Case Hydrocyanicum acidum 3

Third case of Hydrocyanicum acidum
Case 3 concerns a woman of 36, born in 1960. She is very gaunt, with hollow cheeks and large frightened eyes - a face that reminds me of Edward Munch’s famous painting “der Schrei” (the scream). Her complaint is dizziness and pain. “I am constantly dizzy, especially if I am not busy. When I get a dizzy spell I have to lie still for about half an hour, then I am tired. I feel like I am on a merry-go round. It doesn’t feel as though I am going to faint when I am dizzy, but when I try to look at something it seems to move, to tremble. When I try to read I have to start all over again, because I can’t focus. There have been all sorts of tests done to see if I have epilepsy or a brain tumour, but nothing shows up. I also have pain in my back. I have a scoliosis, but physiotherapy and manual therapy don’t help the pain. I have kidney stones since the birth of my daughter 13 years ago. I have been operated on for kidney stones after her birth. I often have colicky pain in my right kidney, which extends down to my groin, and to my buttocks. It doesn’t hurt to urinate, but I get a lot of pressure on my bladder and then only a little urine. Often there are little streaks of blood in my urine. Even morphine doesn’t help the pain when I get these colick attacks. My belly hurts a lot. It gets distended, and it rumbles. I get drawing pains in my belly. I have had a lot of diarrhea in the past, but not at the present. My menses is irregular and heavy, with dark blood and clots. The dizziness is worse before the menses, and I get headaches - a pressure in my forehead. I get a lot of colds which go down to my chest, and I get tight-chested. I have had asthma in the past. Both of my knees hurt all the time. I have a pain in my right shoulder which shoots into my arm - at night I can’t sleep on that side. In the mornings I am stiff and sore, and everything cracks: my neck, my throat, shoulders and back. All day I am exhausted, and I want to sleep, but sleep doesn’t refresh me.”


“I have terrible dreams. When I was little I had recurring dreams about the war, about having to flee and being caught. “They” were after me, the German soldiers. I see tents, uniforms; I try to hide, but they find me anyway. I am always busy with the Second World War, not with other wars. I keep dreaming that they are chasing me. I wish I could just be in a hospital where I am safe and looked after. I have phobias: for some years I hardly went out of our house because of the fear. I was afraid to undertake anything, but I didn’t allow anyone to know that I felt so afraid. I would attend family parties, but I would stay quiet; all those people in one room made me feel nervous, even though I don’t mind small spaces. I could only stay for a short while, then we would have to go home. It often felt as though my throat was all choked up: I could hardly swallow, and my heart would pound. I would lie in bed and shake and shiver from fright. I get frightened about my health: I think I must have cancer. I worry about everything: about my health, about the health of the children, about whether I am going mad.”


At this point I decided to stay with the main presenting complaint, the kidney stones. I gave Berberis C200 and waited for 4 weeks. On returning there was no improvement. She had in fact been in hospital for another bout of kidney pain, and as she said “was relieved to be looked after.” This time I decided to go with the whole picture instead of the local complaint of kidney stones. The whole picture seemed to resemble my two previous cases of Hydrocyanic Acid: the dreams, and fears, the asthma and diarrhea and kidney problems as well as the cramping pains in the joints. I gave her Hydrocyanic Acid 200, and was astonished when I saw her four weeks later. She had gained weight, a thing which she had previously not been able to do. The kidney pains had diminished considerably, with no other medication. The pain in her back had eased up, as well as the pains in her joints. Her asthma had returned briefly, but she felt confident to stay away from medication for it. “I feel easier in myself, and not so fearful. I am sleeping better, and not having such awful dreams. These days I am more refreshed when I wake up.”


Over the following months the improvement continued, as she gained weight and confidence. The dizziness disappeared, except under moments of stress. She said “If I had not taken that remedy I would certainly have ended up in a mental institution, but now I can start to lead my life again.”