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Accompanying patients through their cancer is one of the most difficult, but also one of the most interesting and rewarding tasks in my practice. It is a challenge because it confronts me and my patients with all the themes and taboos that most people try to avoid their whole lives – death, mutilation, loss, social isolation. But it is also a rewarding task, because it calls on both of us to accept our shadows and invites us on a journey into our very personal unconscious. |
| We return to our lives more alive and whole and develop an awareness of our place in the world. The following case study is the story of such a journey in which I was able to participate as a therapist. L. is a 34‑year‑old woman with cervical cancer, whose cervix had been almost entirely eaten away by the disease. She has sharp, tearing, dragging pains in her cervix. Since her youth she has also suffered terribly painful periods that confine her to bed between 10 and 15 days a month because of the severe pain, and genital herpes. At 16 she had vaginal warts cauterised. She is prone to "raging headaches" and has dry, scaly, itchy skin. She has been vaccinated several times, which made her unwell each time. |
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| She is very thin and nervous, trembles and paces like a caged animal. Her story is catastrophic: at home she had to protect her mother and sisters from her father, a drunk who often lost control and became physically and sexually violent. She took on the role of protector for everyone, even for those who raped and beat her, such as her boyfriend, who was also a drinker. | |
| Her boyfriend was later murdered. She was publicly accused of the murder and felt treated "like an animal and torn to pieces" by the police and the press. Meanwhile she lived in fear, for she knew that the real murderer was still at large. | |
Her eight‑year‑old son was taken from her and placed in foster care. She dreamed of rape, of knives and violence and of being a Jew in a concentration camp. "I always imagine that the worst has happened." The destruction on all levels, both among her ancestors and in her current situation, and the many deaths around her led to an initial prescription of Syphilinum 10M. |
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| I have found that cancer patients are usually "nice", sensitive people who suppress their anger and their own individuality. Often healing and liberation from the past only become possible when, gradually, their deepest feelings come to the surface and they can give expression to their anger and pain. (Until this has happened, all talk of "forgiveness" may only be another suppression of these feelings.) | |
| L. stayed on Syphilinum for 3 months, given in ascending LM potencies from LM1 to LM3. At that point she reported: "Now I know there is a future; previously the only thing I could imagine was a dreadful, agonising death." | |
During the treatment she was also susceptible to colds and regularly developed influenza‑like symptoms. Nux vomica D6 and Sulfur D6 were given alternately. She experienced the bouts of flu as a "cleansing" from alcohol and the much fast food she had taken to numb her feelings; the remedies set a detoxification process in motion. |
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Gradually she began to experience her grief in a truly intense way, bursting into tears, sobbing hysterically and becoming completely out of control. At that point I prescribed Ignatia 10M. It helped dramatically, but the effect lasted only a few hours. I prescribed it again dissolved in water and succussed and to be taken as needed (initially five times daily, then slowly reduced to a single weekly dose). |
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A cancer cell has lost its "self‑responsibility", its true purpose in the body. Likewise most cancer patients have lost their sense of self; their life remains unlived, they lose themselves in caring for others or are weighed down by the afflictions in their lives. When they become more assertive, perceive their own needs and stand by them, a decisive step forward on the journey to their healing has been taken. |
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| Nine months after the treatment L. was examined by her gynaecologist. To his surprise her cervix was completely fine, with no signs of malignancy remaining. | |
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She came to see me a few more times over the next three years. She enrolled at college, began a new relationship (her first "healthy" relationship), found satisfying work and "regenerated" herself. At that time she took Tabernanthe Iboga LM1 to LM6, but received an intervening dose of Syphilinum 50M when she was in danger of losing her bearings after memories of severe familial abuse surfaced. |
| In the meantime she took ascending potencies of Carcinosinum over six months (C 200, 1M, 10M), when guilt feelings and self‑reproach towards her inner child delayed her recovery. (I have found that Carcinosinum in one of its many forms is almost always required at some point in cancer treatment.) During this time L. became free of physical complaints, found inner peace and spoke a great deal about "death and rebirth", "renewal", the "true meaning of life", and the "connection with family and ancestors" (all guiding symptoms of the new remedy I was then testing). As a homeopath I have long noticed that in the energetic field of my practice and my life I often attract patients who expand my ideas and teach me to go beyond myself. I learn to pay attention to my own thoughts, my beliefs, my words and my energy, and over the years have realised that all of this affects my patients just as much as the remedies I prescribe. L's life path, which has so little in common with my own life and demands good faith and trust from me, shocked me by its violence. |
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| Homeopathic approach in her case meant venturing into new areas with my prescriptions and showed me that I had to be prepared to prescribe any remedy at any time – in any order and in any potency. She inspired me with her courage, her creativity and her willingness to overcome her terrible life story and heal her life, and reminded me of Ben‑Gurion's saying: "Those who do not believe in miracles are not realists." | |
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Category: Cases |
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