Zincum phosphoricum

4.12.2 Zincum phosphoricum, Case 1A 25 year old woman suffers from chronic tiredness. It started when she had Pfeiffer at the age of 15. She was taking her final exams at school and everything went fine until just before the exam when she suddenly couldn’t take in anymore. She fell asleep on top of her books and couldn’t study anymore. Fortunately she managed to pass her exams because her previous results had been good. She fainted when she heard the exam result. Afterwards they found out that she had Pfeiffer and she had to stay in bed for 7 weeks and stick to a diet without fat. The tiredness remained however and although the worst of it went away after 6 months she has never been her old self since. Her parents look up to people who have been to university, like her husband. She herself had been free to choose the type of school she wanted to go to, but when she had finally passed her exams her parents couldn’t refrain from mentioning that her niece had managed to finish a higher grade school with great success. This irked her very much. She did not have a very happy childhood. It wasn’t that her parents were awful, but they did not give her any warmth. Her mother was a nervous type of woman who would suddenly shout and scream at the children for no apparent reason. The daughter did not know what to do in such situation and usually walked away, back to her own bedroom. She used to spend the holidays with an aunt, her mothers sister who was a much more motherly type, and who became like a second mother to her.
When she was 23 she had a nervous breakdown because of a job that was too much for her. She started trembling, crying and sweating profusely and had to spend three months at home off work. During this time she remembered all sorts of things from the past, like the feeling that her parents always put her brother first because he was clever.
As a child she used to have frequent colds with watery, acrid coryza and a blocked nose. When she was 4 she had her tonsils removed, but it did not solve anything. She also used to get ear infections with stiffness in her jaws, much thirst, little perspiration, temperature of 38-39 degrees C, and desire for savoury things like crisps, pepper and salt. She also suffered from ‘anaemia’ although her iron level was ‘normal’. She would look pale and gaunt and feel very tired. She often felt dizzy and had a tendency to faint on rising, stooping, standing for a long time and before the menses.
She tends to get nervous and starts to stutter when she doesn’t feel at ease.
She is very sympathetic, wants to help her family or friends when they have a problem. She goes to see them without being asked and can lie awake at night worrying about them. She gets very upset when she hears about injustice, torture or cruelty to children.
Once she had pneumonia with much coughing. The cough was < talking (3), < moving and turning around in bed, > lying still, > lying on right side (2), and < evening. She had cold shivers, 40 degrees C fever, pain in the back at T 12 and pain in the left axilla.
It had started after a long plane journey with her children. It had been a long, hard flight. One of the children was ill, vomiting all the time and none of the stewardesses had shown much support. She had hardly had time to eat. At the American customs desk she had had a long wait because they suspected her of wanting to immigrate.
She dreams that she is in a boat on the water, but the boat doesn’t have a bottom so she has to swim. There are some very stern looking guards waiting for her holding some sort of long spikes, like acupuncture needles. She doesn’t want to be punctured.
Also dreams about leaving school and about cats.
She is afraid of thunderstorms, < alone, of fireworks and of dogs.GeneralsWeather: cold, cold feet, -> rain (2), fear of thunder (2), > sea (2).
Perspiration: little.
Time: < evening, 4 and 5 pm.
Desires: salt, savoury (2), egg, gherkins, drinks (3).
Aversion: shellfish (2), melon (2), fat, bread, sweet, kohlrabi, sprouts.
Food: vomiting from fat food; < melon.
Menses: profuse, tired, irritable before menses, vomiting on first day of menses.
Sleep: >, > short sleep; sleepy after school; restless movement during sleep.
Physical: > lying on right side; < movement.AnalysisThere are many things to be said for Phosphorus: she is very sympathetic, fear of thunder, -> salt, savoury, pepper, drinks, > lying on right side, > short sleep, exhaustion from study and work, pneumonia after travelling, her brother is the favourite at home.
But Phosphor only gave temporary relief and there are some symptoms that don’t really fit the Phosphorus picture: she is sympathetic, but she carries on thinking about people until deep into the night, something Phosphorus wouldn’t do. The emphasis on intellectual performance points us in the direction of the Iron series, especially Zincum.
The following symptoms confirm this choice: < 5 pm, restless movement at night, < melon, anaemia, the stern guards in her dream, stuttering, and last but not least the characteristic Zincum nervousness.
The two together make Zincum phosphoricum the remedy for this woman.ReactionOne month after Zincum phosphoricum 1M she reports that she immediately felt a great relief, the cough got much better within one day. The stuttering went away but has come back slightly. All other symptoms improved gradually and in the course of 2 years she got six more doses of the remedy when the colds or back pains returned. On the whole she feels much better, she has got her energy back and she feels her old self again. The stuttering is much less, sometimes completely gone.
In the past she had been given Causticum, Phosphorus, Zingiber, Merc. sol, Magnesium carb, Tuberculinum, Ferrum and Calendula. The Phosphorus and Ferrum had given temporary improvement but did not make a lasting impression on being repeated.