Kalium phosphoricum CaseA 35 year old woman comes with sinus problems. She has already had three courses of penicillin and several other treatments, but nothing helped. When it first started she woke up one night with a terrible headache and swollen eyes with a lot of yellow pus.
She has now had it for three months. It is worse when she is very busy with her two children, < smoke, < chemical smells in the hairdressing salon where she works as a receptionist.
She has been chronically tired for 9 years, ever since the birth of her eldest daughter.
She easily catches colds, which always gives her a sore throat. A little while ago she had the sensation of a large lump in her throat, swallowing was very difficult and caused a sharp pain to appear in her chest and back. This feeling disappeared after a few days. She sometimes has a cough which lasts a few days. She has had this all her life. The cough is worse in the evening and at night, < when she first lies down (2), and < draught (2).
Eating chocolate gives her spots.
Past history: 5 years ago she has had a minor nervous breakdown. She carried on for too long and finally couldn’t sleep anymore.
Before the age of 5 she had had pneumonia 4 times. After that she had bronchitis every winter until she was 18.
General characteristics:
Temperature: warm, < damp (2), < draught (2), > sea.
Perspiration: easy on exertion; sometimes at night; suffers from clammy feet.
Desires: fish (2), sweet, salt, spicy.
Aversion: kidney, liver.
Menses: copious; during pregnancy she felt fine, very energetic.
Sleep: not good; very light, she feels tense and often wakes at 2 am.
sleeps on her right side.
Mind: She feels that she constantly has to over exert herself. She has always had a job, even after she had the children. Her husband thought it would be good for her to keep working. She found a job as a freelance stewardess. It was a very hectic life. She used to get called away at short notice and did not dare to say no, even if she was dead tired. She would take the children to her mother quickly and go to work. She could not sleep well at that time, also because the children often woke her up. She did not really enjoy this busy life, but everybody said she had such a nice life, so she used to just say 'yes, lovely'.
She is generally rather tense, because she wants to keep things under control. She prefers to do everything herself, doesn’t easily accept help.
But she does like to help others, and this makes her feel good. She dashes around to help everyone and to make them happy.
She is cheerful and optimistic. She likes contact with other people. She also likes to be busy, doesn’t like to laze around. She does not have any definite fears, but she is certainly not much of a heroine, and prefers not to do anything too daring.
Her moods are changeable and she would like to feel a bit more steady. Her mood can vary from day to day.
Marriage: 4 years ago she got divorced. Her husband ended the relationship, because he felt 'it was not going well'. He hated family life. But she found that it was going very well, and it has upset her great deal. She has only recently got over her grief, with the help of haptonomy. After the divorce she felt that she had failed, and she was very lonely.
AnalysisThe normal homoeopathic analysis will also indicate Kali-p in this case. But the importance of this case is that it shows us the essence clearly. She feels bound by duty to maintain the many contacts and to keep everyone happy. Everybody likes seeing her busy and so she likes it too. The Phosphoric element of taking on other people's opinions is clearly present. So is the sympathetic trait. But here it is linked to the principle of duty. Her reaction to being deserted by her husband is also typical. She has sadness, but mostly she feels the loneliness and the fact that she has failed.
Failure is characteristic of Kali, failing to accomplish your duty. Together with this we have the lonely feeling of the
Phosphorus element, where the contact has been broken.
ReactionAfter one month she had regained 70% of her energy. After three months she said that she was her old self again.