Stannum

5.14 Stannum, Case 1A 65 year old woman has a whole series of complaints.
She is very restless, which started to manifest itself after the second war. Her parents had been caught and taken to the gas chambers and, being an only child, she had to cope on her own from the age of 17 onwards. The restlessness was extreme until two years after she got married. Fortunately her husband was a tower of strength and slowly she began to relax a bit.
But she never feels really calm inside. Nothing is sure in this life and she always has to react and do something when something happens. There is never a moment when she feels free of cares; there is always someone or herself to worry about. She leads a very intense sort of life.
She hates narrow-minded people who are ready to spout their opinions. She herself has the feeling ‘some things happen in life and there isn’t a thing you can do about it’.
She likes to explain everything, to repair the damage, to neutralise a problem. When someone says something negative she immediately wants to say something positive to counterbalance it. She doesn’t like uncertainty and she cannot stand injustice. She feels she will never stop crying, although she never started. She can’t ever completely let go and enjoy life, there is always something.
Her way of thinking is very black and white, she isn’t very subtle, she reacts immediately. She is also very critical, ‘like all people who use their brain’.
She used to be quite violent in her reactions in the past, but nowadays she tends to feel that everything is relative. Her children have also taught her to look at things from different sides, not always to stick to the same old opinions.
She has a strong sense of duty. She would like to be creative but she isn’t.
She has many complaints and always feels tired. She can’t stand traffic noise. She gets frequent colds with sinusitis, < dust, straw, < spring and summer, > winter, < left.
She has pains in her back, suddenly, < cold, > warmth, > sitting up straight, radiating to left hip, with a feeling as if everything is cut off, < pressure, < manipulation, which makes her feel sick and dizzy.
The rims of her nails get inflamed, especially the right index finger and left ring finger.
Her hands and feet are icy cold: chilblains, red, painful or numb. She has thick, horny toenails.
Headaches starting from the neck, spreading all over her head, to her jaws, worse on the left side, with diplopia, nagging (2), > heat, < tension, -> sleep; she wants to carry on working because occupation ameliorates. She gets a dirty metallic taste in her mouth, like tin.
She gets stomach pains with a sensation of a block in the stomach, < 3 to 4 am. She is dizzy when she lies down, a light, floating type of sensation. Her hands and feet are often swollen.
Her appendix has been removed and she also had a hysterectomy because of profuse bleeding. During her second pregnancy she had back pains for 4 months. The child was induced but the first attempt failed and the second attempt only succeeded one week later when the child had been turned around in the womb; she developed eczema on the palms of her hands, with large blisters. She also got a breast infection with terrible pains after feeding.GeneralsWeather: cold, < damp, < draught, restless < storm, -> wind, fresh.
Time: < morning.
Desires: fruit (3), sour (3), sweet (3), chocolate.
Aversion: warm food, egg (2), milk.
Sleep: on left side.AnalysisThe metallic tin taste in her mouth would be enough in itself to prescribe Stannum. This is what I did in fact, and it wasn’t until later that I understood the mental symptoms in the light of the group analysis.
That the remedy should be one of the Silver series can be deduced from the fact that she is very interested in art and is always busy philosophising about different ideas and opinions. She likes to have an explanation for everything (Silver series) and she wants to neutralise all problems (Stage 14). She hates narrow minded people who are always ready to spout their opinions and point a finger (Stage 14). She lives her life according to the principle: ’Things happen anyway and there is nothing you can do about it’ (Stage 14). She has learnt to see that everything is relative (Stage 14).ReactionAfter Stannum 1M she soon starts to feel calmer, doesn’t turn things over and over in her mind so much anymore. The improvement continues gradually and she gets more and more energy. The headache, backache and inflammation around her nails come and go, but three months later they have disappeared. During the course of the next two years she gets three more doses of Stannum 1M for a recurrence of the sinusitis.