The patient was born in 1956. She looks like a 'constitutional Sepia woman'.
Main complaints: chronic fatigue syndrome, coeliac disease, brain tumour.
After her divorce she experienced a lot of stress. For the initial consultation she came with her current partner, who is considerably older (born 1942) than she is. He accompanies her because she might forget to mention something important. (Occasionally the patient also came with her daughter, but mainly with her partner).
The patient is artistically gifted and earns her living as a graphic designer. She has a small company where she designs business cards etc. She single-handedly looks after her two children, a daughter and a son, who both still live with her. The daughter was born in 1981.
The patient had mononucleosis, which worsened after the divorce. She works very hard and usually sleeps only 3–4 hours. She is so exhausted that she can hardly stand when getting up in the morning. She has concentration problems, sleep disturbances and poor memory. She has diarrhoea with watery stools; having bowel movements ten times a day is not uncommon. She often dreams about her first marriage. Her son was born while she was still studying. At that time she considered having an abortion but decided against it and was very happy with that decision.
She herself was – according to her mother – an unwanted child. Her mother told her this very often. She is her mother's second child and has an older brother. When she started school she wanted her mother to accompany her, but her mother said she had no time for that. Her brother eventually took her to school. She is younger than her brother, but had to help a lot with the household. She had to obey her parents and clean the house, do the washing up and carry out heavy work. Her mother said that she must not be spoiled. She herself felt like an unwanted child. Her mother often threatened to leave the family, in which case only the father would have been left. The patient loved her father but did not want to lose her mother. In adolescence she decided to change and 'not always do what my mother told me'.
Her partner reports: 'She wants to be liked. She is a good-natured, very affable person. She does not like quarrels, she needs order, also in her relationships – with family, the children, her colleagues.' She always solves problems immediately so that no discord arises. She likes everything to be clean and tidy. She does not like to be comforted, but always addresses problems directly. She says that consolation does not bring the truth to light. When she is angry she lets everyone know. She says, 'I've warned you, don't needle me.' (She often uses the word 'needle').
During her pregnancies she exercised regularly. With her current partner she practises yoga, meditation and Reiki. Both are vegetarians. She felt well during her pregnancies.
Once she was on holiday in Egypt, where she felt very comfortable because of the warm climate. She told a friend that she had 'soaked up the warmth of Egypt', because she is generally rather chilly.
She fears things she does not know and is anxious when she believes she does not have something under control. Sometimes she feels so helpless that she has to cry. However, crying brings her no relief.
One of her colleagues once said to her: 'It's not normal for a woman as nice and beautiful as you to live alone.' She keeps her relationship with her partner secret; the two live separately. Her partner says that meditation, Reiki and spiritual exercises help her, but that she relaxes best when dancing and during sex. She can dance for two hours at a stretch – wild, Latin-American or modern dances. She only needs to take a short break now and then.
In 2002 she had a short-lived visual disturbance; she could not see her right hand for ten minutes. A neurologist 'threatened' her with admission to a clinic because multiple sclerosis was suspected. Her friends all said that 'she would manage' and even in the clinic they told her, 'You don't look ill at all. You are so cheerful and always smiling.'
The relationship with her father is problematic; he treats her like a little girl. She says: 'He would like to organise my life, but I'm finished with him. I don't want to see him again.'
In December 2004 the visual disturbance worsened. MS was not diagnosed; instead a meningioma regionis occipitalis was found, with possible blindness. Surgical intervention was necessary and was only partially successful. The meningioma could not be completely removed; the procedure caused paralysis of the right hand.
During her last hospital stay she had to go hungry for a long time because no one there understood that she was a vegetarian. When she did manage to explain, she was given only carrots at every meal. She is addicted to cheese, but otherwise cannot eat much because she reacts to almost everything with diarrhoea. She tolerates beans very well and uses many oriental spices to make the monotonous food more varied. She craves substantial foods; vegetables alone are not enough. She has problems with elevated uric acid and therefore cannot eat all types of vegetables. She refuses meat for spiritual reasons.
She speaks very slowly, searches for the right words and smiles almost all the time.
She has bad dreams and her relationships play a major role in them.
Because of her chronic fatigue syndrome she has already seen many specialists, but without success.
Some rubrics
Mind – Delusions – recognised, esteemed; she would not
Mind – Delusions – neglected; she is
Mind – Dancing
Mind – Fear – of poverty
Mind – Sensitive – to noises
Head – Tumours
Vision – Blurred – left eye
Vision – Hemianopsia – vertical hemianopsia, right
Generalities – Fatigue syndrome; chronic
Generalities – Travel – desire for
Generalities – Dancing – amel.
Prescription:
I prescribed many remedies with minimal success: Mag-mur, Phos. acid., Carcinosinum, Stannum, Tarantula, Lachesis, Mur. acid, Agaricus, Terbium oxydatum (improvement lasted four days) and Gadolinium oxydatum. The best prescription was Origanum, which improved her sleep, mood and energy levels. Three years after the initial consultation the diarrhoea had improved, she felt less weak, but had developed another benign tumour.
June 2005: Erbium oxydatum C200.
Her energy level increased and the paralysis had disappeared (she had also practised yoga exercises for it). I prescribed three further doses of the remedy to be taken over three months. She felt better, had no more diarrhoea and no fatigue. In February 2006 she returned to me and Erbium oxydatum C200 was prescribed again.
Summary:
A patient with an autoimmune disease always requires long-term therapy. After taking Erbium oxydatum the main complaints improved. She looked like a Sepia woman and the symptom 'dancing amel' was strange and confusing. Which ill patient can dance wildly for two hours at a stretch? Belly dance belongs to the homeopathic remedy picture of Origanum and one can recognise in this patient some Labiatae sensations, especially from her childhood. One could describe the sensation as follows: 'I am an officially neglected child or I was cast out as a child.' She hides all sensations and all her problems. She smiles, but it is only a mask. She feels drained, empty, cast out, etc. This is the feeling and attitude from stage 14. Her digestive complaints are covered by Oxygenium.
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Autor: Pavol Tibensky, Slovakia
Category: Remedies
Keywords: Erbium oxydatum, chronic fatigue
