A woman close to her 70’s asked for help, at the end of January 2014. She was so weak, she could hardly speak. (7) She hasn’t been feeling well for months, and she was getting worse every day. She asked me to come to her house, because she couldn’t gather up the strength to go out. She begged me to come as soon as possible.
The woman had a 33 year old daughter, an invalid. The daughter became sick when she was four, and her husband left her soon after that. The doctors couldn’t diagnose the child, so she went through a series of tests and treatments, but her condition deteriorated. Her condition was critical more than once, and she even experienced clinical death. It was clear that the girl had a neurological disorder of an unknown cause, and that it was incurable. All they could give her were antiepileptic drugs, but it wasn’t helping much. They had a few relatives, but they weren’t much of a help. The mother struggled through life alone, with a sick child.
The woman was pale, feeble, and apathetic. She was usually very clean, meticulous, but at that moment she looked a mess. She wore an old T shirt, no brassiere, and there was the stench of sweat.
The first thing she said was: “I’m calling you about the allergies. It’s better that you kill me than the doctors!” Then she had a long laugh at what she said, and then she got serious and said: “I’m just kidding… No, I’m not kidding! I’ll leave my daughter to you. You don’t have to worry about anything, she’s rich, you know. She has two apartments, plenty of money, her father’s pension and social help!”(1)
She told me she had allergies. She showed me her doctor’s findings. Her diagnosis was Herpes zoster n. Intercostalis.
Her story
I haven’t been feeling well since September 2013. First I started getting pain in my sternum, and then it hurt me to breathe in. I went to see the cardiologist. He did an EKG and told me there was nothing wrong with my heart. The doctor asked me if I get tired going up the stairs, but I don’t get tired. That she found implausible. I was given blood pressure medications, because my blood pressure started dropping, even though it was always normal.
Ever since September. I feel like I was pegged over my shoulders. Every little thing bothers me! I keep accusing my daughter: “You could have done this, you could have done that!” I feel powerless, like she’s using me. She won’t do anything on her own. She won’t make an effort. She could have had treatment for that left arm of hers so she could use it, but she kept refusing to practice. If she asks me to do something, and I don’t do it, she gets angry. She doesn’t say anything, but I can feel it. As if I don’t do enough for her.
At the beginning of December last year I developed heliko bacteria. I was on three dreadful antibiotics for a month. Value was 2.50, 1.5 being the upper limit of the reference value.
On the 7th of January, herpes started. I was on a strict diet because of heliko bacteria. All of a sudden I got a burning sensation and I just had to jump into the shower!! (6) Warm water felt good. Not hot. I just can’t shower every morning, because then my bathroom gets all wet, but that day I just had to.
I feel like I’m fading away, I don’t have the strength I used to have. I’m slacking in every segment of my life. (3) My daughter is stronger than me both physically and mentally. I’m angry with her because she won’t go to the store on her own, and she can. Then I run out in a rage. When I return, she seems fine. Like she needs the time to be alone.
What frustrates me the most is that my life is fading away and I have no idea what to do with her! (4)
All I have to do is to pay someone to help me. I can’t do it all by myself anymore. I’ll be 70 next year! I just can’t do things like I used to. I feel faint even in my voice. I can’t stand it that my ribs and my shoulders hurt so much that I can’t even breathe or walk, and I want to feel capable of walking! Why does it hurt so much when there’s so much to do!? I have to pay someone even to vacuum clean because I’m not capable of doing it alone!! I won’t let anyone wash my windows because the woman who did it wouldn’t listen when I told her how it’s done!! I barely do it alone. (2)
I was always against market carts, but now I’ll have to get one. I can’t carry so much anymore. It annoys me that everyone’s pulling all those carts and I keep tripping over them! A man can’t even pass through counters normally!
(She undresses to show me the herpes without me asking her to.)
Herpes is a little better now, but it passes very slowly. They say it should be quicker. I use this antibiotic ointment. I can’t stand the pain that goes my through shoulder blades and the back of my arms down to my back all the way to my heels. I have to put on a cold compress. I sleep normally, but I feel weak.
My right kidney in mobile. Sometimes it’s positioned normally and sometimes it’s not. I passed a few kidney stones. Situation stabilized in the last ten years.
I went through two carcinoma surgeries. First it was my breasts, then my uterus. I had a hysterectomy.
My left arm keeps swelling because they took out my lymph nodes when they operated on my breast cancer. I have to exercise with it every morning. I can’t go on walks with my daughter because she won’t walk on her own so she just leans onto my swelling hand, and I can’t pull her, she’s too heavy.
I’m always half naked around the house and I keep opening windows. My daughter is sensitive to cold and I can’t wait for her to go to the bathroom so I can open the windows wide, that’s how hot I get. (8)
The woman standing in front of me, fought alone for her child all her life.She carried her sick child in her arms up to the 4th floor, because there was no elevator. She had cleaned stairs around Paris while her child was in hospital so that she could afford to buy medication for her a few months in advance. She used to get up so early just to clean the house and prepare the lunch, so that she could tend to her child after work. She was forced to give out her gasoline coupons to doctors, so she could move her appointments sooner. She got the extra coupons as remuneration for a sick child. She invested in real state to provide a safe life for her child after her death. Up to that moment she felt strong and confident. Although she planned her daughter’s life after her death for decades, she was approaching her seventies and felt powerless and concerned for her child. The joke from the beginning of the conversation was the whole point of the case. All the information was gathered. Repertorisation looked like this:
Sulphur 12C : split dose (morning and evening) and sac-lac weekly for two months. I didn’t repeat the medicine.
DELUSION – wealth of –at the beginning of the conversation, she claimed:’’ I’ll leave you my daughter, you don’t have to worry, and she’s rich…“ Their material status was unknown, but they didn’t seem rich. It was obvious that the mother provided her child financially in some way, but that seemed far from rich. Even the mother seemed unsure if that fortune will be enough for her child after her death.
EGOTISM –is the state of mind in which a person values herself too much. It can come to the point where nobody can do what the person in question can. She is special, irreplacable. In a city with over 2 million people, it’s very unlikely that no one can clean a 70 year old woman’s windows better. It’s not about the lack of money, she has enough money to pay for a maid, it’s that no one can clean it well enough. She is the only one.
DELUSIONS – thin – he is getting -Delusion that he is losing weight. Getting thin means losing weight and becoming thinner. The phrase “getting thin” can also be used when there is some kind of loss or reduction in amount of something (like money: my wallet is getting thin), or some abilities (I can’t do now what I could when I was younger). That’s what this woman is telling us: “Yesterday I was able to… but now, I can’t”. Why is this a delusion? The consequence of her attitude that she can and has to do everything on her own brings her to the state of exhaustion. It wasn’t about her age because she was still physically strong enough; the main cause of her tiredness was the fact that she did everything on her own. She didn’t even want to use market carts; she carried everything she had bought in her hands. She hadn’t made any friends who would be happy to help her. She doesn’t have good relationships with her neighbors. She never thought of taking care about herself so that her life would be easier later. Because of her need to keep everything under control and to do everything on her own, she is getting weaker, losing her strength and abilities. If she could give up her attitude, she wouldn’t feel that tired and she would live better.
ANXIETY – children – about his – this is the ordinary feeling of every parent, but it would be wrong to use this rubric for every person who has a child. Here, we’re dealing with a sense of hypersensitivity and worrying which preoccupies a person’s mind and makes everything else less important. All of her actions are directed to provide enough for her child.
I CONTROL EXAMINATION, 15 days later
I’m good. I’m really good. My strength and high spirits have returned. I don’t feel like I’m dying anymore. My voice is strong, I can talk.
Herpes is all gone, only spots left. I don’t feel pain. I can put on a brassiere. I’m discontent about these dark circles under my eyes. I never had that before. I spent an entire hour walking the other day, even though when I was sick, I couldn’t even put a kettle on. I walk the streets straight now and I feel my strength is back. I don’t feel the pain anymore. I’d like to see a concert or a play, but I’m afraid of all the drunken, drugged up people… I want to make a change, but my daughter is not a changing type.
Bloating and constipation are gone. I started drinking linseed oil… that’s probably what it is. I still get burning sensations in my throat. Only in my throat, not in my stomach. It depends on what I eat.
I sleep normally and my appetite is good. I lost some weight since September, but it’s back. I exercise every morning. If I’m late in the morning, I do it during the day. I don’t want no Popeye hand!
Observation: The patient really had dark circles under her eyes, but she was also 70 years old! I didn’t consider it as a significant symptom. Her strength was back along with her optimism and the will for living. Her sleep was normal, appetite was good. Physical symptoms were minor and I expected them to decrease in the next period.
It’s been 8 months since then and the mother still feels good. Thanks to homeopathy the mother and the daughter get to be together still.
We could consider this case in another way. If we had focused only on physical symptoms, repertoarization would have led us to Apis.
But, physical symptoms weren’t the key to this case, though. Dr Kent considers only the IMPORTANTand CHARACTERISTIC symptoms as the symptom totality, not ALL of them. According to him, we can just leave out the small and rare symptoms. Much more important than the herpes and the heliko bacteria was her feeling of fading away and caring for her child. She could do anything – but not anymore and she’s rich – but still concerned if it was enough to secure her child. Those are the symptoms evident to what needs to be treated in this patient.
References:
“Desktop Guide to Keynotes and Confirmatory Symptoms” – Roger Morrison, M.D.
“Lectures of hoemopathic materia medica” – James Tyler Kent
“Synthesis, Repertorium Homeopathicum Syntheticum” , edition 8.1 – Dr. Frederik Schroyens
“Homeopathy and Elements” – J.C.Scholten
“Complete Repertory” – Roger Van Zandvoort
“Homoeopathic Drug Pictures” – Dr. M. L. Tyler
“Homeopathic Psychology” – Philip Baliey
“First Step” – Homeoeopathic book on “Applied Mind” – Ashok Mohanty
“Feelings” – Dr. Sanajy Sehgal and Dr. Yogesh Sehgal
Copyrighted 2014 – Simillimum Society for Spreading, Promotion and Improvement of Classical Homeopathy, Belgrade, Serbia
