She came in crying, her face contorted, obviously scared. She said that she was scheduled for extensive periodontal surgery tomorrow and that she was terrified. She had been my patient since 2006 when she and her family lived in Houston. Later, she moved to Scotland when her husband was transferred. No dentist in Scotland had been able to stop her periodontal disease and, in a last ditch effort to solve it, she came to Houston. She had known her as a strong, independent woman who could set goals and make them come true. She had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was fifteen years old and she was in remission. She had successfully treated her with Phosphorus for recurrent cough and once for rectal bleeding. Later, she did well with Ferrum phosphoricum. When I saw her she was beside herself with fear. She was desperately worried that the procedure would not be successful. Within a week, she and her children were scheduled to fly to Angola to join her husband, and she knew there would be no state-of-the-art periodontists there. She was also worried about the sedation, that she wouldn’t wake up. She was having diarrhea, she was so scared. I feel small, she said.

What do you mean, little one?

He held his thumb and forefinger slightly apart. Small, as I am small, she said. I’m also mad at myself for being like this. In less than twenty-four hours he was going to have three or four hour surgery on his mouth and, in the state he was in, he wasn’t entirely sure he could go through with it, so out of control he was. there was his anxiety.

I needed a drug that had a strong anticipatory anxiety plus one that covered the diarrhea of ​​fear. I used the following rubrics in the directory:

• Food in advance.

• Anticipation anxiety.

• Fear of imminent danger.

• Fear that something will happen.

• Diarrhea from fright.

Gelsemium was the first choice. I remembered that I had prescribed Gelsemium for the flu, which, after ten days, still hadn’t improved. That was six months ago in January and Gelsemium had acted quickly, restoring him to health overnight. Yes, I know. There is no connection between the flu and extreme anticipatory anxiety. But, in the world of homeopathy, where symptoms always trump logic, there is indeed a connection. Gelsemium is perhaps the most famous medicine we have for the flu and is one of the main medicines for stage fright and anxiety before important events such as exams, operations, etc. In the flu, patients who need Gelsemium are often bored, sleepy, and often dizzy. They are listless and complain of general muscle weakness. A key symptom is that the body, including the eyelids, feels heavy. He had been in that state in January. Now, however, he was showing the other side of Gelsemium, the one that panics at tests, imagined or real. I gave her two doses and sent her with acetic acid and told her to take the latter immediately after leaving the periodontist’s office. Acetic acid, prepared by diluting and sucking vinegar, is known to act as an antidote to the effects of anesthesia.

Two days after the surgery I saw her again. She seemed like a different person.

His first words: He stopped all that emotion. There was a feeling that everything was fine and I calmed down. The crying stopped.

How long was it before he felt calm?

In two hours.

I asked her to rate her anxiety before Gelsemium and right after. Before it was 10/10. Then it was 2/10. When I walked into the periodontist’s office the next morning, I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I was calm. I no longer had that empty, tight feeling in my stomach. I asked him how it went after the operation. I took the acetic acid right away and was definitely not groggy. When I had a colonoscopy in 2009, it was very different. I was out. I don’t remember leaving the office, getting in a car, nothing. After this surgery, I remembered everything.

For the swelling and pain she felt in the operated area, I prescribed Belladonna 10 M. One day she had neither pain nor swelling. A week after the operation, she went to the same surgeon to have the stitches removed. Before the surgery, he had told her that it would take four to six weeks for her to recover. When he looked at it, he was visibly surprised and said that he had never seen such rapid healing. Your healing is a month ahead of schedule, he said.

Preoperative, postoperative, homeopathy can make everything much easier. Gelsemium will not resolve all pre-operative distress. And Belladonna won’t resolve all postoperative pain and swelling. As always with homeopathy, specific symptoms rule.