Lobelia syphilitica A 74-year-old woman with lively eyes and a vulnerable, active and a bony posture. She often licks her lips and speaks clearly. She is tastefully dressed, calm, and attentive.
She suffers from hay fever and has had sore eyes and an itchy nose for years, for which she takes medication. She has had hay fever since childhood. She continues to suffer from it; it feels like the flu, her eyes sting, her nose runs, and she doesn't feel quite right. It starts very early in the year and lasts quite a long time. It is better at the seaside. “I just keep going, I don't take very good care of myself.” She often feels like she has the flu. She feels weak, has no energy, just sits around, and sniffles a lot. Her head and ears are blocked. Now she has a lot of mucus and has trouble lying down: wheezing, crackling, coughing. She finds that scary too, she still has to have a scan.
She has psoriasis, which she has had psoriasis all her life, since she was 13 years old. It caused emotional trauma during puberty; she was completely depressed, and now it affects her elbows, knees, head, and ears. She can't sit still, she socializes with people, she walks her dog, she works in the garden, lays tiles, she does everything herself, she doesn't like to ask for help. She has had other things in the past, but “that has nothing to do with it.” Ten years ago, she had breast cancer and underwent surgery. Three years ago, she had lung cancer; the lower lobe was removed, she had chemotherapy, it was hidden, and she didn't suffer from it.
Her blood pressure is sometimes too low, so she drinks licorice tea. She notices it when she feels dizzy when standing up and bending over. Her joints are a little painful. Cold water in the sea hurts so much that I almost drowned once. As a child on a moped, she already had problems with her wrists in cold weather.
Psoriasis runs in the family. Her father died young when she was 25, and her mother had an aneurysm. Her parents were sailors; they spent a lot of time outdoors. Her childhood was very happy. She was very homesick at boarding school; she cried every day, in the worst spot, by a leaking drainpipe. That was a difficult period. Later, her father started working ashore, and they were together again, and that was a very good time. She worked in the theater, making costumes. At 25, she wanted to become a hairdresser, but that didn't work out because of the psoriasis, which was a shame. She has ridges in her nails.
She has been coughing for a few months now, but she just carries on. She always smoked until she got cancer. When it gets too bad, she sometimes has a cigarette, feeling ashamed. Our daughter has not been well, her whole life – this is the only moment she gets emotional. I was married, but it didn't work out, and she left him; there was always a struggle. She hasn't had a good life, she sighs: only with my parents (was it fun), I had to do everything myself. She has never been happy, not even with another partner; it's a rollercoaster ride, with deep lows, until the bomb bursts. In general, she is not happy. She sometimes thinks: if it's cancer again, then it's not so bad to die. There is always turmoil in her head. For example, her ex has an illness, which she finds very upsetting, and then she ends up taking care of him again. She doesn't sleep and uses temazepam. She has no dreams. She thinks she can escape by cleaning, but there is always stress in her body.
AnalysisSeries 6: hay fever, flu, psoriasis, joints.
Lanthanides,
Series 6: Independent, theme of having to do things alone, being on her own.
Phase 3 5: Not being able to do what she wanted, wanting more: a combination of
Phase 3 and 5, always stressed in body,
Phase 5, being busy. Bickering, adapting until the bomb bursts,
Phase 3 and 5.
Lobeliaceae is therefore an option, but which stage?
Stage 17: doesn't mind when it will be over, farewell, sadness, separation, away from parents, facing death.
Prescription: Lobelia syphilitica C200.
Follow-upAfter taking it, she had a bad cold, flu-like symptoms, with terrible sniffling. Since then, she has not had the flu. The cough is gone. The hay fever is less. She has a lot of worries about her terminally ill sister and her husband, “it sucks all the energy out of you, but hey, it's necessary. She now has an outbreak of psoriasis on her head, in her ears, and on her elbow, lots of small spots.”I've had it for 60 years." Her tongue is dry, the edge a little red. The psoriasis causes a lot of mental distress. When I was young, it had a big impact; it was awful. I wanted to go to the beach, but people stared, and children said ‘yuck’. The medication is repeated.
After a month, the psoriasis was much less, which made her very happy. She spends a lot of time on her care. She can't sleep much, gets out of bed early, ‘that train had to go on’. She has lost two kilos, her appetite is gone, just like in the past at boarding school, the homesickness, with the divorce, with all the serious things, then the appetite stops. Now she feels like coming again, she enjoys it again.