Case 1.9: LILIUM TIGRINUM LINKS 1997 As soon as I think of something else, I stumble
M.D., Graz; General Practitioner. Teacher, classical Homeopath influenced by different schools; many published articles on remedies and cases. In recent times proving of Granite (the Austrian version!).
24-year old female secretary with furunculosis.
Since six years recurrent boils on the whole body, especially in the genital region; diameter of boils between one and eight centimetres.
Occasional suppuration with bloody pus, deep down and lasting for weeks.
Severe pulsating pains when touched. The symptoms started after the divorce from her husband, although she did not appear to be troubled by this situation. Since one year inflammation of tip of nose with large and very painful swelling.
Pain in the large joints from the age of seventeen until now. It started with a sensation of pressure and pulsation in the bend of the elbows, which was only ameliorated by raising her arms up high. Besides this and some other undefined joint pains she has weak ankles, stumbling and falling very often, injuring her foot-joints several times. 'I can run, but it's only possible when my attention is focused on my feet, as soon as I think of something else I stumble.' 'Other people say I am awkward. I break or drop something almost every day.' Numbness of lower extremities when crossing legs, numbness of the hands when leaning on them, sometimes stitches in the elbow joints when stretching the arms, stitches in the hips from standing. Menses, perspiration and urination: no symptoms.
Head pain when she has no warm food for two or three days, better after a nap. Stitching pain along the eyebrows, only one side at a time. Sleep is good, her energy is better in the evening, seldom goes to bed before midnight. A recurrent dream for years: 'I sit under a table and try to draw out ropy mucus from my mouth and nose. No feeling associated with this dream.'
'I can't sleep in a warm room, I don't go to the sauna because I cannot breathe there. I get fear of suffocation in such a situation. At the age of twelve I fainted for the first time in a shop when I was trying on some clothes; this happens frequently, for example when I am standing in a warm room, during concerts, when I have my IUD changed by the gynaecologist, it also happened once after the incision of a boil.' Stool formed, at least three times a day, mostly five stools a day. 'I wonder where it all comes from, I don't eat that much.'
Analysis
The most prominent and strange symptoms lead to the following rubrics: * - faintness in warm room (SR II 209)
* - unconsciousness in warm room
(SR I 1051)
* - will, muscles refuse to obey the will when attention is turned away (SR. I 1095)
* - stool, copious
These rubrics point to Lilium tigrinum. The main complaint is not covered by Lilium tigrinum, neither is the remedy in the rubric for abscesses in Synthetic Repertory, nor has it produced boils or similar clinical symptoms in the provings.
Plan
January 1994: Lilium tigrinum 1MK.
Follow-up after one month
Initial aggravation of the suppuration for two weeks, then better but not gone. No stool in the beginning for three days. She never had that before.
Awkwardness had gone, but since she dyed her hair some days ago, she again drops things and stumbles.
Plan: Lilium tigrinum 1MK repeated.
Follow-up after two months
No more boils meanwhile. After the last dose of Lilium tigrinum heavy stitching pain deep in the eyebrows, the same as in previous years, but only for one day. All her old symptoms have vanished.
Plan: wait.
Follow-up after eight months
Since two months the boils have started to come back. Once she was feverish because of this (never had it before). Her menses have troubled her in the last three or four months, which had never happened before. Watery diarrhoea during menses. Pressure in both groins extending downwards and lasting for three days during menses. She has to press her womb with her hands and bend double. It is a very severe pain. She consulted her gynaecologist and had her IUD changed because of these complaints. She fainted again on this occasion.
Interpretation: Lilium tigrinum is known for these bearing down pains around menses, ameliorated by support of hands. The patient's pain was very strong, so I first thought it to be a proving symptom, in which case I would have to look for a new, better fitting remedy, taking these new symptoms as the leading ones. These symptoms were too strong and too long lasting to think of Organon €156. The patient's awkwardness, which started in childhood had subsided and did not reappear during the last months, neither did the headache and joint pains. Stool was O.K. except during menses; there had been no fainting for some months.
In his Lectures Kent says concerning the second prescription:
* - 'As a general thing, if the first prescription has been beneficial it ought not to be left until it has done all it can do.'
* - 'This coming up of new symptoms means that they must be antidoted, if it is possible. The new symptoms combined with the old ones must be studied again and the second remedy must correspond more particularly to the new than the old.'
* - 'A patient has been for years under treatment for a constitutional chronic disorder.. You can repeat that remedy many times on a paucity of symptoms, when you cannot give another remedy, simply because it has demonstrated itself to be the patient's constitutional remedy' (my patient had not been under treatment for a long time).
* - 'Even if the symptoms have been changed do not change the remedy, provided the patient has continuously improved.'
* - 'Whenever in doubt, wait!'
I did not wait.
Plan: Lilium tigrinum XMK.
- Follow-up after nine months
No more abscesses. Menses much better with only a slight pain on the first day. The bleeding started five days early.
Plan: wait.
Follow-up after twelve months
Menses O.K.; no suppuration; since one month stitching in eyebrows once a week. Plan: Lilium tigrinum XMK.
Follow-up after nineteen months
Until now no complaints. No more therapy.