3-432.14.10
Case by Franz Swoboda.
Woman, 76, hyperthyroidy.She is familiar with homeopathy since her thirties or forties.
She comes for palpitations, irregular and fast pulse, which did not subside after the 7 year-overdose of thyroid hormones, prescribed after the operation of a thyroid carcinoma 13 years ago. For years, some homeopathic complex remedy had helped her through the night. For some time now, it has not been helping anymore.
She is rather lean and tall, her clothes well selected, showing a personal style, yet unpretentious. Nice lady, attractive, good contact from the beginning. A Silica-like remedy could very well come into consideration.
She avoids the elevator, takes the stairs to the fourth store.
She feels the pulse in the solar plexus, it can get really wild, she says. Lately, she even felt anxious with it, especially when it wakes her at night. She takes a small dose of a beta-blocker, on demand. She would prefer a homeopathic remedy. The attacks of tachycardia with complete arrhythmia come suddenly, without trigger, can last for hours, she feels she could faint. She is taking an anticoagulant on a daily basis.
Further complaints? “I had a breast operation, long ago, without further treatment”. Asking about it, I hear that it was also cancer.
Minor complaints in the past were now shrinking fibroids; some hip pain when she rises from a seat, x-ray showing slight coxarthrosis; one restless leg when she goes to bed; oral lichen in the past; Raynaud syndrome, cured by Vitamin B12; recent successful operation of bilateral cataract.
So nothing extraordinary. Until I asked about her sleep.
After reading, she falls asleep after midnight, then wakes up after 90 to 120 minutes. Then falls asleep again for another similar period or lies awake for hours.
Anything else about sleep?“I have unpleasant dreams. (Pause) When I dream of my late husband, he seems to look distant, like turning his face away from me. (Gets emotional.) When he died, our friends told me things which were not nice; but we had a good marriage; no need that I start to cry now; maybe they were just jealous; they were mean; we were all good friends, and spent holidays together, and now they are saying things about him and us.”
I do not understand the husband’s reaction in the dream, so I ask: ”He turns away from you?”
“As if he was ashamed of me; I didn’t find words to stop our friends from saying those things; I didn’t do right, like a coward. As if he dislikes having contact with me; that makes me feel uneasy; it is about my inadequacy; as if he was embarrassed.”
Your friends? “When they need me, I must be there for them anytime. I help immediately. It’s not easy to find new friends. “
Here she finishes the story, saying she does not like to go any further.
“Now I have complained way too much, haven’t I? It’s embarrassing, lamenting all time long.”
AnalysisAt this point, the trituration proving of
Equisetum hyemale comes to my mind, which we had done in Vienna only weeks prior to the first encounter with this lady. Words from the essence of the proving were: Parents have given up hope that their children become extraordinary. Parents are disappointed. So the child is disappointed about himself. The child becomes ashamed of himself, even of his body and its physical functions. As a reaction, the child choses to keep quiet, to lay low.
Prescription: 3-432.14.10,
Equisetum hyemale LM 6, one sip of some globules, shaken in water.
Follow upTwo weeks later she calls; she notices more energy, her heart beat is still strong in the morning, but less wild. Sleep not much changed.
Two months later, she comes again, telling about a new pain and numbness in a foot. That was fine after new insoles. Hip pain is less, only when rising. Her sleep is much better, yet not optimal. No unpleasant dreams. Thyroid checks are ok.
About the friends? It’s a bit boring, they have not much time, so I do things on my own.
Two more telephone calls: she is fine, sleeps well, no unpleasant dreams, the husband-shame-friends-are-mean topic is gone. She wants to continue with LM6 daily. She has changed to the morning intake, that improves her sleep even more.
DiscussionAnother confirmation for
Equisetum hyemale was that the repertory (Complete Dynamics) has three entries under “cancer”.
A general thought about the importance of shame in this remedy: the well known indication in enuresis of
Equisetum hyemale: an intensely shameful complaint.
While Sigrid Lindemann does not mention “shame” in her convincing
Equisetum hyemale case in
Spectrum 3/2020, I’d rather keep it in mind. Signs for Silicon plus shame makes me at least think of Equisetum.