Utility of Carcinosin in Practice

Case 1– A 22 year old girl presented with complaint of sleeplessness for the last 25 days. She lived in a hostel for study purposes but all her roommates had gone back home to their native state. She was always afraid of ghosts. At night she is very frightened to be alone.

She doesn’t want company for emotional support, but rather from loneliness. If she goes to sleep, she dreams of being possessed and feels her whole body is paralyzed and cannot even move a finger. In dreams she sees her soul escaping from her body.

She also gets frightful dreams of a wolf chasing her to attack her, coming nearer and nearer.  In her dreams she asks her mother “Why did you keep the back door of the house open? Now the wolf will kill me”, and her mother looks at her as if she will never see her daughter anymore. This dream she had at least 10 times. She also gets dreams that she is with her friends in public and suddenly she notices that she is naked. She is also frightened of spiders.

By nature, she is a very work oriented diligent person and perfectionist. It was her dream to go into modeling but her mother considers that a disrespectful profession. Her father left her mother when she was in 3^rd class. Since then her mother is her world.

She likes to dress fashionably, however her mother and family reprimand her for this. Due to this she has to conceal her photos and not even use them as profile picture on watsapp.  She’s not allowed to have a Facebook profile.

Her mother wants to protect her from everyone. Her mother also intends to find a boy for her who will discourage her from wearing this type of stylish clothing. Her mother selects all her clothes which she should wear in college.

She wants to dress well and go about wandering and do shopping but then she doesn’t want to upset her mother. She likes to help all her classmates and shares her study notes with everyone. She is very fond of cats and in her hostel she cares for 3 cats already.

In childhood she suffered from asthma. Presently she is free from it after doing lots of Ayurvedic and Reiki treatment. She also has a history of dysmenorhoeas treated by Reiki. Her favourite season is rainy weather and even as a child she enjoyed getting wet and playing in the rain. It is thrilling for her to go out in the rain and she loves thunderstorms.

She suffers from homesickness. Desires salty food. Drinks normal temperature water at least 3 litres.  Her wish is to go out to the movies but now she is busy with college work. Three boys proposed to her but she refused.

She shared everything with her mother. She fights with her mother and rebels against her sometimes but loves her a lot, although she doesn’t express it. She has lack of confidence despite working hard.

Thermally- Hot patient

This case was repertorised on complete repertory using these rubrics:

Mind Homesickness

Anxiety sleeplessness with

Company desire for

Desire for salty things.

Three remedies stood out from repertorisation: Natrum-Mur, Phosphorus and Carcinosin. Natrum Mur was eliminated since she had strong desire for company. She has beautiful long eyelashes but no desire for cold drinks. Also, phosphorus is an emotional type whereas here we have a serious, lonely individual in whom every emotion is being controlled by her strict mother.

Considering the long history of domination from her over protective mother, Carcinosin emerged as the best choice.

Rx:  Carcinosin 1M, 1 single dose was prescribed on 19-Feb-2020

Anemnesis: The dreams in this case reveal all the repressed emotions swallowed by the patient in order to please her beloved mother. The attacking wolf is analogous to her mother, who checked all her ambition of fashion manifested as asthma in childhood and presently sleeplessness.

The paralyzing feeling in the dream is actually the invalidating of her desires. During sleep the subconscious mind is released from all voluntary control. Hence, she is restless at night.

Carcinosin comes from a family where love is provided by parents linked to how well their children are doing academically. For example; if you are first in class then you might be loved.

Children are placed in top academic colleges, away from home. Failure to obtain the goal is not an option, either for this patient or her parents. In spite of success, Carcinosin never feels adequately appreciated or loved. Carcinosin people are sympathetic and have a lot of love for animals.

Follow up after 1 Month– The first day after taking the remedy she was sleepless but managed to switch off lights and tried to sleep. The fourth day she noticed that her memory improved and no dreams were occurring.  The eighth day she was able to sleep with fear but no specific dreams, and was able to switch off the lights and sleep.

Twenty days later she began enjoying good quality sleep, switched off the lights, had no nightmares and her memory further improved. Thirty days later her dreams were of normal day to day situations. She no longer had dreams of stressful situations like before. She was extremely thankful to homoeopathy.

Case 2– In September 2016 a 51-year old mother of four children visited my clinic to help her with adenocarcinoma of the ovary. She had already received one cycle of chemotherapy. C.T scan of abdomen revealed ovarian malignancy with peritoneal metastasis. There were no active complaints only pathology. On further inquiry she revealed that at 50 years of age she had attained menopause.

In January of 2016, as she was serving at their wine shop, a customer began making a fuss about her delay in packing the bottles and her husband hit her in front of the customer. She felt very humiliated. She felt that at least her husband should have kept her respect.

She was very upset that night and felt as if she would suffer a heart attack. She took sleeping pills and went off to sleep. In June 2016 she suffered a fever every evening with severe body ache for seven days consecutively. This was diagnosed as typhoid fever.

No allopathic medicine was helping her. She also had loose cough with thick white expectoration, worse at night and worse by lying down. Better by hot drinks. She had to lie down during the day for almost a month. There was pain in her ribs, as if bones were being scraped.

Since then she suffered from epigastric burning and emptiness. Her abdomen was distended with tightness (ascites). Had problems of retention of urination. Appetite was lost. Tongue was tasteless since the chemotherapy.

Her father had died of alcoholism. Her mother had mental problems and committed suicide. Her childhood was very difficult because her step mother dominated her. Presently her husband dominates her. Both of them treated her like an animal.

Her husband never expressed his emotions, was never kind to her and insulted her. On her property the telephone company wanted to set up a tower and she alone fought for justice and recovered her property.

Her husband was cheated by a friend with regards to money and she fought towards that cause as well. Still she cared for her husband. Her main grievance was that she had not lived her life, but was only pleasing others.

Based on the strong family history of syphilitic tendencies and domination. Carcinosin 1 M, 1 single dose was prescribed.

Follow up after 3 months– She began expressing her emotions through writing poems and stories. She bravely endured a surgical operation without any complication and two more cycles of chemotherapy after which more were not necessary. The ascites cleared off.

She was well until January 2017 when she presented with complaints of lymph nodes having infiltrative deposits. She had also become extremely suspiciousness, doubting her children, and had a strong religious mania accompanied by loquacity.

Her daughter wanted to marry a boy of lower caste and she was creating plenty of obstacles for them. She even threatened the priest who would be officiating the marriage. She was a hot patient with desire for fresh air.

Lachesis 1M, 1 single dose was prescribed.

Follow up after 6 months– She became acceptable and understanding. She participated willingly in her daughter’s marriage. Lymph nodes subsided. She became a grandmother and was well until January 2020, when suffered from an influenza which progressed into pleurisy and death.

Case 3- In September 2019 A 53-year old widower visited me for follow up visit. The complaint for which he had been consulting me was chronic sinusitis and hypertension since 6 years. Every time he would present running nose, nose blocked when going to sleep, tender sinuses, watery eyes, irritation in throat with dry cough

Ailments from cold drinks or air conditioning. He also suffered from left tennis elbow, Osteo-arthritis of left knee and lumbago >hard pressure (>lying on hard surface), <Lying. He was a hot patient and grieving for the sudden death of his wife who died suddenly in May 2019 of a myocardial infarction.

He was looking after 30-year old son who was unable to walk due to non-union of tibia fracture following a motor vehicular accident on December 2018. Orthopaedic doctors were frightening him even more with bad prognosis of his son. He was worried about his son’s recovery and future.

Besides that, his unmarried aunt was also dependent on him as she needed a bypass operation and also a worker of his had become mentally ill who was taken care by him. Hot patient who was responded well to Natrum Mur 1M, 1 single dose prescribed to him in June 2019.

At this visit in September 2019 he did not have any active cold symptoms, so I decided to give him a chronic intercurrent. He was a very passionate social worker fighting for social causes. He had the second best handicraft collection in Goa. He was introvert by nature. Very anxious about health of others (sympathetic) and lover of nature. A very fine active man who could never stand injustice. Carcinosin is a person of principles, hearing all the injustices of others and fights for social causes as well as for animals. Their fighting is as clear as Causticum.

Very creative, artistic but they are dangerous to themselves because they go very near to the sufferings of others and very easily impressionable like Natrum-mur. They may take over the problem and develop things like sleeplessness, carcinoma of skin or breast. Hence I prescribed Carcinosin 1M, 1 single dose. Carcinosin is complimentary to Natrum Mur.

Follow up after 6 months – For the first time he was alright at one go with absolutely no sinusitis trouble, and all this time he could enjoy a lot of cold drinks. He also was able to set up a restaurant of his own, however unfortunately the Corona virus halted his progress.

His new waiters became his liability. He was worried about the future constantly. Feeling soreness on left side of scalp >lying on affected side with his arm pressing against it. I had to prescribe Bryonia 200, 1 single dose (Bryonia is acute of Natrum Mur). This case demonstrates the strength of Carcinosin as an intercurrent in chronic diseases.

The most important Mental Symptoms of Carcinosin are:

Suicidal tendencies; retarded or mentally defective children (Clarke); dullness of mind, disinterested, difficult concentration with the consequential irritability (Templeton); fears and lasting dreads, reaching terror (Foubister); Unhappiness, which is more pronounced than Kent’s “discontented”; anticipation with anguish, excessive sense of duty (conscious-Ars); obstinate; desire of travelling (Tub); oversensitive to music with a pronounced sense of rhythm and desire for dancing in children, like Sepia; enjoyment watching a thunderstorm; markedly sympathetic (Foubister); mentally overdeveloped and precocious children (Pachero).

Please note here the tendency of ambivalence (bipolarity) of the nosode, which is one of its basic peculiarities. Then fear of darkness; bashful, oversensitive to reprimand (Med); fear of dogs (Tub) and animals in general; upset by scare. Frequent fright in children (Foubister); excessive need of affection. This symptom is also very marked in Puls and Phos, but while the first keeps the tenderness for himself with some selfishness and is reluctant to return it, the second lavishes in good measure the received love. Well, the Carcinosin resembles the last one and not the Pulsatilla. Great continual weariness with extreme irritability, worse when awakening; repulse to any activity, even to the most cherished, which I clearly observed myself, as well as lack of interest.

The most important General Symptoms are:

The knee-elbow position in sleep, this symptom figures in Kent’s Repertory only with Med; Foubister, though relates this position with Carcinosin, Antecedents of severe whooping cough and/or severe pneumonia in the first childhood (Foubister) and diffuse adenopathies with fever. An extremely useful medicine, both in acute stage and in those patients in whom the condition persists for months and sometimes years.

Of glandular fever, it is to say acute infective Mononeucleosis. The Carcinosin action is based here on the “similitude of malignancy with localized groups of enlarged lymph glands”. (Action was clinically confirmed by Dorothy J Cooper).

Another important general symptom is the influence of sea air, aggravation as well as amelioration like Natrum. Here we observe again the peculiar bipolarity of Carcinosin. Tendency to formation of keloid scars which it not only cures, but also prevents, reducing incidence, when given pre-operatively, to patients undergoing plastic surgery (Paschero).

Cyclical morning nausea and diarrhoeas with floating excrements; invincible anorexia, occipital headache with radiation to the base of skull and to the nape, worse when awakening. Weakness and weariness with numbed legs, better after short sleep (Hui Bon Hoa-France). Constipation with complete absence of desire, like Opium (Templeton, Joly).

Cravings and aversions: Foubister mentioned five elements which are: salt, milk, eggs, fruit and fat meat. There may be a craving or an aversion to any or anyone of them, making it evident again that a craving for any of these elements during childhood, changes into a later aversion, or vice-versa.

The aversion or desire of salt, fruit, milk and fat meat was confirmed by Pierre Schmidt, who claimed also a craving of chocolate. Craving of butter, sweets and sugar “to the point of wanting to eat nothing except sugar” in children, was described by Pashero. Desire for smoked meat.

Sleep: Another position of Carcinosin, is on the dorsum with hands up (Puls). Insomnia is characterized by: trouble in getting to sleep; awakening in terror; awakening due to exciting dreams; excessive ideation; impossibility in falling asleep again when awakened during the night. Causalities: personal, hereditary and collateral antecedents; hereditary history of tuberculosis, diabetes and/or pernicious anemia (Foubister); hereditary syphilis.

Carcinosin patients are very fragile people who undermine their own confidence by pleasing others while suppressing their own wishes. They desire for harmony in the family and the world and have an acutely felt connection to suffering that will eventually be their downfall.

They feel guilty to take time off, which leads to suppressed anger, which eventually leads to physical illness. The greatest injustice is that “I am never accepted the way I am”. They are victims of prolonged suppressions, repressions, tensions, struggle and unhappiness.

Cancer is often preceded by fear of cancer. Carcinosins are perfectionist, industrious, artistic, a nature lover, with literary, poetic bent, creative, affectionate, romantic, frank, mild people with a good sense of responsibility. Sentimental and sensitive to reprimands.

They are lonely individuals who do not like consolation. Ailments from silent grief, rudeness, early responsibility, menopause, head trauma, suppressed anger and long -lasting domination.

A personal history will contain insomnia since childhood or frequent pneumonia in early childhood. Natrum Mur is complementary to Carcinosin. Both have lack of emotional nourishment in early life.