoke?
effects from or whilst Standing?
from Stepping hard?
effects before, during & after passing a Stool & urination?
effects from Stooping?
from stretching?
effects from Swallowing?
effects from Talking or Singing?
from biting teeth together?
effects from Touch, light or hard?
effects from Vomiting?
effects from beginning to Walk, during & after Walking?
effects from Crying?
from Writing?
from Yawning?
Kneeling
Knocking against something
Laughing
Leaning on something
is it worse during Leucorrhea (for females)?
Light in general?
Effects of Lying down? on back, side, which side (painless or painful side) , what position?
is it better or worse before, during or after Menstruation, Intercourse etc?
Effects from Opening mouth?
effects from Movement in general? (effects from movement on your complaint) during, after movement / during continued movement? / movement of facial muscles?
effects on your condition from MUSIC/ sound & noise?
Stinging (biting, smarting)
effects from Odours?
Changing your position?
effects from PRESSURE? (actually press on the part to find out)
effects from Raising your Limbs?
effects from Reading?
effects from Breathing in & out, from holding breath, from deep breathing?
effects from retracting in your Abdomen?
Modalities
Further examples of so called irrelevant information
I could give thousands of examples of sensations that are easily dismissed or ignored but in actuality are important for proper diagnosis.
Hopefully the below will explain the principles.
An MS patient was helped from a prescription I gave. One of the symptoms which enabled me to find the required medicine was from the fact that when she experienced pain she perspired on her upper lip.
I was able to help an IBS patient because the nature of the flatus was cold, which lead to a particular medicine.
A patient with chronic diarrhea was helped as she was able to tell me that the mucous from the bowel was yellow and stringy, which also lead to a specific medicine.
A gentleman with enlarged prostate told me that his flow of urine was like a split stream, which also lead to his needed medicine.
Another patient with a very long standing diarrhea said his bowels ‘bubbled and gurgled’ and the stools smelt sour. He also explained how he often experienced an ‘itchy sharp stitching pain’ felt in the arch of his feet. This combination of symptoms (which seem totally unconnected) indicated a specific medicine which helped his condition.
A lady with Neuralgia told me that with her pain she felt cold however she craved ice water. This characteristic symtpom also lead to the corrective medicine.
You may now come to understand how conventional tests are very limited. Its only a very small part of the entire phenomena. Tests won’t actually help in choosing the needed remedy.