Case 2.2: Convallaria majalis
Mrs. B was 63 years old and complaining of melancholia and pain in the heart when I prescribed Convallaria majalis. She has the same friendly, light and sensitive appearance as Mrs. M., my first real Convallaria case. She is also very precise in describing her symptoms and in clearly explaining her problems, but all of this in a reserved way (= terughoudend).
Complaints
Stomach distention and pain; pyrosis when eating too late Haemorrhoids bleeding and painful
Skin: eczema now on the fingertips (used to be over the whole, body) Sometimes urticaria, itching
Heart complaints: hypertension, hypercholesteraemia.
Hypertrophia of the heart, valvular disease, pressing pain on chest.
Generals
Temp. Weather Aversion Desire Sleep
Stool Bladder Female Menopause
Head
Mind
: heat flushes at night
: desire rain and fog and autumn
: milk (1), purslane (3)
: butter, fat, tasty/salty, meat, fruit (2): unrefreshed
: constipation
: urge incontinence: menses irregular; myoma
: complaints for ten years of insecurity, weeping, tension, flushes alternating with coldness, increase in weight
: sensitive to cold, desire bonnet (= muts)
She is a nice, soft person. She complaints of not enough confidence, but she radiates more power then she knows. She wants to please and make the life of others confortable. She has the tendency to efface herself. Her marriage was a disaster, because her husband didn’t like the (three) children and she felt in between two fires, avoiding conflicts but also not standing up for herself (or her children). She regrets this now, and wishes she could raise her children again and show them how much she can really love. She is like her father who did everything for the sake of peace. He also had heartproblems: clogged coronary arteries.
Her mother was the dominating parent, and very materialistic (on her throne). Since her divorce some 20 years ago, my patient had lived quite poorly, because her ex-husband dodged alimony. She was on social security and hated the humiliation of it. By the way, it was she who left her husband because he cheated on her.
Her youth wasn’t easy. She remembers her fear as a five year old in the war having to deliver a paper for the resistance.
Her stepfather threw her out of the house when she was 17, and after that the stomach complaints started (her mother couldn’t stand up to her stepfather either).
Noteworthy furthermore is that she has a tendency to ‘forget’ emotional occurrences. This seems to be a kind of dissociation.
Prescription
I first gave Magnesium muriaticum because she is so peace loving, has a dominating mother, is ambivalent in her relation to her children and because of her stomach complaints and constipation.
After the remedy she dreamt waving cheerfully while passing her ex-husband, and now he was the one having problems with her light-heartedness. But the melancholy was not alleviated so I looked for another remedy.
Convallaria majalis was prescribed because she was the same type of person as Mrs. M. and because of the rubrics:
Chest: noises, murmurs, valvular disease Chest: pain, pressing sternum
Skin: itching
Mind: dwells on past disagreeable occurrences Mind: confidence want of self
Mind: cares, worries full of Mind: sadness, melancholy (2) Follow up
Fifteen minutes after prescribing the remedy in october 2001 she could feel a feeling of acceptance of everything sinking in. Skin, stomach and pressure on the chest ameliorated. But mostly it was her frame of mind that cleared up. She was less sad and expressed anger publicly. She refused to ‘swallow’ everything. The remedy could not prevent a heart operation two years later (in 2003): a new valve was placed.