I woke up at 2 am with a golf ball stuck down my throat - and this one was on fire! Wait – that couldn’t be right – I was not even a golfer. Was I dreaming? Better  check in the mirror – open wide! Oh my goodness, my left tonsil was hugely swollen, almost obstructing my throat. My dentist had been telling me for years that it should have come out when I was a kid...
but I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving one of my body parts in tonsil heaven, it's only company thousands of other murdered tonsils.
But the pain – excruciating! And radiating to the left ear… the left
side…something started to kick in…my memory. At least I still had one at that
age, 27, and in my second year of naturopathic college. Naturopathic college, not
exactly what I had expected either. Everything had been fine in first year where
we learned anatomy, physiology, nutritional biochemistry and other things ending
with ‘y’. All very scientific and right up my little alley.

But now we were in second year and a few weeks into our first course on
homeopathy, something else that ended with a ‘y’ but made me question ‘why’ I
was in this school. We learned that homeopathic remedies were prepared by a
lengthy process of dilution and shaking of various natural substances, mostly
plant extracts, but also minerals and some animal substances, until basically all of
the original substance was diluted right out of them.
It did not make any sense to me at all.
I was afraid that the school was going to turn us into quacks and thought of
quitting.
In fact, we had just learned about a homeopathic remedy made from the venom
of a large South American snake, called a bushmaster to be exact, or 'lachesis
mutus' in Latin. Apparently it will silently lie in wait for its prey (the mutus part of
the name), and only make a strange sound, something like 'Surukuku!' which is
why the natives called it the Surukuku snake,  just before sinking its pointed
fangs into its lunch ehem, you. Nice. Snake venom, sure, how about a little bat
wing and lizards blood, and maybe some deadly nightshade to spice things up?
And this was way before Harry Potter. Was JK Rowling a homeopath? Lachesis
mutus, supposedly good for left-sided problems. Something about snakes and
the left side, more absurdities.
But what did the professor say about tonsillitis again? And did we not all just
receive a little homoeopathic first aid kit from Dolisos?
20 remedies, where was that kit? My throat was killing me.
I groped around for it under my desk. Open wide: There it was, a little yellow
plastic tube of Lachesis mutus 30 CH! Well, I figured it would not do any harm,
after all there was going to be none of that crazy snake venom left in it, so I
popped a couple of pellets into my mouth and lied back down in bed, hoping I
wouldn’t choke to death on my tonsil. I was truly desperate. The emergency room
was my next choice.
Three minutes later I could swallow again! Another ten minutes and the pain was
almost gone. I went back to sleep. In the morning that tonsil was barely swollen at
all and I knew that something very interesting had just happened, something to
be studied in great detail.
Ever since that day I have devoted myself to homeopathy as a specialty, with all
its strangeness and peculiarity and it’s incredibly profound effects on living
organisms. Twenty years and thousands of prescriptions later I am still amazed at
the powerful effects of these simple little remedies made from nature. And, by the
way, I never had another case of tonsillitis.
I think the universe tried to give me hint that night, a hint not to dismiss something
just because I did not understand it right away or it did not fit into my current
belief system. To have my one and only attack ever of severe left-sided tonsillitis
immediately after learning about lachesis mutus seemed more than a
coincidence.  But that's how life is sometimes, isn't it?
Thank you universe, my patients and I have been grateful for your divine
intervention!