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Homeopathic Surgery: Foreign Object Lodged in Throat, Removed With Homeopathic Remedy
By Christina Mueller
It was an evening in mid June, the end of a perfect day at the beach - gorgeous weather, clear blue skies with puffy white clouds hanging high. The beach was almost vacant and the ocean was pristine. We had ventured the seven-hour drive in our small RV the day prior, arriving late in the night, so this first day on the beach was pure bliss, a much-deserved break from the busy practice and school.
We had just sat down to a home-cooked meal of ground chicken, spinach with lemon and olive oil, and rice. Everyone was eating heartily, when our oldest, a six-year-old girl cried, "OUCH!" She paused, swallowed and yelled, "OOUCH!" again. "Something hurts in the back of my mouth when I swallow!" Manfred and I just looked at each other. He spoke first, "drink some juice and see what happens." She did and upon swallowing, she again felt pain.
She stayed calm at first, until repeated attempts at swallowing yielded more and more pain. She began to panic. I looked inside her mouth but could not find anything near where she was pointing. I decided to give her a dose of Pulsatilla, one of her daily remedies, to help with her anxiety, as it is not uncommon for her to become panicky and fearful in an intense situation. It did help her calm down, but by this time, the tears had already started.
I needed to look deeper in her mouth with a flashlight and  investigate the throat. I got the job since I was sitting closest to her in our tiny little RV (the dinner table is cramped with 2 adults and 3 children around it!). Fortunately, our daughter was eager to be diagnosed.
There it was! "I found it," I announced happily. It appeared as if something was stuck to the right side of the back of her throat, beside the uvula, near the tonsil. The object was off-white in color, approximately 1mm wide and about 3mm long. I thought, OK, it's probably just stuck to the side of her throat - let's flush it out. Manfred handed me a clean remedy dropper, filled with water and I squirted a stream of water at the object. This did nothing but gag her and increase her level of panic!
Of course I felt bad, but at least we had established one crucial point - this object was not lying on the throat, but was embedded in it and what we could see of it was protruding 3mm. Our guess? It was probably a shard of a bone from the ground chicken we'd been eating.
We decided to try tweezers to pull it out. However, we quickly realized with the depth of the location and the level of panic of our daughter, this was not an option! I suggested that maybe an after-hours dentist could sedate her and use a long tweezers and pull it out. Being in a small town at the beach on a Friday night quickly put an end to that idea. It was after 8pm and all the urgent care facilities had closed. We were at a loss, that is, until we contemplated calling the paramedics, in hopes they might be able to help us without having to go to the ER. So I called 911.
While I was busy trying to come up with a make-shift way to remove the splinter mechanically, Manfred was thinking about the homeopathic Materia Medica. He decided he'd try a little homeopathic surgery. He'd quietly began to administer Hepar sulphuris calcareum in an olfactory (sniffed) dose in the 3X potency diluted in water, every 15 minutes. He reasoned that our daughter was suffering from the effects of a "splinter" of sorts and needed a remedy that could cause expulsion.
 While waiting for the paramedics, we started packing up the campsite in preparation for a possible evacuation to the hospital.
By the time the medics arrived, our daughter was composed, and calmly let the men examine her throat. It turned out they could not help us because she did not appear to be having an "acute medical emergency" - she could breath with no obstruction, her blood oxygen levels and blood pressure were normal. They suggested we go to the hospital, a good 45 minutes away, to have a surgeon look at the situation.
By the time the paramedics had left, our daughter had taken three doses of the remedy. What to do now? We  were faced with a big decision: go to the hospital or put our faith in homeopathy! Our daughter seemed to think the object was sticking out more. We examined her throat one more time. Sure enough! It was now protruding 4.5mm instead of the 3mm before we called 911! Manfred deemed this a good sign. Hepar sulphuris calcareum was indeed beginning its homeopathic surgery - we would simply start driving home and postpone the hospital.
By midnight, when she fell asleep - the splinter was protruding approximately 5mm and the surrounding area had reddened and appeared to be forming a pus pocket. Hepar sulphuris calcareum was doing what it was supposed to, encouraging suppuration. Her body had begun to fight back with macrophages! At 1:30am, she woke up, examination showed it was about 6mm long and remained slightly reddened and surrounded by pus.
 At this point we all felt tired and decided to pull into a rest area to get a few hours of sleep. By 5:30am when everyone woke up, our daughter happily smiled and declared that she could swallow with no pain. She handed me the flashlight to examine her throat.
Sure enough, the splinter was gone, the area looked less red and was on the mend. What a relief! I gave her a dose of Calendula officinalis 6X to prevent any potential infection from the puncture.
Though we had missed several days of beach fun, we narrowly avoided a night at a hospital - thanks to calm reflection and homeopathy.
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