A Case of Venus Mercanaria

Also involved in this case were homeopaths: Kate Hudson, Julia Bronfman, Julia Thompson, Melissa Dair

Montreal Institute of Classical Homeopathy (MICH) Intern Center.

Date: September 6, 2008 Session: 1

Birth date: January 29, 1979 Age: 29 B#: 2 Male

General sense of the client

Our client comes across as a very sensitive and thoughtful individual. He is soft spoken, and extremely reflective. He tries hard to answer the questions to the best of his ability, and is able to easily enter into sensation.

Chief complaint: “Plugged ears, with wax build-up, which stops me from performing my music; which stops me from feeling home. As if I am helpless with it; there is nothing that I can do”.

Physical issues: Earwax- He feels it building up, switches, one ear then the other, twice got it flushed out, then 2-3 months later it starts again. Began in 2005 (2 months in a row), then every six months – intense itch, scratch inside

Dry skin on left elbow and behind ear (came back 6 months ago), dryness on back of scalp (warm, itchy, flaky, feels dry), 2 small warts on left hand.

Crohn’s disease-since 1997 at age 16 (after father’s death and girlfriend’s rape)

Blocked – also feeling of constriction of backside and perineum.

When younger, wore a mask, an image, hidden by pride. Sycosis?

Themes and Source Words

Not feeling at home

I want to escape without being seen. Feeling forced to live in the city (in a place that isn’t home): means being robbed of my being. Close down: heavy chest, shut myself off, but don’t want others to know, sad, unsettled, blocked, hazy, heavy, trapped, alone, hopeless, then I try to distract myself, and separate from the situation.

Closed / stuck

blocked

trapped

closes me up

get me out of here

little movement

walking in mud

constriction

boxed in

need to open

need to get it out

not able to get at something

tight

clenching

tension

squeezing

Peace/openness

arms dangling (not tense)

line settles down

snuggled against each other

went to bottom

little movement

ridges gone around exterior

black solution instead of clear

settled

feet more present to the floor

softness

freedom

lightened load

softness

vulnerability

Flowing

Movement

moving with life

light dusty soil

circular motion/spinning

not really floating

Other source words

mud/ground

setting

barefoot on dusty road

cut marks

slicing

steam moves upwards

emptiness and hollow

move through soil in that shape (turning like wheel)

moving through black

on top of earth

sinking into earth

hazy cloudiness

whoooosh

haziness

gummy

Kingdom Differentiation and Family

Animal:

We did not hear clear words of the mineral, animal or plant kingdoms. However, we did hear language that is commonly used with sea creatures.

From Divya Chhabra on Sea Creatures:

The need to protect one-self (shell) restricts and suffocates conflicting with the movement and freedom, the very essence of flowing water and its components.

Heavy, weighed down and tied up by responsibility and guilt, the sea animal patients yearn for fun and lightness, freedom and open spaces.

Their hiding as a defence is expressed as detachment from the surroundings and their camouflage as a detachment from self, expressed as if “I am not myself.” (this is a big theme with our client, who does not feel at home here in Montreal, and longs for the feeling he has in the country, and town, where he is from)

Sea animals – Words

Heavy Û light

Tied up Û freedom

Suffocation Û open space

Protection

Rape

Detached / disconnect

I am not myself

Different world

Calm

Fun loving

Elation / excitement

Sea animals – Conflicts

Hide / protection Û Freedom

Rubrics and possible remedies:

• MacRep provided the following graph:

Lachesis, calc carb, carc, sepia, apis, ambra, cantharis, spongia, asteria, lac caninum, naja

Combined Rubrics CROHN’S DISEASE AND INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISORDERS (47) G; Generalities; SIDES, of body, general; left, side (152)

S; Skin; WARTS, skin (see Condylomata or Excrescences) (130)

R; Rectum; FISTULA, rectal (51)

M; Mind; GRIEF, sorrow, general; death, of, loved ones or friends (13)

Possible remedies:

As the client was speaking the language of sea creatures, I decided to create a graph of animals only, to see what Macrep would come up with.

Lachesis: No, our client is not syphilitic, nor does he speak the language of a snake. There is no competition, conspiracy, manipulation, jealousy, or suspiciousness of the snake.

Calc carb: Interesting, as it is the chief element in many sea creatures, particularly the mollusks.

The Calc type: introverted, sensitive, defensive, insecure, want security in shells and deposits, seek the security of the womb, the egg. Seek protected, stone-like shell of armor that greatly reduces their mobility, a crab-like carapace or shell. They seem to ‘clam-up’ and ‘go into their shell’,

Carcinosinum: No, I didn’t hear nosode language, nor the fixing and need for superhuman strength

Sepia: Again, a sea remedy, and interesting. But sepias tend to be worn out and distance themselves from their family. Nor is our client weepy, sarcastic and irritable. He doesn’t have despair over recovery, nor aversion, and indifference.

Apis: Our client does not have the busyness of apis, nor the burning, stinging, stitching sensations.

Sankaran’s Schema (2005):

We decide to explore the mollusk family further, given the strong sea animal language and the number and repetition of mollusk source words.

Words of the mollusk are: withdrawal, close, shut-in, confine, split, lose contact and lose touch. Words of the bivalvia: open and shut (clams). These remedies are in the Sycosis miasm which is what we felt for our client, another confirmation of the remedy group.

Looking into the life cycle of each of the homeopathic bivalvia remedies, brought us to the clam. Especially its defense mechanism: “When fully buried at low tide the hole in the sand is key-hole shaped. If it is disturbed, it ejects a small jet of water from the hole.” (Sankaran and Baldota. (2008) Survival: The Mollusc pg. 127). This mechanism was explored and mentioned often as the client would describe how bothersome his plugged ears were and the intense need to flush them out.

Remedy:

Venus mercanaria (Ven-m), Clam 1MK

Areas affected: Head (the client’s ears, and the skin behind his ears), gastrointestinal tract (Crohn’s disease)

Isolation, loneliness with the sensation of being disconnected from the world

Gentleness, Passion and sexuality, Delusion of being separated from the world

Itching of scalp / urticaria on the left hand / itching eczema.

Follow-ups:

2nd session

November 21, 2008

Our
client received his remedy on October 11, 2008; It has been six weeks.

Up and down but for
the most part good, no flushing needed of the ear; clear for the past
week/ dryness behind the ear still there

Other skin things gone
away: warts on hand, dryness on elbow gone.

Two days after the remedy
there was a shift and I couldn’t move the left side, it was intense,
I couldn’t sleep, pain, an emotional reaction of worried (that I would
be held back, and that it will slow me down, and be compromised for
the oncoming week, moody, irritable), and then the next morning, it
was gone.

No longer feeling heavy/stuck,
now realizing that it’s not me, more lighter and playful

Open

Opening

Expansive

From grey/dark into
light

Door half open

White and cloud like
floor

Flush out

Come so close then push
away – don’t want to fuse into me

Push away

Separated/Separateness

Open door half way

Half open

Meld back into earth/Separate
from earth again

Closed

Hugging

Embracing

Carved out

Folding in, and again

Stuck

Heavy

2 forms melding together

Blocked up

Tube-like structure

Pinpoint

Clubbing

Breaking through (clouds)

Arrow hits spot/go into
it

Like a blood vessel
sticking up and down

Source words

Disintegrate

Ground beneath me

Never ending landscape

Others can come up from
ground

Made from same stuff
that we are walking on

Falling

Use soil to cover myself

Swim in it

Don’t want to be hurt

Sustaining a solid form
is protection

Our client is doing
so well, and continues to use the language of the remedy; only the words
are even more colourful and descriptive than before.  It has only been
six weeks since taking the remedy. Prescription: Wait. No dose
given.

 

Montreal Institute of Classical Homeopathy
http://www.homeopathymontreal.com/