Barium sulphuricum CaseA woman, aged 42, comes with bronchial asthma. She gets tonsillitis with bronchitis several times a year and usually gets treated with antibiotics. The pain in the throat radiates to her left ear and is < swallowing. She coughs a lot, < dry rooms, < in the morning on getting up, < lying on the left side (3), > sitting. She has pain in the sternum from coughing and when she coughs up some green mucus she feels better.
The cough is also aggravated by chemical smells, such as paint or petrol, ammonia, and burning smells. The dyspnoea is < dry, east wind, < going from warm to cold, and < drinking cold and warm. She is allergic to dust mite and fur of small animals.
The complaints started 5 years ago with itching palms and soles of the feet. She had some small blisters filled at first with fluid and later on with pus. She was apparently allergic to nickel and formaldehyde.
She has a bad taste in her mouth and her mouth is dry.
Her eyes are sometimes swollen, with yellow discharge. She is tired.
She has lost her voice and her sense of smell. She has polyps in the sinuses.
Past history: as a child she had itching skin < wool. Many ear infections on the right side. Also infection of the kidneys, appendicitis, ovarian cysts and cysts in her right breast. Seasickness (2).
General characteristics
Physique: robust
Temperature: < heat (2) and sun. < dry (3) hard wind, <- thunderstorm.
-> storm. < mist. <- draught.
Time: < morning. < 5 am.
Desires: sweet, chocolate, spices (3), sour, fruit, meat; thirsty.
Aversion: sprouts, rice (2). < dry, hard food.
< chocolate, beans, peas, garlic (2), food containing nickel.
Menses: stomach cramps on the first day; moody and weepy (2) before menses, with desire to clean the house (3).
Sleep: on the right side; she talks, snores (3) and moans in her sleep.
< sleeping long.
Childhood: Until she was 12 she had a happy childhood. After that her parents were often quarrelling and when she was 15 they got divorced. She used to feel very lonely at that time. During her teenage years she was often very quick tempered. Her father used to beat her a lot. She then developed the attitude 'You must never show what you really feel'.
Mind: She gives the impression of being a robust and rather reserved person. She does feel for others, but on the other hand she is rather dominating, organising everything for her sister or for others at work. She has explosions of temper sometimes, especially if she has bottled up her anger for a long time. She says exactly what she feels about a situation, which sometimes leads to trouble at work. She often feels moody or depressed. The fact that she does not have a job any longer makes it even worse.
Work: She worked for 23 years looking after mentally handicapped people, which she enjoyed very much. She was told to leave because of a conflict with the head of her department, who thought her too outspoken. She herself feels that she was forced to resign because of her lesbian relationship.
Relationship: She has had a relationship with a woman for 10 years. This woman periodically drinks a lot and is often very depressed, and even tried to commit suicide once. She herself finds it all quite difficult, and says 'Sometimes I have had it up to here'. She is worried about her friend and hates to see her suffering. At other times she gets very angry with her because of her irresponsible behaviour, especially with fire. She gets even more furious when she gets no reaction, 'as if she is speaking to a brick wall'. Once she gave her friend a slap, but immediately regretted this.
In the course of her treatment the problems with her friend increased, until her friend was taken to hospital with acute psychosis. Her friend blamed her for this and left for America. When she came back she had new girlfriends.
She herself is very upset, doesn’t know where she stands anymore. She is very jealous and wants to keep her girlfriend. Because she is so afraid of losing her she doesn’t dare to force anything. Then she has a dream: there is a party at their house and she is walking towards her friend. Suddenly her friend turns around and starts ridiculing her, while everyone suddenly becomes silent. This dream makes her feel very alone, it makes her shiver, with a feeling as if there was a stone in her stomach.
AnalysisThere are many reasons for giving
Sulphur: < sleeping late, < heat, < 5 am., < wool, desire for sweet, chocolate and spices. Her reaction on Sulphur was not bad, and yet the improvement was only about 20% and without any mental amelioration. After a while she had the dream of being laughed at by her girlfriend. This theme is typical of Bar-c, but Bar-c did not fit the picture. She is definitely not timid, quite the opposite, she is a bit too assertive. She is also not a very dependent type, except in her relationship. This is where she feels dependent and this is where she was laughed at. That is what made me think of Bar-s instead of Bar-c.
ReactionAfter Bar-s 1M her complaints gradually decreased. She did however have the polyps removed by surgery after a few months. So Bar-s was not able to bring about a complete cure in this case. But it did bring a great improvement. Mentally she felt much stronger, felt she could 'tackle the world again'. The following year she was able to improve her relationship with her friend and she also started to do some courses again.