666.74.16 Narthex asafoetida, CaseWoman, 40, cough.
She has attacks of coughing, starting with a feeling of having been punched in her stomach, then quickly something rises into her throat. The cough is painless and dry, worse after eating and better from belching, worse from sitting and better standing. The complaints are worse from wind, worse from storm and wet weather. The attacks can last half an hour. It can provoke fear of death. It was diagnosed as reflux oesophagus inflammation.
When she was one year old she got poliomyelitis. The after-effect is that her right arm is weaker and that she is clumsy. She has complications after she fell from a height.
She was once raped brutally. She became pregnant from it and was forced by the Christian church to give her child away for adoption. It resulted in an aversion to the church.
Her father was very strict, never content with her school results. He always said that she was incapable. She was the only child and was raised alone in a small room until she was 18 and then she ran away from home. She met a nice man and married him but later it turned out that he was psychologically disturbed. He once tried to kill one of her two sons. He was treated in a psychiatric hospital but after that he was apathetic, “adapted” to society. After that she raised her two children alone in a small room.
Weather: chilly, likes warmth, worse from rain and wind, better outside, better in the woods.
Sweat: worse from exertion.
Desire: marzipan, sweets, bread, yogurt, salad.
Aversion: warm food.
Sleep: very good.
AnalysisThe complaints fit very well with Asafoetida. In Lilienthal we can read: “Asthmatic feeling in trachea, dry cough; spasmodic dyspnoea, as though lungs could not be sufficiently expanded; oppression of chest with hurried breathing, temporarily relieved by belching; brought on or worse from bodily exertion by eating; > by sitting up. Asthma scrofulous in hysterical people”. We find also “Sensation as if peristaltic motions were reversed, and, in oesophagus, were driven from stomach towards throat”.
The brutal rape, as a very unexpected event, fits also the
Apiaceae. The cold upbringing, alone in a room, fits well too.
The stage 16 of Asafoetida can be seen in her situation of being left out. She was like an outcast being on her own in a small room. Later in life she was alone in a small room to raise her two children, like an outcast of society.
Follow upA few days after the remedy she suddenly had a severe pain in her oesophagus without cough. Gradually the pain disappeared. She had had similar attacks in the past but then more severe at the time of her menses. Her heart beat was stopping and then starting again. This was also an old symptom, accompanied by breathlessness and fear. After that she started feeling better. In the beginning she even felt completely free, completely better. After a while some pains and a cough returned for a while but not as severe as before. Now she does not have the attacks anymore. Psychologically she feels much better. Her relationship has more harmony, her job is going well and she decided to move.