4.2.2 Calcium silicatum, Case 2A 49 year old woman wants to stop the anti-epilepsy medicines she has been taking since she was 11. When she has an attack she faints and thrashes her arms and legs around; afterwards she feels very tired. The first time it happened was during a school trip when she got out of the bus, surprised by the beautiful landscape. Later on she got it in class when she was excited because she knew the right answer to a question. Around the age of 33 she had spell of frequent attacks. This was at the time she first met a girl friend, which she was very happy about, although she was also afraid of losing her again. She had never had time for relationships because she had been helping in her parents chemist’s shop since she left school. Later on she took over the shop, but it took all her time to keep it a profitable business. She was very close to both her parents. They are dead now, but she still dreams about them occasionally, and in these dreams they are still alive and she can talk with them. She even finds herself talking to them when she is awake sometimes as she misses their support very much. Sometimes she dreams that her girl friend is very ill.
On the whole she can’t deal with stress very well. Especially in situations where someone she loves is ill or dying. She finds it impossible to look them up in hospital or to attend a funeral. Apart from the epilepsy, she has some strange drawing, contracting sensation in her forehead lately. She also has a slipped disc in her neck, frequent infections at the roots of her teeth, stiffness in the joints of her fingers and wrists and eczema after swimming.
In 1974 she had a hernia operation on the left side. It took her an abnormally long time to recover. During this time her sisters sold her shop and she hasn’t worked since then. Two years after that she had both her breasts amputated because she suffered from increasingly large and painful cysts, worse before the menses. She felt very frightened at the time because her mother had died of breast cancer. In 1980 she had a hysterectomy because of myoma and cysts.
She feels cold but can’t tolerate heat, especially not from the sun.
AnalysisThe dreams in which she talks with her dead parents are very typical of
Calcium silicatum. We can also understand why she dreams about them, she badly needs the support (
Silicium) of her parents (
Calcium). She worked hard (
Iron series) in the family business (
Silicium) and was not sure (
Calcium) how to keep it going financially. The fear of loss of her parents and friend through disease also belongs to the
Silicon series. Sankaran (1994) says that
Calcium silicatum could be the son of not very well-to-do parents, who is expected to do more than he is really capable of.
Other
Calcium silicatum symptoms: disease through (over)work, fear of disease, death, financial worries, little self confidence, epilepsy, cold, cysts in breasts, myoma.
ReactionSince the first dose of
Calcium silicatum her EEG showed no sign of abnormal activity anymore, so she was able to stop the medication. Her self confidence has clearly increased. She is still a bit anxious about her health, because she returns from time to time with minor complaints like eczema after swimming, itching in the ears, frequent urination, etc.
After several repeat doses of
Calcium silicatum she noticed that she found it much easier to speak in public. She had never really dared to do this before, because she was afraid of people looking at her (
Calcium) and perhaps thinking that she was not good enough (image,
Silicium).