4.7.3 Manganum silicatum, Case 1
A 65 year old woman has a lot of pain in her knees, worse from carrying heavy bags, walking and cycling. Her back also aches after carrying, lifting and stooping.
She has varicose veins in the hollow of her left knee. Her stomach feels full and distended after eating cabbage and fat.
Her husband died in a nursing home a few years ago, suffering from what looked like a form of Parkinson’s disease. She had felt it coming and hated to see him slowly deteriorating. She feels guilty that she couldn’t keep her husband at home, but it was really impossible because he was almost paralysed and couldn’t eat or talk. Her husband’s sister is blaming her for his death, saying she wasn’t nice to him and did not look after him properly. This accusation has hurt her very much, especially because it comes from someone within the family.
She is very family-minded and it hurts her when someone in the family is ill or when there are problems around an inheritance or things like that. Her family have always been very supportive to each other. When her brother died she got appendicitis and had to go to hospital for an operation. At first she did not want to go because she was afraid it was cancer.
She is very helpful herself, always ready when someone needs her. She has always been busy with her children and with her work. She likes to bring happiness, especially to her mother. She likes company and has many friends, but she misses her husband very much. She spends much time at other peoples houses, because ‘the sun doesn’t shine in my house anymore’. She hates gossip. Other people sometimes gossip about her because she goes to so many houses to help out.
Her father came from a farming family; he was honest and good to his children. He could get into a temper at times, but he always took great care of his children. She was the eldest daughter.
She doesn’t mind criticism: ‘as long as it happens openly, you can always learn something from it’.
The birth of her two children was quite difficult. Afterwards she had a pain in her back as if she was lying on a bed of needles. She had an inflammation of her right breast when she was breast feeding.
She is afraid of rats, dogs, insects, earwigs (2), woodlice, snakes (2) and Angora cats.
She used to have frequent sore throats in the past, with hoarseness and a rasping cough with pain in the chest. This usually happened after she had been exposed to the cold or a cold wind.
Generals
Weather: cold, < cold, numb and cold fingers; outside, > sea.
Time: < morning until 10 am, < 7 pm.
Desires: spinach.
Aversion: beans (2), fat, milk.
Food: < fat, alcohol.
Menses: heavy legs, pain in breasts before menses.
Analysis
The main theme in his case is the accusation by her sister in law that she did not take proper care of her husband, when everybody knows that she is always ready to help anyone who needs it!
She has the image (Silicium) of the Helper (Manganum) and this image suddenly gets destroyed by someone who accuses her of causing her husbands death.
We see many Manganum symptoms: helpfulness, learning from criticism, knee problems, < lifting, < walking, back ache, < lifting and stooping.
We also see many Silicium symptoms: family minded, missing her husband, ‘the sun doesn’t shine in my house anymore’; her father was a good, honest man from a farming background.
Other Manganum symptoms: sore throat with hoarseness, cold, < cold wind.
Silicium symptoms: pain as from needles, cold, < cold, < cold wind, fingers numb with cold, <- milk.
There is some indication for Sulphur, because she wants to bring happiness and she has varicose veins.
Reaction
After Manganum silicatum 1M she is a lot better. The pain in her knee has almost gone and she is more steady on her feet, doesn’t stumble so readily. The accusation from her sister in law proves to have been a misunderstanding.
Her house gets broken into but it doesn’t upset her very much.
Other remedies she received in the past with partial success: Ignatia, Dulcamara, Calcium carbonicum, Hydrastis, Vipera, Kali sulphuricum, Cyclamen, Manganum, Hamamelis, Arsenicum album, Manganum sulphuricum, Aristolochia Clematis, Niccolum sulphuricum and Crotalus horridus.