Three acts drama with one actor: a case of Lobelia, Impatiens, and Belladonna

In May 2011, a forty-year-old student of homeopathy came to me, diagnosed with a fatal disease: pulmonary fibrosis. Her doctor told her that she could live another five years with steroids or three years without them.
Her life is too full of duties; she had been working eighteen hours a day for the last twenty years. She is adapting to everyone, trying to make them happy, but started to feel suffocated, as though she was cramped. She needs freedom, independance, and space. She likes travelling. She hated the communist system because they forced people to lie.
She wants to have everything under control, to know how things will develop and not to be taken by surprise. She is fastidious and responsible, performing her duties very well, so people give her more and more work.  
Her brother is six years older than her.  She felt that she had to prove to everyone that she is as capable as he is. Her father disagreed with her marriage at eighteen, telling her she could forget about doing university studies. She left her parents’ house and got married, later proving to her father that she could get a university degree.

She has an extreme fear of snakes and of high places.
Intense desire for cigarettes (30 per day); smoking a cigarette is the only time she has only for herself. She loves coffee.
Desire: raw meat, spicy, salt
Respiration is very difficult: after three steps, she has to rest.
History of asthma and chronic sinusitis (both frontal and maxillar)
When the shortness of breath started, she had bright red epistaxis every morning on blowing her nose.
Aggravation at 3.00 am; waking with suffocation
Pulsating headaches accompanied by vomiting, more right-sided, feeling that the right eye will fall out.
Copious menses; due to the bleeding a hysterectomy was performed.
Heart palpitations
Neck stiffness
Scintillations in eyes when tired in the evening
Sensititve to food and odors, to people. During holidays in exotic countries, she had intense diarhoea.

Weeps easily
Night blindness
Sleeplessness between 3.00 - 5.00, thinking about her duties.
Itching in ears in the morning
Aggravated by wine - blocked nose and sinuses 
Red exanthema on lower extremities when tired
Colour preferences: 11C, 24C

Analysis
Lobelia was chosen, based on a combination of specific symptoms filtered by the context, focused on the Asterales. This was in 2011, before the brilliant discovery of Jan Scholten’s Plant system. However, Scholten had already explained the major themes of the plant familes in his Spring Seminars and given us a tree map of the APG3  botanical system, with the corresponding series of elements representing specific levels of development in the Plant kingdom. The Lanthanide aspect “desire for freedom“ was clearly present, so it had to be in the Asterales, which correspond to the Lanthanides. From Scholten, I knew that the combination of Lanthanides and Phosphorus is typical for two groups of plants: the Lamiaceae and the Lobeliaceae. Because there were no cramps in the clinical picture and the lungs were mostly affected, the Lobeliaceae were confirmed, also supported by the desire to smoke and the fear of snakes.

Why the Plant kingdom? The colleague is a small, kind, sympathetic blond woman who cares for others and jumps from one subject to another. She feels hurt by the behaviour of others while people needing animal remedies are the opposite, they are mostly proactive, they hurt others.

Why not a mineral? Her story is multileveled; it is not a simple one. 

Lobeliaceae 
Fears, snakes                                                                                                                                                             
Generalities, tobacco, desires
Respiration, asthmatic; Respiration, difficult
Nose, sinuses, complaints of
Head, pain, accompanied by vomiting
Female genitalia, menses, copious

I believe that the best results can be achieved  by a combination of physical symptoms (according to materia medica or repertory) and the context, with Jan Scholten's Plant map.

Prescription:  Lobelia inflata 1M

Follow up: she slept deeply the first night. The next day, she felt a surge of energy.  After three days, she could walk without a stop and after ten days, her husband said that she is again the lively and merry person she used to be.  Her pulmonary fibrosis disappeared in one month.
Her lung capacity, (DLCO) went from 47% to 87% in thirty days. Computer tomography confirmed the disappearance of fibrotic changes in the lung interstitium. Her lung capacity improved incredibly, her pneumologist could not believe it, saying that such a change was impossible. After one year, the patient was declared completely cured and after two years she was no longer called for checkups. When dismissing her from monitoring, the doctor told her it was a good decision not to take steroids as it was later revealed that steroids are harmful in her condition.

In spring and summer 2014, she suffered from burnout because of the extreme work overload in the private firm owned by her husband and herself. A client on whom they were dependent played dirty tricks and they became disappointed with their business; her husband looked for a completely new business.  She felt that a new business would bring her even more work and worries. They then had a severe conflict with their neighbour, who threatened to kill their children. Shortly after that, another blow occurred: their friend betrayed them. They wanted to sell their firm but he advised potential buyers not to buy it.

After the conflict with the neighbour, she felt very upset and could not calm down. She could not sleep and had red hot burning skin on her back, a heat inside, trembling, and palpitations. Her blood pressure was 235 / 130 RR; she felt like a pressure cooker. Her state was much worse after any excitement. The slightest touch caused an explosion. She was very impatient and looked for solitude.

Both her ears were sensitive to draft. She wanted to be alone, which helped her. During the whole summer of 2014, she suffered from bad heartburn and bloating in the abdomen, she lost six kg.  A suspected tumor of the suprarenal gland was not confirmed.

This situation lasted several months, from spring to autumn. No conventional drugs were helping her. She took Lobelia inflata in various potencies and later Rosa damascena, thinking it was a love problem, but in fact it was a problem connected with her job. She took Glonoinum and Aconite, but to no avail.

She felt that for so many years she had to be subdued and yielding and she did not want to do that anymore. She felt defiant towards her husband because he planned a new firm, which would bring her even more work, and she was defiant towards the neighbour who threatened them.

She felt completely burned out and at the same time, she was prepared to fight all the time, although her body was weak. She was not able to pacify her high tension. She felt she had to defend herself constantly because something was attacking her, but her fight for freedom exhausted her.

Colour preferences: 19C, 11C, 24C
               
Analysis
Her main concern is to be free from work:  freedom and work are in opposition: 664 of Scholten’s Plant system. She would like to be alone and reacts impulsively, instinctively: phase 1. There is a strong aspect of Phosporus and Nitrogen, burning (back, stomach), bursting out, travelling, escape from hospital: subphase 5. Accordingly, the number of the remedy should be: 664.15 – the Balsaminaceae. According to Wonderful Plants, we have only one stage of remedies available in this family at the moment: stage 1 – Impatiens.     
Impatiens fits the physical state very well: high blood pressure, nervous tension and breakdown; burnout syndrome.
Her colour preferences also confirmed the possibility of Impatiens. Impatiens is listed in the colour code 19C.

Prescription: Impatiens (Bach) 200C – 4.11.2014

As I did not have the remedy immediately available, she took this remedy from a set of Bach flower essences she had at home. It did not work at all, nothing happened. After ten days, the proper remedy came from Remedia and was given. After this remedy, the tension, palpitations, burning of the back, headaches, sleeplessness, and nightmares completely disappeared in several days. She did not react to every emotion anymore and her energy increased. Her sense of smell improved together with an improved ability to breathe through the nose. After a week, she got a headache, which only lasted four hours instead of the usual twelve days. Eczema on her forearms appeared and disappeared. The only persisting problem was the high blood pressure, but even this was lower - 150/100 RR during a physical exertion or after an excitement instead of 235/130 RR.
She made a radical decision together with her husband: they stopped working with the important client who had been a big burden for them, and they moved their business out of the house. They decided to start a completely new business: building a center for alternative medicine.

Because the hypertension persisted, she was interviewed by Jan Scholten during a seminar in May 2015.

Patient: "The high blood pressure started when I got very angry one day. We had legal problems with our neighbour: he wanted to build a garage next to our land, but that way we couldn´t enter our estate. He lied during the procedure and was very stubborn. I resisted him and told him I would not agree with his plan. That was when he started to threaten to kill our children or us. I had to leave. At home, I couldn´t calm down, I was unable to stop walking. I was red and burning all over my body. I felt helpless. We had planned to go on holiday and the children were supposed to stay at home; they are already adults so they can take care of themselves. I was frightened because the neighbour used to drink frequenty and I didn´t know what to expect from him. He owns a private security service, so he has a gun.

“I cannot go into open conflict, I withdraw after saying something. I can be very angry about the violence and injustice. Before it happened, I had often a dream that I was running away. I didn´t see who was chasing me. When I nearly succeeded to escape, the dream would end. Sometimes, I shrieked in the dream, but I can never talk in my dream.

“In my life, I already had a similar feeling of being endangered. Until now, we had a transport firm. The managers of a big firm cooperated with the mafia and demanded that we transport their factory components so they could assemble machines abroad. We were under big pressure but refused to do it. They threatened to ruin our firm and hurt our family, we lived in constant tension. For one year, we did not have work, so to survive we had to sell our house.
“Now, we have decided to change our business. I have studied homeopathy, I like herbs. I was in Sri Lanka twice, where I became acquainted with an ayurvedic therapist. We have decided to establish an ayurveda center. I wanted to completely leave the former business, and work together with my husband, with whom I have a very good relation. Last year, he wanted to change business and start a restaurant but I didn´t agree with him. I was even thinking of divorcing him if he would do it because he wanted to take a big loan. It would be a huge commitment for me, a limitation. I would loose my freedom, I wouldn´t be independent anymore. Besides, this restaurant is on the land with unclear ownership. It could easily happen that we have a restaurant but we don´t have an access road to it. I saw it as complete madness.

“Freedom is the most important thing for me, to be able to go anywhere, to do what I want. Why am I interested in ayurveda and homeopathy? There is a feedback in these disciplines. I was on an ayurvedic retreat for one week and it lowered my blood pressure.

“My father was a director but my family was persecuted since childhood. I saw my grandfather for the first time when I was eight years old. At that time, I went to visit him in West Germany. The director of the school forced me to tell the whole school that West Germany was terrible, but of course it was great to be in Germany. They told me that if I would not tell this lie, they would not allow me to go abroad again. It was during the socialism period, in 1978. It´s horrible to manipulate children this way. I had to do it. I was told at home that I must to do it otherwise I‘d ruin the family. I was stubborn, angry, sulky. Finally, I complied as I wanted to go to West Germany again.

“I understand now that my parents were victims of the regime. We learned as children to fear and mistrust people. My father was strict and didn´t show emotions. Mother cared for us but she didn´t express her emotions either. I liked them but we didn´t speak about deeper topics. I always had the feeling that I didn‘t belong to this family. I wasn´t willing to adapt to rules and I couldn‘t believe I was their child since we were so different. My mother is a yielding person. I was angry because she never had her own opinion. My father was dictatorial, he decided everything. I was bothered by it but I found my own world as a child. I had good results in school, so my parents were satisfied with me. I took my dog and bicycle and went to the woods. My mother competed with her colleagues about which child had the best marks in school.

“Physically, I feel that something is clinging, sucking, and pulling on my scapula, and then I know I have high blood pressure. When I have high blood pressure, my left kidney is painful, as if something is shrinking. The burning on my back is like a sunburn. The first two months, I had also diarrhoea. I lost six kilograms. I had also palpitations at that time. My uterus was removed due to heavy bleeding. My eyes were also operated on to correct my vision and my tonsils were removed when I was thirty.

“What could be the reason for my problems? There is always stress in the transport business. We must be available by phone 24 hours a day, something can always happen.

“During the threats, I was angry but I was afraid of expressing it. I felt it as a limitation that I could not express myself; I could have consequences. In the transport business, it was similar: I had to adapt to situations although I didn´t want to. I’ve been a rebel ever since childhood. If something was expected from me, I did the exact the opposite. My parents didn´t want me to marry my husband, so I got pregnant and married him. After twenty years, they apologized to me.

“I didn´t play with girls, I prefered boys. My family threatened to beat me if I´d ride a motorcycle, so I started to ride cross motorbikes with the boys. I did everything that was forbidden. My father beat me when they were told about it and shut me in the house, insisting I apologize, but I didn´t. I escaped by the lightning conductor.”

Analysis by Jan Scholten

She is a homeopath and she is also interested in phytotherapy and ayurveda. Besides the Lanthanide aspect, there is also a Silver series aspect – the Silver series are also interested in alternative medicine, but these are more superficial therapies, like aromatherapy or massage. More depth is typical for the Lanthanides; they are looking for the deeper cause. She is not following the path of homeopathy: 665 - Lamideae.

Phase 7: criminal issues with the mafia, being threatened.
Subphase 1: spontaneous reaction
Stage 6: she wants to prove herself.

Prescription: Jan Scholten recommended Belladonna 1M

Mother used to be adapting, and as a child she as angry about that: phase 3, yielding.
Father was strict, domineering, not emotional, did not accept the opinions of others: phase 5.
These numbers fit with Lobelia, phase 3, subphase 5 - 666.35.06. Because she was defiant in her behaviour, Jan moved from Lobelia inflata to stage 6.

Follow up after two weeks
Three days after Belladonna 1M, she got a chill, sinusitis and coryza, but for the first time in her life, she had a discharge and could blow her nose. She got a fever of 38°C, copious perspiration, then more energy. Her blood pressure decreased. After Belladonna, she sleeps well, without violent dreams. After two weeks, she repeated the dose. She could not sleep that night and she had numbness of her right extremities. The whole day, she had mild vertigo, as on a ship, on waves. The next day (the second day after the repetition), her blood pressure decreased to 135 / 89 and the next day, to 124 / 88.

Follow up after five months
She has good energy, she can work more, but she cannot do sports yet since that would bring on palpitations. She does not have trembling and burning of her back, only one small burning spot under her right scapula. She no longer reacts so strongly to emotional impulses. Sometimes, she has still a rise of blood pressure but not to the extent it used to be. She stopped measuring her blood pressure in the beginning of August because she does not feel the need anymore and does not want to be upset by results. She changed completely her life: she has a new business in alternative medicine and she moved to a new house. The most prominent problem for her is now her daughter, who has a problem in her marriage.

Comments
Here, it is obvious that there is more than one problem, so more than one remedy is needed. One cannot fit this case into one remedy. We still have the idea of looking for the “one and only remedy” in homeopathy but it seems to be more accurate to use the idea that there are several personalities in us. These personalities react to certain circumstances and create a different picture, which cannot be cured by the same remedy. In this case, it seems that her path to health restoration is not completely finished. This is not the end to the play, but we have learned a lot from these first three acts.

Photos: Shutterstock
Blue flowers of Lobelia; iLightphoto
Balsamine; sutham
Belladonna; vladimir salman