A woman comes with eruptions in the face, chin, cheeks and wings of the nose. The eruption is red, rose and itches very much, < goat, lamb. Her face feels hot and swollen, as if she is ill with a flu, having a coryza. It started at the throat 5 years before. In that period her husband was very depressive, even thinking about suicide. He was depressive after having lost a brother and having problems at his work. The contact was very difficult, she had feelings of impotence and mutual incomprehension.
She has shoulder pain, left sided, in the axilla and upper arm. Her nose is almost always obstructed, worse from drinking milk. Her thigh are glowing, the front side, left and right, worse when they become too hot as in bed.
In the past she attacks of allergy with dyspnoea, < summer, < light, > sunglasses, < dust. She complains of itching and running of the nose, < rising in the morning. Her eyes are swollen, her head feels full as from coryza.
Bursting headache << too hot weather. Headache from snow.
Weather: warm, < too hot.
Food desire: salads, pasta, rice, fruit.
Food aversion: fish !!, herring !!, mackerel !!, codfish !!, salt, meat
Food: < goat, lamb.
Menses: copious; ovulation pains.
Sleep: sleepless << week before full moon.
Dreams: her husband dies, gets an accident.
AnalysisThe cause is the depression of her husband. “Husband” leads to sulphuricum. This fits with the heat, itch, redness and the face (Silicumseries). The husband was depressed and suicidal:
Bismuthum. This is confirmed by her feeling of impotence, loss of power. We also see the keynote of the Bismthums of aversion to fish and especially raw fish like herring and mackerel. And there is heat in the thighs. Typical is that the glowing in the thigh is worse from heat, in bed. The “heat of the thigh” of
Bismuthum is combined in this symptom with the “< heat, < bed” of Sulphur.
This case isn’t a very deep one. The symptoms are on the level of skin and mucous membranes. The cause is quite recent, some 5 years.
Reaction15 minutes after
Bismuthum sulphuricum 200 K she got an initial reaction: tingling and itching in the face. It lasted a few days. After that she started feeling better. Her energy came back and she started feeling her old self again, her old cheerfulness of 5 years ago. After 3 repetitions each month she was doing very well, having no complaints any more of: eruptions, shoulder pains, heat in thigh, sleepless. She was feeling her old personality again. More than a year later she’s still doing fine.