Niccolum CaseA 35 year old woman has frequent inflammation in the throat, mostly right sided. The tonsils and glands in the neck are swollen. She feels as if she has a lump in her throat, which makes talking and swallowing very difficult. She has fever with perspiration, pus-sy discharge from the tonsils. Her mouth is dry and she wants to eat liquorice and drink a lot.
Pain in the stomach with a feeling of a ball inside, > putting her hand on it.
Nausea from coffee. Pimples from eating eggs and chocolate. Lump in her calf on the fibula.
Past history: Operation on both knees in 1974, she couldn’t walk very well because her patellae were too small.
In 1978 removal of a gland in the axilla.
General characteristics:
Temperature: sensitive to heat and cold; she hates damp and rainy weather.
Time: < 1 pm.
Desires: sweet, chocolate (2), liquorice (2), soup (2), asparagus (3).
Aversion: eggs (2), buttermilk, citrus fruits.
< eggs, chocolate, coffee. > alcohol.
Menses: short cycle with much loss of blood; stomach pains during menses.
painful breasts 2 weeks before menses, alternating left and right, < right.
Sleep: dropping off to sleep is difficult; she sleeps on her stomach.
Mind: The complaints started when she did not receive enough guidance when she started her new job. She is in charge of the sick ward of an old peoples home. Because she did not get any guidance she felt she had no overview of the whole situation. Everyone moaned and complained and she couldn’t bear this.
One of the main problems, also at work, is the fact that she is a perfectionist and tends to do too much at once. Then she doubts doubts whether she is is good enough. She has always been ambitious, alternated with spells of being lazy and a feeling of ‘I won’t succeed anyway’. She is a bad loser and therefore hates playing games. She likes older people, partly because she feels there is no rivalry with them.
She has a great desire to be appreciated and to be loved. She thinks that the people at work don’t like her. She has had this desire to be appreciated since she was a child. Even at that time she felt that she she did not get her fair share of things. She was the middle one of five children and felt that somehow she always missed out on all the nice things. She belonged neither to the eldest nor to the youngest two children.
She was not allowed to be angry or sad, otherwise she would hurt her father. Her father had never had a proper home as a child, so she wanted to please her father and be gentle and kind, so that he would love her.
At work and in her social environment she sometimes gets restless suddenly. This happens when she has negative feelings towards someone, but she doesn’t know why. The restlessness and tension will increase until it starts to affect her stomach or her throat, or until she deals with her problem. She therefore always wants to solve her problems as soon as possible because it relieves the feeling of ’What on earth is happening now?’. She bites her nails from anxiety.
She likes the company of friends and she is faithful in maintaining contact with them, sending them birthday cards etc. She found it difficult to leave her parents' house.
She has changeable moods, hurriedness alternating with laziness, happiness alternating with sadness. It is difficult for her to express her anger, she is afraid that she won’t be loved.
During childhood she lived in a world of fantasy. She played with her dolls and made lots of clothes for them. She uses her fantasy to withdraw into a world where everyone is kind and beautiful and where they all love her.
Relationships: This is difficult for her. She has only had a few relationships and those were very brief. She felt she had to adapt herself until there was nothing left of her. She did always try and adapt, because she was afraid of being rejected. She used to be jealous of the relationship between her parents.
AnalysisThis patient had been helped with various problems in the past. This time she came because of an acute, right sided throat infection. Lyc 1M gave a temporary improvement, but the inflammation then moved to the left. A repeat of lyc 10M did nothing. What now?
Her perfectionism and the feeling of having to live up to something made me think of the
Ferrum group. There were not enough indications for
Ferrum,
Zincum or
Vanadium. I had already tried Cuprum, without result. Looking at the other elements in this group
Niccolum caught my eye. Clarke (1985, part 2, page 580) and Allen (1982, vol 6, page 633) mention quite a few symptoms which were also present in this case.
ReactionAfter
Niccolum 1M she improved very rapidly. She felt better on the whole and her energy increased. Her dandruff disappeared. She felt more stable and open and she allowed herself to feel her emotions.