Neodymium bromatum: I was not a bad child

Case
Woman of 55 years.



I needed to prove that I was not a bad child.

Reason for consultation:
- severe chronic angina (right, sharp pain; first time thirty five year ago). ORL specialist wants to remove tonsils soon.
- serious sleeping problems. Behavioral therapy just started.
- intolerance of (nearly) all medicines (causing inflammation of mucous membranes of nose, bowel pain and diarrhea, pain in joints etc.).
- flashes of heat. Always arise from abdomen; thirty minutes after eating. 'Do not seem to come from climacteric, but from anger'.
- she always searches for possibilities to improve her medical situation, cannot stop thinking about her complaints and about how the future may be with all these problems. She feels every (little) pain; she does not accept her rheumatic complaints at all.


Only later in consultation Mrs. A. explains that she has Sjögren disease (diagnosed 2 years ago) with many other symptoms: total absence of discharge of the mucous membranes of eyes (first signs in puberty), mouth, throat, vagina; painful swelling of lymphe nodes, joint pains for eight years (mostly in fingers, hips, knees and feet; shoulder pains (left) from the age of 12) , weakness and tired, back-pain, angina, and inflammation of nose.
She takes Plaquenil since two weeks; Amytriptyline for many years already. And vitamins and herbal medicines.


History:
Bronchitis or pneumonia every winter from infancy until the age of 12. From the age of twelve she developed joint pains, mostly in the shoulder.

Bowel problems since childhood. Later diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome.

Always tired, from childhood on.

Serious domestic tensions and quarrels all youth.

Angina during examinations (school study) and in stressful periods; first around the age of 20.

After two pregnancies thirty years ago her menstruation became a problem. Ten days before menses she became very emotional and highly aggressive. It grew worse with concentration problems, numbness of right neck and face. Many hormones and painkillers were prescribed.
Ten years ago it was taken seriously, she was examined by several specialists. Then she was treated by coagulation of the mucous membrane of the uterus, and anti-depressive drugs.
Twenty years ago she developed serious palpitations She was diagnosed with a small leakage of the ventricular wall with dilation of heart.

Ten years ago she started coughing a lot; at night she often ate liquorice (for ten years) to relieve the cough.

Chronic inflammation of nasal mucous membrane. Frequent coagulation by ORL doctor for years.

Serious sleeping problems for 8 years; disturbed falling asleep and frequent waking.
All worse from cough, nasal problems and from flushes of heat. Sleep treatment three years ago; amytriptylin worked well, but not for the anxiety attacks. This remedy too gave unwanted reactions, as most other remedies.

Kidney stones and gravel. Pain in foot until gravel and stones came out.

Further: irritable bowel syndrome, hernia diaphragmatica, stagnation of gall, and hypoglycemia.

Laboratory: ANA +, anti-SSA +, anti-SSB +, anti-CCP -, anti-ds-DNA -. X-ray: little defects. So the Sjögren parameters are positive, the factors for rheumatic .


Family:
Family of father: several people with kidney stones and with diabetes. Father's arterial problems leading to amputation of toes and later of legs; cerebral palsy, and emphysema.
Mother was emotionally very weak.

Treatment:
Chronic treatment by physiotherapist (for thirty years!), chiropractor and others.
In the past acupuncture, speech therapy (because of 'dry voice', and creaky sound of voice).

Psychology:
Mrs. A. is eldest of 5, until the age of twelve she was the only daughter. Her mother used to talk and complain to her about her father. Mother wept with every emotion; so does Mrs. A. and she feels that in doing so she lays the same burden on her children as her parents did. "I am a failure as mother". Their children are doing well though in life, they are emotionally strong, but her daughter is not open to her and does not tell her emotions or sorrows. The daughter took care of her younger brother when our patient had her difficult times; just as Mrs. A. protected her own sister (12 years younger) and took her in her bed when her parents were fighting. When she is telling this she is very emotional and tense; she feels bad that her children are carrying a burden because of her.
"My youth was horrible".
Patient was highly nervous from all the fights between the family members.
Study was a struggle because all of this. She always was convinced that she never could succeed.
When her parents celebrated their 40 years of marriage Mrs. A. did not join.
Her parents died 3 years ago; she felt that the burden fell off.
She can be very rude towards her husband. In the past it was worse; she was aggressive toward the children too. Her husband is very irritated by her behavior. He can not cope with her moods and he has been under pressure in his work for many years.

Food:
Many intolerances: onion, garlic, paprika, alcohol, tomatoes, kiwi, basli, cheese.
Desires fish 2, vegetables 2,

Temperature:
In general cold.
Very tired from sauna, sun (and swimming).
Nose obstruction right and pain in right maxilar sinus from the first sun in spring.


Analysis
At the end of the consultation I confronted her with my observation. That she tells me very serious physical and emotional problems, but in a rather light way. Then she explains that she always doubts her self in all circumstances: when alone, with her family, with her close friends. Her brothers and sisters are the same in this respect. She hides her insecurity, does not want to be a failure. She needs to show and to prove that there are things she can achieve; but is hard to keep on proving her self. She is active and undertakes a lot to prove she can manage. Both her insecurity and her desire to prove weigh heavy.
What she explains here led me to the first step of the prescription.
Then I asked her more about her feelings concerning the husband (her anger in her premenstrual periods) and her children. I got the impression that she felt guilty, but she did not use such a word. So I had to ask in the end: "Is it a guilty feeling?" Yes, very much!
"And at the same time you impress me as being very independent". Oh, yes, I go my own way!


I prescribed a Lanthanide because we are dealing with an auto-immune disease and because she has a very independent attitude. Furthermore, she can not stand most of the regular medication which is a sign for Lanthanides too.
What Lanthanide to give? She does not look insecure, but she says she is and she hides it. Inside she is not sure about many things, especially not about her relations with her children. And she is proving her self all the time in many aspects of her life.
These are themes of stage 6, Neodymium.

For the salt: what is she proving? That she is a good person, that she is a good mother, that she was not the bad child that her parents always said.
So this is a bromium theme.
Interesting that Bromium is an important remedy for glandular complaints and this is what Sjögren is all about? Bromium Lanthanids may become specifics for Sjögrens disease.
so I prescribed Neodymium bromatum C200, one dose after consultation and one after a week.


Follow-up after one month, second consultation:
She feels much more relaxed; she almost never thinks about her complaints anymore. She is not searching the internet for information and remedies as she did before. She has forgotten to take her vitamins and her herbals.
Her throat was O.K. in a few days and still is for the first time in ten years. The ORL specialist was surprised; her throat was near to normal and no reason to operate anymore. Her vagina is not dry anymore and is almost normal. Her eyes have changed for the better and yesterday she had her first tear when yawning.
But her sleep has improved only a little; recently she has four hours of good sleep, she now has nice dreams and she has more energy. It is better, but not good yet. This will be discussed later.
Repetition of the remedy.


Follow-up after two months, third consultation:
"The remedy only worked for one week, then I had my strong backache and vertigo". The backache has several reasons. Kidney stones and gravel for one. This time it started after two hours behind the sewing-machine; a well known complaint. It starts in the region of the left arm/scapula/clavicle, due to typing, sewing etc ('then I lift my arm and then it starts to ache'). From here it extends to the kidneys. Kidney stones sometimes do and sometimes do not play a role in the pain. It has started during a pneumonia in her twenties; then she had pain in the whole shoulder and cervical region (pleurisy?).
The week before her consultation she had severe vertigo; her husband had to carry her to her bed. She went to the toilet on her hands and knees. Turning in bed and opening her eyes triggered the vertigo.
At the end of the consultation she tells me that many problems improved; her joints are almost painless. In fact her Sjögren is not an item anymore, only after months I realized that at this time the Sjögrens disease was cured already! Further improvement; she has her (subtle) emotions back, she is emotional when watching movies, which is new and then she even has tears, she weeps. When there are problems she is not so aggressive anymore and she can talk about her emotions. This is a relief for all of them).
To my surprise Conium was represented in the symptoms for vertigo as well as in the symptoms of her chest and back: Pain is in left neck, back, scapula, axilla and clavicle. Pain extending from neck to shoulder, from chest to back; all worse sitting and bending. Conium is in the family of Umbelliferae, the family for emotional deprivation. This all fits to the story of the patient. I gave a new/intermediate remedy: Conium 200.


Follow-up after three months, fourth consultation:
After the new remedy the vertigo improved, but she had headache like when she has sinusitis. This time she did not need antibiotics because she got over it quickly. A week later the headache came back, then followed by fluent coryza and everything became well.
Emotionally she still has several problems. She has the feeling that she has to achieve, at home and in her work - Neodymium).
I repeated Neod-br.


Follow-up after five months, fifth consultation:
Improving all the time, emotionally and physically. Only her sleep stays a problem and then she may be irritated easily.
Neod-br.


Follow-up after six and a half months, sixth consultation:
In summer she has walked for many hours; just like fifteen years ago. Talked a lot with her husband, cried a lot too. Relationship much improved, but lately her joints start aching again and she is deeply concerned about her relations with the children. She wants to improve their relationships, but the children do not open up yet. She is nervous before visiting them and startles from any critical remark of them. She relates this to her own youth; many quarrels, especially her mother was angry and a burden to her.
Sleep has not improved further. She is highly sensitive for the slightest noise. For example when her husband puts his glasses on his night-stand, she startles and reacts very angry. In the past she would scold and yell, also when the children woke at night. Now its is a little better. After the first noise and irritation/anger she becomes nauseous (it's my gallbladder). Then she has to urinate and cannot calm down or relax anymore, so her muscles start to ache and she panics and cannot sleep at all. The next day she goes to work again. "I can not survive like this". Nor her husband, he does not know how to handle her or the situation. It is as if it happens outside of me, I say something that I should not and do not want. I feel like people do not understand me and I long for a hug. My parents and brothers and sisters are the same.
Quarrelsomeness, and feeling deserted or discarded by parents (and doing the same as parent) and acute hearing is Magnesium. Emotional problems with the mother, or as a mother is a muriatic aspect.
I gave Magnesium muriaticum 200K as second intermediate remedy and Neodymium br when needed.


Follow-up after eight months, seventh consultation:
She and her husband had a terrible fight. She has always been fighting and commenting on her husband. He could not handle her moods. Recently he was furious for the first time: "You do not love me". She was frightened that he would finaly leave her. Then they talked it over and it is going well. Mrs. A.: "I get irritated much less now and can forget offenses for the first time in my life. Now there is the space for my husband to criticize me and be heard". Since that time she sleeps well.


She has called me a few times, took Neodymium br every two to four months for one year and is doing well.
In this patient we have seen a bromium theme. Interesting that Bromium is an important remedy for glandular complaints and this is what Sjögren is all about? Bromium Lanthanides may become specifics for Sjögrens disease.


Kramer, A.
Homeopathic Doctors Centre Utrecht
antonkramer@zonnet.nl