Apium graveolens
BOY, 10 YEARS OLD
This patient had nightly growing pains all the
time - "extremities, pain, leg, growing
pains" (p. 1075). Second, urticaria and recidivistic ulcers with a lot of
pus at different places. He got Graphites and all other possible
remedies, but never with a good reaction.
A: Tell me, what is the problem.
MP: I think that he has an ulcer in his ear.
A: At the back of his ear it is swollen and
red. Do you have pain ?
P: Yes, when you touch it. Also on pulling or
pressing it.
MP: At night when you happen to touch it he
cries for pain.
A: The slightest, little touch hurts ?
P: A little touch like this hurts.
A: When did it start ?
MP: On Thursday.
A: It has developed very slowly. Today, it is
Monday.
Mercurius is the first
remedy you think of in the combination of these two symptoms: "Slight
touch agg." and "night agg.". Mercurius has also the slow
appearance and the slow disappearance of the pain, the way he describes it.
Look at the Repertory: "Pain appear gradually and disappear
gradually" (p. 1377).
PAIN APPEAR and disappear gradually : Acon., arn., ars., bar-c., bufo.,
crot-h., glon., jab., kalm., mez., nat-m., op., phos., pic-ac., Plat., psor., sabin., sars., spig.,Stann., staph., stront., sul-ac., sulph.,
verb.
MP: Yesterday evening he only
had a little earache. And yesterday it was already thick.
A: So, 4 days.
MP: This morning we saw that it was swollen.
A:
A slow development. What else do you feel ?
P: Only here, this part hurts.
MP: You say that sometimes you get a kind of a
stitching pain in your head. Yesterday, for example, here on this side.
P: No.
MP: Yes. Isn't that right ?
A: Something else ? At night ?
MP: Sometimes he weeps for pain while
sleeping.
A: Do you have pain in your ear then ?
MP: Yes, I think so.
P: I can't sleep on it.
A: Did he have growing pains lately ?
MP: No.
A: How long ago ?
MP: That's already a while ago.
A: One month ?
MP: No, longer ago.
P: When I come home from football ...
A: Normally, you have pain in the legs then ?
MP: Yes, that's quite a long time ago he had
this. After the last ulcer he hasn't suffered much from that.
MP: You haven't had so much pain in your legs.
You haven't wept anymore ?
You often have different
aspects of diseases, for example, pain in the right knee at the beginning of a
movement. You give Lycopodium and the pain disappears. Later he has pain in the
left knee. Afterwards you can argue: from right to left and repeat Lycopodium.
Then he gets pain in his right ankle, again Lycopodium. And this goes on. And
then he cuts his thumb and then again pain at another place. At last you know
it: this is a wandering pain.
Sometimes this patient has urticaria - Apis.
Then he has growing pains at night. Therefore he got Calcarea phosphorica,
Guaiacum, Phosphoricum acidum. Then he comes with an inflammation of the ear.
You can give Calcarea silicata, Mercurius or Graphites - but he will always
return. So it has to be a remedy that covers all his symptoms: urticaria,
growing pains and inflammations, ulcers.
When you first treat one symptom, then
another, then the next and so on, he will never get cured properly, and that is
the problem here. At the moment he doesn't have growing pains, but a month ago
he did; now he doesn't have urticaria, but maybe 2 months ago he did and when
he doesn't get the right remedy, he would get the urticaria again next month.
A: He still likes to eat the same things ?
MP: He also likes eggs, I don't know, whether
I told you this. Besides he likes fruits, apples. Yes, all kinds of fruit, but in general he
prefers apples; he likes them very much.
P:
Yes.
We have to believe
what the patient says, and he says that he likes eggs. Which remedy do we think
of ? Calcarea. I know this boy very well, I saw him playing on a roof, he did
not have fear of high places at all. Therefore I doubted at Calcarea.
Every time she repeats that he likes apples -
"desire apples" (p. 484).
STOMACH,DESIRES, apples : Aloe., ant-t., guai., sulph.,
tell.
A: Regularly, he also had a kind of eruptions
of allergic reactions. Did he have this lately ?
MP: That's also a long time ago. Since the
last ulcer he hasn't had anything. Previously, he had those eruptions with red
spots regularly.
A: Put out your tongue, please ! Didn't he have saliva in
his mouth ?
MP:
I don't think so.
A: Neither at night ?
MP: I don't think so. Is your cushion wet
sometimes ?
For which remedy do I ask this ? Mercurius.
P: The whole week I told you about my earache.
MP: From Wednesday to Thursday.
A: Have you played football lately ?
MP: He hasn't played football lately, that's
why he doesn't have pain in his legs anymore.
A: Usually, when he has played football he has
pain in his legs.
MP: Yes, or when he has run the whole day or
has really played, then he has pain in his legs at night.
A: And there are also those ulcers that return
regularly. Until now, we haven't really cured an ulcer in a short time. It
always took a long time. Once, it was so thick, that I had to cut it open.
According to me we haven't given the right remedy up to now.
So,
growing pains, desire apples, urticarias, allergy and ulcers that return. These
4 symptoms have to be found in one remedy.
A: I have to see him again within a few days.
You solve this remedy in water, and give him 3 times a spoon.
MP: Now, it has been quite a long time ago.
But not so long, because ...
A: The fact that he relapses, means, that he
needs a remedy ...
Here, we have to look in the Materia Medica. I
think that the remedy in this case was not correct, and therefore I look for another
remedy. When you are not sure of your prescription, this will happen. Do you
remember the Phosphorus case I showed in Bad Brückenau ? If the prescription is
right the patient has to react. First he didn't react, but I was sure that he
was Phosphorus and therefore I gave him a 50 M - and everything was all right.
FEEDBACK
P: ... worked well.
A: Did you feel anything, when you took the
remedy ?
P: No.
MP: Yes, you did. What did you say when you
took this remedy ? You said that it was very good, that it worked. He took it 3
times a day. When he has taken it, it worked well.
A: The pain disappeared. You had to give it
for a long time before everything was all right ?
MP: We gave him one tablet and waited for a
while and then it came back. Afterwards we gave him the solution.
A: Do you still have problems with your ear ?
P: Not now anymore.
A: Do you feel anything at all ?
P: No, I feel nothing.
A: Last time it has become a very large
abscess with a lot of pus, a very thick swelling.
MP: Yes, before and behind the ear.
A: We had to cut it open, that was very
annoying. Now, it has disappeared. But it is peculiar, that you felt the
complaints disappearing when you took one spoon and they returned afterwards.
MP: Yes, because when the first complaint had
disappeared, we have waited for a short time and then he felt clearly that it
came back.
A: I gave a M potency; I didn't have 10 M, so
I couldn't give a higher potency. That's why I had to repeat the same potency.
MP: It worked well, when you took that remedy.
"I feel clearly that it is the right remedy," you said.
I found the remedy
and read out of Boericke, p. 64, the following of Apium graveolens (common
Celery): "... Rheumatic pain in muscles also in sacrum. Growing pains.
Hungry for apples ..." Further at skin: "... Profuse discharge from
granulating ulcers. Urticaria with shuddering."
Here you find all the complaints of the boy: urticaria,
ulcers, hungry for apples and growing pains.
Up to now he has not had urticaria, ulcers nor
growing pains since the consultation in June. He still likes apples very much.
According to Boericke you have to add Apium
graveolens in the following rubrics: "Growing pains" (p. 1075),
"desire apples" (p. 484) and "urticaria" (p. 1321).
EXTREMETIES, PAINS, LEGS, growing
pains : Bell., cimic., eup-per., Guai., Ph-ac.
STOMACH, DESIRES, apples : Aloe., ant-t., guai., sulph.,
tell.
SKIN, ERUPTIONS, urticaria : Acon., agar.,
all-c., am-c., am-m., ant-c., ant-t., Apis., arn., ars-i., Ars., Astac., aur., bar-c.,
bar-m., bell., benz-ac., bov., bry., bufo., calad.,Calc-s., Calc., carb-an., Carb-s., carb-v., Caust.,
cham., chin-a., chin-s., chin., Chlol., chlor., cic.,
cimic., coca., cocc., con., Cop., corn., crot-h., crot-t.,
cub., cupr., Dulc., elat., ferr-i., graph., Hep.,
hydr., ign., iod., ip., kali-ar., kali-br., kali-c., kali-i.,
kali-p., kali-s., kreos., lach., Led., lyc., lycps.,
mag-c., merc., mez., nat-a.,
nat-c., Nat-m., nat-p., nit-ac., nux-v., pall., petr., ph-ac., phos., psor., puls., Rhus-t.,
rumx., ruta., sal-ac., sars.,
sec., sel., sep., sil.,
staph., stram., sul-ac., sul-i., Sulph.,
ter., thuj., til., Urt-u.,
ust., valer., verat., vesp.,
zinc.