Kalium fluoratum Case
A woman of 39 is troubled by aching muscles. The pains are worse in damp weather and in damp houses. Her hands are stiff in the morning and she often drops things.
She also has aching in all her joints, moving from her knees to her hands and back to her feet again. Back pain in sacrum, < bending forward.
Frequently has colds with discharge from nose and eyes. Slight fever with copious perspiration.
She has boils in several places, in the neck, breasts, groins and under the ears.
Restless legs at night with painful soles. Her muscles feel as if too short.
Sometimes she has a headache above and underneath her eyes, < cold, noise, company. It makes her eyes water and her vision is disturbed: hazy, sees things double, or blackness or stars.
It feels as if her teeth are loose.
Past history: during pregnancy she had early labour pains, at 6 months, blood pressure too high and too much increase in weight. The actual birth was very difficult, her baby was delivered by vacuum extraction. She also had to have several stitches which became septic. It took her a whole year to recover after the delivery.
General characteristics:
Temperature: dry; cold, fresh air, < draught.
Time: > 5 pm. after a siesta, < 3 pm., < 3 am. (2).
Desires: soup, tomatoes, fruit, vegetables.
Aversion: milk (3). < milk, endive.
Sleep: she often wakes at 3 am.
Mind: She gives the impression of being a lively woman with great perseverance. She is a bit reserved and has difficulty talking about private matters: it makes her giggle. She hates secrecy. Hypocrisy can make her very angry, for instance the way some Christian people used to present themselves.
She can tolerate things for a long time, and will try to be reasonable and forgiving. But there suddenly comes a point at which she draws the line, which often surprises people, because at that point she won’t give in any more. For instance, she might suddenly sack someone from his job, or break off a friendship.
It makes her mad if her talents or ideas are ignored. Possessions are not important to her. She is quite bossy, she knows what her task is and she carries it out the way she thinks best.
She used to be a quiet and withdrawn child. Her older sister was always ill and died when she herself was 8 years old. Her parents used to give all their attention to her sister, and after her death they 'promoted' her to eldest daughter. She felt very guilty and thought for a long time 'If only I had died, at least nobody would have noticed'. Her parents still can’t talk about the death of her sister.
At school she did not feel at ease either. Her background was very simple and the other children all came from rich families; even the teachers used to belittle her.
She feels guilty that she never said goodbye to her colleagues from her previous job. Guilt is something that she very often experiences, particularly when she thinks that she has abandoned other people. Unexpected things frighten her: she can become stiff, with staring eyes from sudden fear. Other people sometimes interpret this as arrogance, because she will withdraw into herself and become unapproachable.
Relationship: she is married, but she also had a lesbian relationship. This friend used to get jealous but did not want to admit this. Her friend also used to compromise her at her work and play people off against each other. She also used to come and collect some personal belongings which she claimed were hers. She herself felt 'Just let her have this if it is so important to her'. Eventually this relationship ended, but in a unsatisfactory way.
She loved both her husband and her friend. She did not care what others thought of her. She even lost quite a few 'friends' during this whole affair, but she did not mind.
Analysis
The central theme in this case can be found in the relationship, wherein she shows no timidity at all. She firmly backs both relationships and doesn’t care what others think about it. She shows her reliability very clearly, something which can also be found in other areas. Once she takes a stand she will stick to it, come what may. At the same time she can leave others to be free to pursue their own path. This is an obvious Kali trait. This Kali element can also be found in the aggravation at 3 am. and aggravation from draught.
The other element is the double relationship. This makes us think of Fluor. She is not warm blooded, as one would expect in Fluor, but this could be masked by the influence of Kali. The local complaints are not very specific in this case.
Reaction
After Kali-f 200 there was an aggravation of the jointpains and headaches for ten days. Following this the pains gradually disappeared and one month later there was only 15% of the pains left. She also felt like doing things again.
She had one significant dream: Her friend came to collect something again, it was a blue washing rack. But this time she got very angry with her friend and told her 'That will cost you 100 guilders'. Her friend also got angry, threw a 100 guilder note at her and left.
She felt very relieved after this dream and had to laugh: 'My friend won’t do that again in the future'.
I should add that there was another remedy which helped her in the past. Part of her problem used to be an extreme self denial, which was greatly relieved by Nat-c.