Author:
Vera Kopsky
Book:
Wadstories 1
Type:
Case 1
Chapter:
Umbilicus rupestris
COTYLEDON
The spring from the clock By Vera M. Kopsky
In October 999 a woman, 65 years old, comes to consult me about very strange complaints indeed. She has a "disturbance" in the stomach region that puts her whole body out of balance. It starts suddenly like an electric tension in the stomach and rises up through the neck to the forehead. Like the spring of a clock the sensation jumps back and forth from the tooth to the head. She feels unwell and insecure, as if she faints. She starts trembling and shaking like a dog. She is pale, cold with perspiration, and light in the head. She has a dry mouth and a fear of death. Her legs are feeling weak and she can fall down any moment. Sometimes her left leg feels absent, and she will fall to the right side. The only thing she can do is to lie down and wait until it’s over. After this, she has a distension of the abdomen and flatulence.
The attack takes approximately one hour, with a frequency of two or three times a day. It can appear early in the morning, during the day when she is shopping or working at home, or it can wake her up at night. She does not see any relation with stress, physical activity, food intake or weather. Her complaints started in 992 on the way to the hospital where she visited her son with a jaw fracture. During a soccer game, he got injured and she was still very upset about it. " Such a hard blow, right in the face. Why is there so much violence in the game? Poor boy!"
The woman has a normal posture, has short blond and grey hair, a firm and sober expression in the face: a realistic no nonsense person. Striking is her slight head tremor, of which she is not aware. She is a cold person, and usually does not perspire. She fears stormy weather, diseases, and swimming. Her desires are sweets, pastry and fruit. She is married, is a housewife and has two sons 29 and 32 years old. When her daughter was 6 years old, she had an accident in the swimming pool. After 2 years in coma, her daughter died. She thinks of her daughter regularly when she sees small children or her grand children. Her husband suffered from two heart attacks in 995 and February 999. It happened at home in the bedroom when she was sleeping next to him. She woke up when she heard a strange rattling noise and saw him rising up in pain from the pillow. He made the same rattling noise her father made when he was dying. She thought that her husband would also die. Now she is very anxious about his health and afraid to leave him alone at home.
Medical anamnesis:
1994 Family anamnesis: 995 Medication:
1977 varices extirpation legs.
1993 mamma carcinoma right.
Mother and mother’s brother had stomach carcinoma
Seresta, Rivotril, Carbamazepine. Since the use of these medicines, the attacks are occurring only during the day. The neurological examination, as well as the results of EEG and CT-scan did not reveal any abnormalities.
Analysis
Behind the firm expression of the face there is lot of grief, pain and anxiety about her family, which is triggered again by her son’s accident. First prescription October 999: Ignatia 6 LM once a day. Reaction one month later: nothing changed. During repertorisation I found a very bizarre symptom: "Delusion, body parts absent": Cotyledon
Second prescription November 1999: Cotyledon 30K once a week Reaction: She has good days and bad days: one day without attacks, another day the complaints are the same. Now she can feel the ‘disturbance’ coming. The symptom of the missing leg is absent.
Third prescription December 1999: continue Cotyledon K 30 once a week. Reaction January 2000: Less complaints, the disturbance in the stomach is once or twice a week, the intensity is diminished.
Advice: continue Cotyledon K 30 once a week. March 2000: she cancelled the consultation due to the hospitalisation of her husband. In August ‘00 I inquired about her health. The complaints have totally disappeared. Since March she does not use any medication.
Cotyledon
Citation Clarke: A Dictionary of practical Material Medica, 1978, p.603:
Cotyledon umbilicus. Umbilicus pendulinus. Pennywort. Navelwort. Kidneywort.
Order Crassulaceae /Houseleek-family.
"Characteristics: Cotyledon has had a considerable proving, but I am not aware of any clinical experience with it having been recorded. The whole house- leek-family are deserving of careful study by homeopaths. Among the most peculiar symptoms of COTYLEDON are: a feeling as if some part of the body-a foot or the head -were absent. The senses of sight and hearing are dulled. A yellow patch follows the sight. Disagreeable surging in ears; ears feel stuffed. A number of pains in the region of the spleen appear. The breathing is oppressed, the heart is disturbed. Rheumatic symptoms are prominent. Weak, faint feeling. Stitching, pricking, jerking pains are predominant sensations. Cooper considers it a cancer remedy. He has cured with it sinuses in buttock. A patient to whom he gave it for polyps said it made him "stagger as drunk" Symptoms are worse morning and evening. Relations: Sedum acre."
Vermeulen Materia Medica from Reference works:
"Cotyledon umbilicus. Kidneywort. Navelwort. N.O. Crassulacaea. The Crassulaceae is a widespread plant family consisting of 37 genera of succulent herbs and sub shrubs, of which Sedum and Sempervivum are well known. Like Cacti, they don’t open their pores during the hot daylight hours, when there would be high rates of water loss, but instead open during the cool night hours to permit the entry of carbon dioxide, which is converted into organic acids that accumulate within the plant and are then converted back to carbon dioxide to be used in photosynthesis the following day.
The name Cotyledon is derived from Gr. Kotyle, a cup, alluding to its round, slightly concave leaves. Umbilicus refers to the navel-like depression in the centre of the leaves. Some of the English names of the plant, Wall Pennywort, Wall Pennyroyal and Penny Pïes, are references to the round form of the leaf suggesting a coin. Most Cotyledon species are native to South Africa, needing sun, well- drained soil and a temperature which does not fall below 5-0 ̊ C. The thick succulent leaves are frequently pale green with a mealy covering in poor soil and dry conditions these often colour up red.
C. umbilicus is an insignificant, hardy, evergreen plant about 20 centimetres tall. Its rootstock is a small, roundish tuber. The yellow-green, small ray flowers grow in long, hanging bunches. The plant grows on rocks and in cracks in the Mediterranean Atlantic region From Madeira to Asia Minor, but also occurs in more northern regions, such as Ireland and England.
Used in the past for epilepsy as Folia Umbilicus Veneris. A close relative, Sedum, was also used in epilepsy. The name is probably linked to this use, as it comes from L. sedare, to still. The Romans planted Sedum species in their roof gardens and believed that it protected them against lightning."
Crassulaceae
Cotyledon is a member of the Crassulaceae family that succulent herbs and sub shrubs widespread growing in the whole world, mainly in dry regions like South Africa. They can bear long dry periods but some of Sempervivum en Sedum species are adapted to frost and wet environment.
Cotyledon umbilicus is a self-rooting plant growing up to 5 or 30 cm high, has evergreen thick succulent round leaves with slight depression in the centre like an umbilicus. From late spring to summer there appear small yellow flowers arranged into arching bunches. The plant makes rosettes and spreads mats on walls, rocks and is satisfied with very free-draining gritty soil. It likes a lot of sun.
Vera Kopsky
