A Cuprum Aceticum Case

Introduction

This is the case of a severely handicapped 33 year old woman, who has lived as an invalid for almost thirty years. Years ago, her mother wanted her to be treated with homeopathy, but it was hard to find a homeopath educated and experienced enough, especially in Serbia where homeopathy was pretty new and undeveloped. Her mother asked me for help 25.1.2014, because of her own health problems.

The woman was almost 70, and for the past 30 years she has been taking care of her handicapped child on her own. She felt like she couldn’t do it anymore. She complained that her daughter didn’t want to walk down the streets alone, only with holding her mother tight around her left arm. That was very painful for the mother who had breast cancer removed and felt weakness in her swollen left arm.

I asked the daughter what the reason was. Although she never talks too much and doesn’t like to be asked about anything, she made it clear that the main reason why she doesn’t want to walk without holding her mother’s arm was the fear of falling. It crossed my mind how Cuprum-aceticum helped one girl with the same type of fear, which I heard about in a seminar. I was thinking how much help it would be for a mother if her daughter would be able to walk alone again. That could save her a lot of energy. So I treated the mother with Sulphur very successfully, but I couldn’t let go of the idea of giving Cupr-aceticum to the daughter. The rubric MIND – FEAR – falling, of – child holds on to mother beside the Cupr-act, contains Gels, Cupr, Borax and Sanicula

Although I was given a lot of information about the daughter, the history of her disease and her current state from her mother, I needed to learn more in order to give her the right remedy.

History of disease

The mother’s story was confusing as she couldn’t give me accurate information. The existing medical documentation wasn’t enough. According to the mother’s story, the girl became sick shortly before New Years 1986, when she was 4. Mother and daughter got into a car in order to get the girl her New Year’s present. The girl was chattering happily, when suddenly she started staring through the window on her left, and froze. She didn’t react to her mother’s call. She was taken to the children’s hospital as an emergency case, and the first analyses showed nothing.

A few days later she got better and started talking again, but didn’t want to eat. She felt sick, and she lost her appetite. A few days later she got convulsions. She was given Phenobarbital. It made her aggressive. She did what she wanted, not allowing anyone to tell her what to do. In that period, mothers weren’t allowed to stay in the hospitals with their children, but when the doctors realized they couldn’t cope with her, they called her mother. The first attempt of taking fluid from her spine was not successful, because the girl refused to cooperate. The second time they used force in her mother’s absence, and the girl couldn’t stand on her feet again for the next 10 days. She hardly woke up from the anesthesia. She constantly asked her mother to read her stories. During her stay in the hospital she got the measles, and nearly died. At one point she was declared clinically dead. She just said “Mum, hold me! I’m leaving!”. They resuscitated her.

She was sent to the research center in Paris, where she was told that there is no treatment that could make her healthy again. It could only help her in overcoming the crisis she was going through. She felt sick constantly, and vomited after eating even the smallest bites. She completely lost her appetite. In Paris, she was given Levotonine, Difetoin and Oxitriptan. After the treatment she got in Paris, she couldn’t stand on her left foot, but could only touch the floor with her toes; her spine was deformed and her left hip was higher than the right one. She became very thin, still couldn’t eat and felt sick. She still vomited.

Medical records state: “Girl age of four, without clear reason, got uncontrollable unconvulsive seizures with per oral automatism and salivation with the frequency of over hundred times a day. She was diagnosed with Kozevnjik’s syndrome. At the age of seven she lost motor function of her left arm and then her left leg. She had seizures, always falling to the right without losing her consciousness, and panic attacks. Motor weakness of the left side. Kyphoscoliosis. Diagnosis epilepsy partialis continua”. For the next few years, every six months she went to Paris for her treatment. During the second treatment she started hiding her left arm behind her back. Confronted by her mother, she didn’t respond.

When she started going to school, she couldn’t walk at all. In school, the blackboard was her obsession. She often asked her mother when she would be able to write on the blackboard like all the other kids. But she didn’t want to exercise, and refused any kind of rehabilitation. She spent the whole year in a wheelchair. She started walking again during the summer vacation after her first grade. When her mother wasn’t watching, she walked between the furniture inside the apartment. One day, the mother saw her walking alone and got scared that she could fall and get hurt, so she demanded to immediately cling to something.

When she was seventeen, the doctors decided to implant a shunt in her head, but during the hospitalization, she got bronchitis and asked to go home until she got better. The doctors approved, but after that, she refused to go back to the hospital. She never got the shunt implanted.

She stopped going to Paris and started taking domestic remedies which gave her strong tachycardia. She was taken to the cardiologist as an emergency. This doctor claimed that she got the wrong diagnosis. The new diagnosis was Symptomatic Epilepsy, so he gave her a new remedy, Lamictal (English remedy). He prescribed 2x100mg two times a day, but she decided that the dose is too strong, and takes 2x75mg without the doctor knowing it. She’s still on that therapy.

Not long after she got sick, her father abandoned them. Ten years ago he died and left them a small apartment. During winter, they live in that small apartment because it has central heating, while during the summer they live across the town in a family house with garden. The mother says that the daughter doesn’t want to go outside, not even on the balcony. She never goes near the windows; she’s not interested in looking outside, according to the mother’s story.

She doesn’t like anything alive near her. She likes having flowers on the table, but only dry flowers. She often sits in one corner of the room and stares at the wall in front of her. She rarely responds to questions, and even when she does, she talks with irony. She watches TV from time to time, and reads newspapers when mother brings them to her. She graduated from high school by correspondence and she speaks French, but doesn’t have anyone to talk with. The mother says that doctors forbade her to use the computer because of her health problems. Still, she has two cell phones, but doesn’t have anyone to call. Only if the mother goes out, do they talk on the phone. They never use a landline phone.

At this point, she is 32 years old. The other complaints are:

• Everyday sickness (more times a day) which ends up in caught (earlier in vomiting)
• Incontency which aggravates in PMS
• Painful menses, cycle comes 3-7 days late, and lasts for 3 days
• Insomnia
• Depression

Repertorisation and analysis of medicines

 

“Epilepsy, starting in stomach with pain and nausea; thumbs clenched in fists, biting tongue, loss of urine, screaming; afterwards: restlessness, headache and vomiting”. Scholten

“Cuprum metalicum and Cuprum aceticum are used interchangeably by many physicians as having the same symptomatology. The original idea of those who proposed the substitution of the latter for the former was based on the supposition that the acetate of copper is soluble, while the metallic copper is not. This applies, of course, to the crude drug, but not to the potentized preparations”. Farrington

“Discharges cease, or are suppressed, and sudden convulsions come on: Here Cuprum will re-establish the discharge and stop the convulsions” “Or, inflammations cease suddenly and you wonder what has happened. All at once comes on insanity, delirium, convulsions, blindness… metastasis. A perfect change from one part of the body to another.“ “The same may occur from a suppressed eruption – discharge – diarrhea, and it goes to the brain, affects the mind and brings on an insanity: a wild, active, maniacal delirium…“

Repertorization pointed to Cuprum, and from the research of materia medica I got the confirmation that this could be the right remedy. On the other hand, two things still pointed at Cupr-acet. The first was her ascetic lifestyle, which is characteristic for aceticum. Total isolation and restraint from every pleasure. We can’t say that asceticism in this case is of her free will. It is more the product of the situation in which the patient lives, but it is still an ascetic lifestyle, and I considered it important for her remedy to have that ascetic aspect.

The second thing which prevailed was the text about Cupr-acet in the “Drug pictures” by Margaret Tyler. This article pointed out the connection between Cupr-acetat and measles. “The homeopathic branch of the profession have lost a great chance by not unanimously declaring the irrelevancy of vaccination to small-pox; it may be that, to make up for this lost chance, in Cuprum aceticum they have a remedy for variola which may rank with Aconite in fever, or with Camphor in the early stages of cholera” A.Phelps, 1896.

“Acting similar to Cuprum, but stronger.”

Dose: from third to sixth trituration“. William Boericke.

One of her medical reports stated that the girl had had febrile convulsions starting at the age of three, and by the time she was four, all of a sudden she started widening her eyes and looking scared, swallowing, turning left and lifting her left arm while bending the elbow, champing for 1-2 min. These symptoms show that the neurological disorders were present before, but were not that intense, and by the age of four, they escalated.

By the time she was four, the symptoms appeared in this order:

• Inhibition and loss of communication
• Convulsions (few days later)
• Sickness, vomiting, loss of appetite
• Measles (about twenty days later)
• Spasms of her left arm in the elbow and wrist (few months later)
• Problems with left leg and hip (few months later)
• Kyphoscoliosis (later)

We can see that the problems with this patient didn’t start with measles. They appeared about twenty days after she got ill, during the hospitalization, even though she had been regularly vaccinated against measles. In the former country of Yugoslavia MMR vaccine was introduced in 1971. A new epidemic appeared in 1986. and every 3 to 5 years later. This girl was one of the first cases who got the measles that year.

As a precaution, and according to Boericke’s materia medica, I prescribed Cupr-acet 6C, three granules every 15 minutes, but she decided to take only one granule, and save the rest for later. She took the first granule 14.4.2014.

Follow ups

Follow up 10.5.2014.

• No more nausea. Maybe once a week.
• She’s in a good mood, she’s not as introverted as she was before. She’s optimistic and wants to talk.
• She spreads her left arm (which was clenched) all by herself. The arm straightened about 70%, and she could open her hand and use it.
• She sleeps well, no more insomnia.
• She would like to go to spa with me. Entering the bus would be a problem for her, because the stairs are too high. Her mother said that someone would help her. She didn’t complain.
• She would like to go to the supermarket with her mother when the weather gets better.
• She smiles more often. She went out on the balcony.
• No more frequent urination, incontinence stopped.
• She coughs, but not that much.
• She had never looked through the window before, now she often looks through the balcony.
• She wants to help her mother with the chores.
• She accepts fresh flowers
• She opens the door when the postman rings.
• She makes coffee by herself and finishes her meals.
• She climbed onto the table for the EEG all by herself.

29.05.2014. – EEG done

Equipment in state clinics is outdated. The table is too high and the nurses wouldn’t help her climb up to the EEG table, so her mother had to pay doctors at private clinics where those tables can be raised and lowered to examine her. By accident, this time the table mechanism was not working, but the patient managed to climb up to the table with a little help.

EEG report from 29th May 2014 states: “The patient feels better, attacks are reduced to partial, they last only for a few seconds during which she frowns and feels sick. This no longer concerns her. She sleeps better, she helps with the chores, she’s much more cooperative and useful than she was before, she is more relaxed“. Brain waves are calm and balanced. Like a calm sea. There is no more need for regular controls, only when needed.

During the summer of 2014 she texts me from time to time. She says that she likes the homeopathic remedies. Her balance is better, and even if she stumbles over a doorstep, she manages to get out on the balcony. She likes to watch the neighbor’s garden. She likes to sit on the balcony in the evening when the street lights are turned on.

In the middle of August 2014 the dry cough returned, especially in the mornings. Urination became frequent again, digesting was still fine, and she continued to sleep well, but she started being quarrelsome again. The follow up was done 5th June 2014. She doesn’t want to go to the neuropsychiatries for the next follow up, doesn’t smile anymore and she doesn’t want to talk. She says that her mother refuses to take her outside for a walk. The mother claims that she has a lot of work to do, which includes going to the other apartment every day to water the flowers. She doesn’t have time to take her out. I offered that I would take a walk with her, but she refused.

As a good thing, the mother points out that the daughter learned to clean the sink and polish it with the dry rag after brushing her teeth. In any other case, the daughter was criticized and accused of not doing good enough. The mother spoke badly about her in her presence. She gets frustrated because her daughter arranges the plates from left to right, not vice versa. She points out she told her over thousand times how to arrange the plates.

At the end of the conversation the mother told me that her daughter asked her for some money two weeks ago. She wanted to buy a magazine. Incredulously, mother gave her the money, but didn’t believe that she would go outside alone. The daughter did take the elevator all by herself. She stumbled over the door step at the entrance of a building because the door was too heavy and it had a doorstep. She had to walk over the doorstep and push the door at the same time. It was hard, but she succeeded. The mother quietly watched all of that, and didn’t help her.

The patient went to the nearest newspaper store and asked for a magazine. The shop assistant showed her where the magazine was, but she couldn’t find it. The shop assistant asked the mother to help her daughter to find it because she was standing behind her. The patient paid for her magazine, but the change fell from her hand, and it was hard for her to hold the magazine and collect the change from the ground all with one hand. She somehow managed to do that, and returned home. After that, her mother started yelling at her how crazy she is, and said that she will die of worry if the daughter ever does anything like that again. What would happen if she fell? Has she seen the gypsies behind her? They could have pushed her on the ground, robbed her. She was holding her arms over her chest while saying all those things and she looked bad. I asked her how she would like it if her daughter could go out all alone sometimes. She replied: “If she had done that ten years ago, nobody would have been happier than me, but now, I just can’t stand this!”

The patient was embarrassed by her mother’s words, refuses to talk, and she stared at the wall in front of her. She swayed from back to front and she was hitting her thigh with her left fist. She was furious deep inside. I told her to take another granule, and she took it the same day.

She took next doses:

– 13th December 2014.

– 7th February 2015.

-1st March 2015.

The potency of the remedy was still 6C and after every pill she felt better, but the interval between the takings of two pills was becoming shorter and shorter. The patient decided to take new granules every 4 months because the effects of the first granule she took lasted for 4 months, and she refused to take another granule when the symptoms returned. I tried to explain that the homeopath knows best the time she should take another granule, so she doesn’t have to worry or prescribe new doses for herself. In the mean time, in the middle of January, the new EEG was done. The results were still good.

Follow up 9th April 2015.

Her state got worse. Most of the symptoms returned. Her cough got stronger, and she felt sick two times a day, but still less sick than before homeopathic treatment.

The situation before symptoms got worse: She doesn’t go out, but she is interested in watching who comes in and who goes out of the building; she opens the mail box. She watches the people passing by. She went out of town for a few days with her mother and they went to her mother’s friend. She was fascinated with the garden. She made instant soup, noodles, and cakes. She made a big mess in the kitchen. She used a bottle to roll the dough because she couldn’t find the rolling pin. She didn’t have walnuts, but she found breadcrumbs. She used the mixing spoon to reach the things on the higher shelves. Her uncle was invited to try her cakes, and he laughed. He said that they were good, but too tough, and for the first time, she didn’t mind the critics. She was satisfied with herself. The mother complains how the daughter doesn’t want to look at the pictures from her childhood when she was young and beautiful.

This time the mother came to get the remedy. When arranging the next follow up, I asked the patient to write me a letter which her mother will bring to me, because I wanted to talk to her in person, not through her mother. She started her letter with physical symptoms (which I already wrote about). After that she said: “I enjoy my days. I read a lot of books, magazines, I do crosswords. It’s all useful and good for my mental health. I also enjoy watching quizzes, because I can learn a lot of new things that way. And when it comes to my thoughts, there are some innovations, too. I’ll tell you what it’s all about, but you can’t tell anyone. It’s a big secret… and I trust you. I have to trust you because you’re my doctor. But if you tell this to anyone, I will not trust you anymore and I will not tell you anything ever again… I was thinking about surprising my roommate (that’s the way she calls her mother) pleasant or unpleasant, by buying one cute dog. She will have to feed it, and I’ll take it for a walk around the garden and outside, and we’ll both play with it…”

I upped her dose to 30C, because physical symptoms returned faster and became stronger.

Text message 27th April 2015

“Can you do me a big favour? Do you remember the letter I wrote to you? I wrote how I wanted to buy a dog. I still want that. I know it’s a lot of responsibility. I know I’ll have to feed it, take it for a walk and play with it. I know that very well. You should convince my roommate that having a dog would be beneficial for me in so many ways. Not only because I’ll have the motivation to go out every day, but because I’ll have someone to take care of and I won’t feel lonely anymore. Please convince her to buy me a dog“.

Few days later, I received another text message:

“Remember how you asked me if I had any friends I could talk to and go for a walk with? Back then, I said I didn’t, because I didn’t mind, I didn’t want one. But now, a year latter, everything changed. Last week I did something that I wouldn’t dare do before. I risked a lot when I did that, things could’ve end up much different. Last week I was reading personal ads and I responded to one add written by a young man who was searching for a true friendship. I responded to his add, but I didn’t expect anything to happen. I was very surprised when I received his reply. Ever since, we’ve been texting each other. I learned a lot about him, and he learned a lot about me. We have so much in common. Now we would like to meet each other face to face, but I don’t know what to do about my roommate. You should convince her in some way to let me meet him. He is 31 years old and we have similar interests. Please convince her to let me meet him.”

The patient was warned of the danger of making friends in this way. Without complaint, she accepted warnings and stopped communication with that person. She went back to the idea of buying a dog.

She asked for help every day. I told her that she should first try to go for a walk around the garden all alone and see if she’s able to, because taking a dog for a walk isn’t as easy as she thinks it is. She responded: “Then you should convince my roommate (she calls her mother roommate) to let me go in the garden all alone. Because she’s afraid of something. She never lets me go outside alone. “

Despite all of that, she went outside alone few days later. She sent me another text message:

Text message 12th May 2015

“Your attempt to make me go outside alone ended badly. I managed to get out into the garden when my mother went shopping and I climbed the stairs successfully. I managed to open the front door and I went outside, but when I wanted to go back into the apartment, my uncle had to open the door for me because it had closed and I didn’t have the key. I’ll never try to go outside alone again because I don’t have the key of my own front door and I don’t want my family to laugh at me because I can’t get in. And also, you can forget about me going outside alone ever again because I can’t climb those three steps in front of the gate without help. I accepted the fact that I can’t go out alone. I can’t have any friends and I can’t have a dog. It’s all impossible“.

This is where I’d lost the control over the case. I became too emotional, too one-sided and I started fighting for her rights. From objective observer I turned into a participant. I suggested that she call the association for improving the quality of an invalid’s life, and ask them for help. Then I received another text message:

“Because I was alone out in the yard without permission from my mother, all I got was scolding. Not any praise for finally doing it. It seems like my mother doesn’t want me to be healthy again. Don’t be mad, but she said that whoever filled my head with nonsense of going out doesn’t have a clue what he is doing. I’ll go crazy of solitude if can’t go out and make some friends. Please talk with her about that very seriously. She enjoys insulting and belittling me. Every time she’s angry, which happens more and more often, she says how useless I am. She says I only had any worth when I was going to school and how nobody respects me since I finished it. If I told her about that association you mentioned, she would beat the hell out of me. Tell me what to do, because I’m not smart enough for this. You’re my only friend. If it weren’t for you, I would go crazy of loneliness. Please, help me!”.

Everything went wrong. That was an emotional blackmail and I couldn’t resist. I knew I really was the only person she could talk to, and the only one who could help her. I called the organization, and they said that it’s invalid abuse, and I should call the social service. I refused to do that. The second suggestion they made, was for the patient to call them on her own and they will try to help her.

I started receiving her cries for help on a daily basis. Finally I told her again to contact the service because those people can help her, it’s safe and she should do it because I can’t do anything more for her, but they can. About ten days later, she called them. The secretary told her that they organize meetings and the transport; she just has to give her documentation to the Center for social work. She liked the idea of having a personal assistant. She didn’t give them any information about herself.

I received new text message 25th May 2015, with this content:

“Today, I mentioned to my mother that I should make some friends or have a personal assistant. She said that she will not forbid me to do that, but she doesn’t think I’m able to make friends with anyone because I have to go to the toilet very often. When I manage to overcome that, she will allow me to make friends. Do you have any remedies for my problem so I could finally do that?

A few days latter I got the message:  “… Mother just repeated how useless I am and said that I’ll never have a friend as long as she’s alive” Even though the patient felt better physically, better than anyone expected, the mental improvement caused so much consequences that I wasn’t sure anymore if the case was going in the right direction. In theory, everything was going fine, but practically the situation became unbearable.

I found the solution as always in Organon. “The first and the only duty of a doctor is to cure, and that is called medicine”. I had to wait for them to arrange the next follow up, and to prescribe the medicine to both of them. Also, I had to to work on my personal sensitivity and perception. The patient wasn’t helpless at any moment. She has a strong character. She is a persistent and manipulative woman. She asked me for help, but then she said: “Your attempt to make me go outside alone ended badly“. I just had to concentrate on stimulating her vital force with homeopathic medicine because she was able to win the fight for her rights on her own.

On the 27th June 2015 the mother called me and asked for help. She had some kind of rash all over her body which lasted for a month and a half. She also complained about the loss of energy and some other symptoms. She said that she’s not able to take care of her daughter all alone anymore, and she still doesn’t want to go outside and loves to be alone. Also, she said that the daughter controls her expenses daily by checking the report from their bank through her mobile phone. She demands that her mother return the money she borrowed from her account. I skipped all those things and prescribed Lac humanum. For the daughter, I sent Cupr-acetate 200C. I asked the mother to phone me in two weeks and tell me how she feels.

Her mother called me as arranged. Her voice was strong and she was in a good mood. The rash disappeared and some other symptoms vanished or became weaker. The last text message I received from the daughter was: “Thank you a lot. You acted like a real friend. I hope that you are my friend because I feel like I am your friend, and I can tell you everything that happens in my life.”

Analysis of the case

At this moment, after sixteen months of following the case we can draw these conclusions:

• The situation is as it is, but even small doses of Cuprum acet did more than was expected in a long term chronic state of disease.
• In this case LM potency wasn’t used
• Very low potencies managed to cure deep long term depression which lasted over decades
• The symptoms of the patient match with the complications of small pox, as well as the side effects of the remedies which the patient takes (sickness, vomiting, cough)
• The remedies successfully removed the symptoms of the original diseases as well as the side effects. 54
• During the process of healing, no new symptoms appeared.
• A single dose of a medicine lasted for a long time, and symptoms returned in the same or weaker strength.
• Some symptoms disappeared fast and totally (involuntary urination, sleeplessness, depression)
• The aggravation during taking of the first dose was minimal, almost unnoticeable and the improvement of her health was long lasting.

The symptoms that Cuprum-acetate covers which aren’t in the repertory are:

STOMACH – NAUSEA

STOMACH – ERUCTATIONS

GENERALS – CONVULSIONS – cough – after

GENERALS – CONVULSIONS – epileptic – aura – nausea

GENERALS – SIDE – left

BLADDER – URINATION – involuntary

MOUTH – SALIVATION – profuse

MIND – ANSWERING – questioned; does not answer, when

The conclusion

In the professional homeopathic literature there are similar cases of children’s behaviour at a very early age as the consequence of vaccination or re-vaccination. Tinus Smits, Kate Birch and some other authors described those cases. The fact is that our patient belongs to one of the first generations in SFRY who got the MMR vaccine, so there stands the possibility of her health problems being the consequences of reaction to the vaccination. The symptoms which appeared then are very similar to the symptoms of Cupr. Cupr acet eases the side effects of the medications she takes (the cough, sickness, loss of appetite and spasms). Even though it is not in the rubric GENERALS – VACCINATION; ailments after, we can find Cupr acet in the rubric SKIN – ERUPTIONS – suppressed, and that provides the basis for homeopaths to continue thinking in this way, even when the symptoms we search for are not found in the repertory.

Note: The homeopathic school “Simillimum” in Belgrade supports me greatly in my work. This article will also appear in Dec. in the journal Simillimum Times in Belgrade.

Literature:

• “Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia medica & Repertory” – Dr. William Boericke
• “Homeopathy and Elements” – Dr. Jan Scholten
• “Chronic disease” – Samuel Hahnemann
• “Organon” – Samuel Hahnemann
• “Homeopathic drug pictures” – Dr. M.L.Margaret Tyler
• “Clinical Materia medica” – Farrington E. A.
• “Homeopathic remedy guide” – Murphy R.
• “Synthesis 8.1” – Frederik Schroyens

All Rights Reserved – Simillimum Society for Spreading, Promotion and Improvement of Classical Homeopathy, Belgrade, Serbia. Copyrighted 2015.

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