Chronic Disease Management has become a useful label for diseases that patients have to learn to live with. Sometimes this is because drug therapies can give a partial resolution or stop things progressing more seriously and sometimes it is because a condition's deteroration can be slowed down. Certainly for us, we see a number of patients with chronic disease and these cases are often quite confused or partially masked because of different treatments that the patient has had over a number of years. The first part of treating these is to understand the illness more clearly and to get a clearer picture of what is going on. If you want to understand more about how chronic disease relates to complex cases with a masking of symptoms then read the chapter on complex diseases in Principles and Practice of Homeopathy by clicking here.
For many patients Chronic Disease is simply an incomplete healing process and while the healing may take some time, it helps if this is always progressing towards a healthy state rather than accepting or resigning onself to a state of ill health. For many patients, the gradual move towards fuller health is a slow one and at times, it is like peeling an onion: you get one layer off before another layer becomes clear. As a patient said recently when this metaphor was used "Yes, there were alot of tears along the way as well".
Certainly it can be a difficult process but most patients will find as they progress their vitality picks up and their general wellbeing as well as their symptom load decreases. What is difficult sometimes is to explain to patients on the full journey to recovery from a chronic disease it that it is often easier to do so in steps and stages and we are always happy to discuss these with the patient.