5.2 Strontium, Case 1An 18 year old boy is frequently troubled by bronchitis with a feeling of suffocation and much coughing. He has had pneumonia in the past with a temperature of 39C and much wheezing and panting. He is allergic to dust, mite, and cats, also to smoke and damp. He gets occasional symptoms of hay fever: itching on the nose > rubbing, Watery coryza, sneezing, pain in throat, itching in throat, itching ears and lachrymation.
He used to get ear infections in the past. Also a recurring complaint of diarrhoea with cramp in stomach < 11 pm to 2 am.
The spermatic cord on the left side occasionally swells up and becomes painful, a stitching kind of pain. The left testicle also tends to get swollen from time to time.
he is the oldest of 4 boys.
He is very shy and during the first two consultations, when he was only 15, he only talked with his mother, who had to tell the whole story on his behalf. He doesn’t feel at ease in front of strangers. His speech is hesitating: ‘Yes, well, I mean..’. He constantly stops in mid sentence. He is afraid of saying something wrong, something that doesn’t fit. It is very important to him to say things properly, especially when he is with strangers. Otherwise he would rather not say anything at all. He doesn’t have this problem when he writes something down.
He is very indecisive and small changes, like a new piece of furniture can increase his uncertainty. He is also quite critical, both towards himself and to his brothers and other people. he criticises people who smoke, drink or eat meat.
He used to suffer from homesickness when he was younger, especially when he went camping with the school. He doesn’t like talking about sex.
His school performance is very good, never gets lower than 8 out of 10, but he still remains unsure of himself. When he was little he was always asking his mother: ‘why is this, why is that, why is the grass green?’. He is keen on learning and easily picks up new information. He prefers the science subjects and keeps in touch with recent scientific developments. He wants to study chemistry and would like to discover something new in this field. He has a very strong ambition and wants to be perfect in everything he does. He gets very irritated when he gets something wrong at school, or when working something out on the computer. He dreams that he gets a bad mark at school or that he hasn’t handed in his homework on time because he is ill, or that a computer virus wipes everything off his hard disk.
he likes science fiction and horror films. He used to have nightmares about witches and giants. Sometimes he could stop these dreams by blinking his eyes very quickly. recently he has had many different dreams: there was no cake left for him; a machine or tank-like creature that crushed people to death was chasing him; fire; he had to tell the children at school that they were not allowed to work with radio-active materials.
GeneralsWeather: cold, < cold; < damp; <-grey weather: > sea and mountains, > fresh air and open window (2).
Perspiration: little.
Time: < 11 pm
Desires: cheese (2), cold and warm milk (3), chocolate (2), drinks.
Aversion: chips, sauerkraut, carbonated drinks, apple juice, grapefruit.
Food: < sour, fish (2), bacon (2), < chocolate.
Sleep: refreshing; on his back.
Physical: < walking outside.
AnalysisHis desire to study chemistry and to make some new scientific discoveries points to the
Silver series. His complaints of the air passages and the left testicle confirm that we should look for his remedy somewhere in this series.
His shyness reminds of of
Calcium or even
Barium carbonicum.
Barium carbonicum had helped him once in the past, but the problems with the spermatic cord appeared a year later. The fear of the unknown however is typical of the second stage, which leads us to
Strontium metallicum. There is no reason to look for a
Strontium compound in this case as the theme in itself is purely
Strontium.
Other confirming symptoms: passive, <- talking about sex, -> milk, < cold, > outside. His critical attitude is typical of
Strontium, especially combined with his overall shyness. Even more noticeable is his way of speaking, it is as if he can’t find the words to express himself, being overwhelmed (stage 2) by his own ideas (
Silver series).
ReactionOne month after
Strontium metallicum 1M everything is much better. The problem with the spermatic cord and the allergic reactions are almost gone. His overall energy is much better too. He had a dream of making a programme for a computer game. Eighteen months later he still feel well and the complaints never came back.