Case 1: This 50-year-old lady came to me because she had a dry cough for about ten years with retching and sometimes vomiting. In the hospital a tear in her diaphragm was diagnosed and believed to be the cause of her chronic cough; she had to live with it. She coughs day and night, wakes up from it and is better from drinking some sips of water. She has a dry mouth and feels a cramp behind her sternum, which makes her cough and vomit. Her cough is aggravated by emotional stress. She works as a maternity assistant and has a tendency to take the problems of the families with her. Her cough is also aggravated by physical exertion and by breadcrumbs and spiced food. She feels an itch in her right throat and larynx. If she wakes from the cough she lies on her right side. If she has too much work she feels tension on her shoulders, but she is able to relax by reading, sleeping and swimming. She always has cold hands, feet and legs, even in the summer and she dislikes swimming in cold water. Her hobbies are walking, reading (already as a child) and working in the garden. She loves nature and the sea. When she had more time she was knitting and sewing a lot. She dislikes crowds and has fear of high places. She is afraid of snakes. She describes herself as yielding, easygoing, not easily saying no. She has a caring character and wants to be perfect. In her work she is tidy, but for the rest rather untidy. She is never late to work or important appointments. She easily gets emotional from music, a book or movie, and she likes dancing. Her sclerae are blue.
Up to this point, she fits perfectly well in the picture of Carcinosinum, although her cough, cramps and tension already give some hints for the Cuprum element. Let's look to her Cuprum side. Once she has decided something it will happen even years later, she says. She never gives up. She easily gets angry from injustice done to herself and to others. She respects the rules and can wait alone with her bicycle before a traffic light while other cyclists pass by. If she sits in a car with someone else, she is as attentive as the driver himself.
This gives us enough of the element of Cuprum to prescribe CCC 30K, once a week.
After two months she had a threatening angina after each dose of CCC, except at the last dose. She has pain in her arms and shoulders and feels stiff. Her cough is the same but now she expectorates some mucus and the vomiting has disappeared. I continue CCC 30K every week.
Two and a half month later she is much better. Her cough is much less and not so heavy any more. Her mouth is less dry. She feels quieter, less pushed around. She has more energy and her hands are warm now, although her legs and feet are still cold. She has decided to work less and to take more time for herself. She is amazed that people she liked for years are now not nice in her (new) eyes. She is able to see things more clearly, more at a distance, and she reacts more appropriately. At the end of the week she feels that she again needs her CCC, when she starts to feel restless and pressed to do a lot of things. I continue CCC 30K every week.
Three months later she feels very fine. She only coughs during eating, teeth brushing, in a smoky room and when in a hurry. The retching has disappeared as well. She says: “I feel much happier now, better in my skin. Before I believed that I had to please everybody, but that is not the case any more.’ I prescribe CCC 200K now, every two weeks.
Three months later she still progresses. She feels her lungs more open and can breathe easier. Her cough is almost completely gone. She feels quiet and has good energy. Four months later her feet and legs are also warm, but she is still coughing a little bit and still has a dry mouth. Emotionally, she hasn’t felt this good in years. I prescribe CCC MK, every three weeks. Three months later the tension she still had in her shoulders is gone, her humor is much better and she feels happy, but she still coughs a little bit, although it becomes less and less. At the end of the three weeks she becomes more aggressive. The CCC MK is continued.
Case 2: Carcinosinum cum Cuprum is frequently used as a general remedy in cancer cases along with a tumor specific remedy. Although this book is not the place to explain extensively my approach to cancer this case is interesting because two layer remedies are used at the same time to treat this 62-year-old man with colon cancer. With this case I just want to lift a corner of the veil. Carcinosinum cum Cuprum or Carcinosinum are used for the basic treatment of every cancer patient to restore reactivity at the physical, emotional and mental level and to teach the immune system again which cells are cancerous. The choice between CCC and Carcinosinum is done on the symptoms and, in general, it is easy to differentiate between the two. Cancer treatment has to be intensive and multidisciplinary. That’s why I use also orthomolecular supplements and tumor refraining substances along with healthy diet and healthy life style, etc. This man came to see me in June 2003 after an operation for colon cancer with metastasis in the abdominal lymph nodes, in the liver and in the right lower lobe of his lungs, just above his liver. The proposition of the specialist was to operate on his liver and after that to start with chemo. But many things went wrong in the hospital, and the patient felt as if there was no real interest in him. So he said to the doctor: “I believe I am here more for you than you for me” and he left without any further treatment. Then he came to me. In 1998 he had already had a complete breakdown and was home for a year and a half, living like a zombie. In 2000 he had a heart attack from which he recovered quite well. He is still in very good condition when I see him. His sleep, appetite and energy are good. He was the second child of three and felt unhappy in his childhood. At age three he got diphtheria and was placed in quarantine for weeks. The first night he was in the same room as an 18-year-old young man that died that very night. As a result of this he developed a fear of abandonment and felt forsaken. His parents didn’t come to see him, because all the same they could not talk with him. He nearly suffocated. His mother was a victim, he says and his father very dictatorial and demanding. At age eleven he went to attend a seminary but was sent home after three years because he played too closely with a girl while ice-skating. He failed in the eyes of his father who sent him for work. Unconsciously, he lived the life of his father and signed up for six years of military service when he was eighteen years old. He just did it to be accepted by his father and his friends. It was a time of women and alcohol. “It was a macho culture where I didn’t belong,” he says now, “and I knew that I made the wrong decision by signing. It has damaged my soul.” Later he started a career in business, working for money and prestige. Finally, he became director of a hospital service with 130 employees. This was a step too far, and he collapsed. From 1992 till 1997 he started training in psychosynthesis. On the financial level he was very skillful; he was able to sell whatever he wanted. He is a perfectionist and go-getter. He is always on time and very organized in his work, but chaotic at home. He has everything under his control. He dislikes rules because they hinder him from getting where he wants. He can become very angry about injustice and when people don’t keep their promises or hold things in confidence. He is afraid of pain, poverty, violence, high places, spiders, mice and insects. He likes very much to listen to music. Now he is thinking deeply about death and preparing himself, because he wants to pass in love, as beautifully as possible, he says. It is clear that he has had two big traumas in his life: his hospitalization which is definitely a mother problem; and the problems he had with his father because of which he spent much of his life trying to prove that he was even better than him. So I prescribed CCC 30K 4 days in the even weeks and Saccharum officinale 30K 4 days in the uneven weeks. With that he got also Chelidonium, Cholesterinum, Berberis and Solidago, all in 6DH, one tablet every day to drain his liver, kidneys and digestive system. Two months later he feels fine, is happier, has no pain and has a better stool. Because his zinc in the erythrocytes is too low, 140 mcg/mol in stead of 180-200, I prescribed extra zinc and Vitamin B6, MSM 1000mg twice a day, reduced L-Glutathione 300mg twice a day, L-Glutamine 500mg twice a day and L-Cysteine 500mg once a day. Three and a half months later he feels formidable, as he says. Life is like a festival. He is traveling around the world; he took a plane 14 times last year. “I am ready. I have prepared everything: my own mortuary card, the mourning card and I have visited different churches and graveyards and made my choice. Now I am ready for life. I just have fear of pain; that is all.” We continue the treatment with CCC 200K and Saccharum 200K, both 4 days as with the 30K. Again five months later we switch to the MK. He lives intensively, he lets life flow and cancer is out of his mind. He feels great. This is one and a half year after the beginning of the homeopathic treatment. “I am not interested in a diagnosis now; I don’t have to know if my cancer is still there. I am ready to die. If it is tomorrow it is OK. If it is in ten years it is OK also. Every day is a gift and I enjoy it fully.”