4.11 Cuprum, Case 1A 50 year old man suffers from heart spasms. He has had this for two years and he has been in hospital twice to be monitored. The heart specialist can find nothing abnormal. He has stitches in his left armpit, radiating down to the arm. He has cramp in his chest, in the region of his heart, it often wakes him at 5 in the morning, especially when he has been lying on his left side. He is very tired and has to lie down in the afternoon. He also gets cramp in his calves, mainly when he is sitting still at home in the evening. Better when he is moving or stretching his legs. He remembered having this since he was 4 years old, he used to crawl in bed with his parents who would rub his calves, which made it better. Later on it troubled him in his military service years during marching practice.
He suffers from back pains since a compression fracture of the third lumbar vertebrae 4 years ago. It is aggravated by damp weather, stretching his back and sitting down. It is a stitching, cutting, shooting and burning kind of pain, radiating to his right hip. Sometimes he feels a bit lightheaded and dizzy. His blood pressure is slightly up and he has a red face.
He is director of a bank and he feels very responsible for his colleagues and clients. He gets very involved and often feels he is as much a social worker as a director. His work is his hobby and he often keeps thinking about it at night. His complaints started when the council did not keep its promises towards his business.
He grew up on a farm and had to work on the land after school. Everybody at home used to help. After finishing secondary school he went to agricultural college and gradually worked himself up into accountancy.
He dreams he is driving a car and the brakes are failing.
GeneralsWeather: < draught (2); -> fresh air.
Perspiration: << exertion, in the face.
Time: < 5 am.
Desires: meat (2), fish (2), sweet, salt.
Aversion: sour (2), ginger (3), tough meat.
Food: < alcohol, mussels (3).
Sleep: good, but wakes up early, around 5 to 6 am.
AnalysisThe complaints already point to Cuprum. His main complaint is spasms of the heart without any apparent reason like clogging of the arteries etc. He also has had cramp in his calves all his life.
We can recognise the theme of the metals in his approach to work: he is very serious and responsible. Typical for Cuprum is the fact that his complaints started when the council did not keep its promise towards the business. Furthermore we have the dream of failing brakes (stage 11 and even more particularly stage 12), and the aggravation from marching as a soldier.
ReactionSulphur and
Magnesium had done nothing for him. But after Cuprum 1M his complaints, instead of being there all the time, start to go away from time to time. Sometimes he has two or three good days, followed by a couple of bad days, with tiredness and waking up early. But on the whole he feels better, the edge has gone of it and he feels more relaxed and able to let things be. During the next two years he got 4 more doses of Cuprum 1M whenever the problems started to come back.