A story about a cold.

Yesterday Andre woke up in the afternoon as usual. He works as a manager at the Madison and gets home late. His nose was stuffed up and he greeted me sadly with. "I've got a cold and its going into my chest. My throat is sore. Can you help me."
I went down to the dining room where my kits are: all my kits including my large, 'on set' kit. He had 2 sprays of the Echinacea throat spray from the Hollywood Survival Kit. I knew the Aconite in the kit would not be of value for the cold was well established.
I opened my everyday diagnosing book at colds. Andre read the page and found no remedy that suited his symptoms and so I looked up coughs in the same book as he said his cold was getting into his lungs. He read down the remedies and blurted out: "Antimonium" A new remedy to me, but I looked in my biggest case of remedies and found it. We carefully opened the tube for it had never been opened. He took one pill. He left for work an hour later seeming not much improved at all.

I saw him today at 2.00 when he came up to my office on the third floor. His voice was clear and his stuffed nose was gone. He said he was almost better and was upbeat. He came home last night and took another spray in his throat and another pill and thought he might take one more of each before going to work again. He was very happy with the results.

It is such a learning experience for me and so satisfying to offer just books and remedies and then watch if the patient knew his symptoms and could find the right remedy. I am mostly rewarded with a thank you for the diagnosing books are simple and easy to find answers in, and people are able to pick the right remedy most often.