by Hugbald V. Müller, translated by Christian Kurz
When her husband told me that she was also afraid of water, of gushing water, I recognized this as a Lyssin symptom and gave Lyssin 1M...

I continued treatment and waited for a miracle, which didn't happen. And still, a miracle did happen, a completely serendipitous miracle.

It is important to realize that in this case everything happens in reverse order; we are swimming up the river.

In 1986, when we are at Lake Garda, my illness started. But now life is good again and I enjoy it.

It is so nice that life for me is worth living again.

When she was sick, she harbored a terrible fear and aversion against water.

The only reason I continued with homeopathic treatment was the initial success I saw right after the first remedy, which freed her of her psychosis.

Equisetum, just because it is known as a "bladder remedy" should not be used only in complaints of this organ.

R., Julie, female, 66 years old.

This proved to be an exceptionally difficult case. The patient came to see me for five years, or rather, had to be brought to see me, until I was able to find the simillimum which brought about a veritable miracle cure.

Until 1986 everything was going well. She had met her husband at a dance and married him a few years later, at the age of 40. They quarreled often and made up as often, but both were happy and felt in their element. An explanation for this may be that both their favorite color is green, which virtually guarantees that life will be anything but boring. Apparently, both needed a life which was fast and full of changes.

As I said, until 1986 everything was going well, when she suddenly got sick, very sick. The funeral of her mother-in-law may have been the cause of it, where she experienced a real shock. Suddenly she was full of fears, even a veritable panic. She was afraid that her husband would leave her, afraid of each and every strange person, and, before all, afraid of burglars and robbers. In the middle of the night she would start to scream and was convinced that burglars and robbers were in the apartment. A vacation at Lake Garda had to be cut short.

When she came to me for the first time, it was impossible to talk to her. She was lamenting and nagging, cried and yelled without stopping. When she was calm, she made sounds of eating, smacked her lips. What was I to do? Where was I to start? When her husband told me that she was also afraid of water, of gushing water, I recognized this as a Lyssin symptom and gave Lyssin 1M, five globuli. I was pleased to see that at the follow up visit six weeks later the psychosis had all but vanished. In its place, however, was now a deep depression. I forgot to mention that the patient had been admitted to a sanatorium before she came to see me. Her husband had removed her from the sanatorium after six weeks, when there had been no improvement in her condition.

Here is an excerpt of the report from the sanatorium: "The patient comes with her spouse. She herself hardly talks at all, walks restlessly to and fro, and sits then apathically in a chair. She says she has been unable to eat in the past days, that she was listless and without energy during the day, and unable to sleep well at night. The husband reports that the patient has experienced severe panic attacks for the last three weeks."

The lifting of the psychosis was a big motivation for the husband to continue with homeopathic treatment for his wife over the next several years, even though I was never able to recognize a considerable improvement. She continued to wail and complain, was hardly responsive and in continuous motion. Perhaps I should mention that she also suffered from glaucoma. On the face, particularly around the nose, she had acne rosacea, frequently pustulous eruptions. Further more, she frequently complained about pain in her calves. There was also a previous thrombectomy which had left scars in the inguinal region on both sides.

In all these years I saw little improvement. Only Lachesis and Rhus toxicodendron brought some transitory relief. I continued treatment and waited for a miracle, which didn't happen. And still, a miracle did happen, a completely serendipitous miracle. In all the previous years of treatment I was able to assess the favorite color of the patient. I asked her each and every time, it must have been more than 30 times all together, about her favorite color. I showed her my color tablets and didn't cease prodding her until she answered my question. Of course I didn't get a consistent answer each time, considering the mental state of the patient, but the color varied between 24 A 7 and 26 A 4 (according to the Taschenlexikon für Farben by Kornerup and Wanscher, published by Muster-Schmidt) [The author refers to a handbook on color classification - Ed.]. 25 A 4 was picked most frequently and proved to be important to me. Apart from that, her husband brought in a sample of her handwriting, of course from the time before her disease.

What caused the miracle was that one of my employees suffered urinary tract complaints, which I repertorized, and for which I gave Equisetum 30C. This cured not only the urinary troubles of my employee but also brought on a profound change in her emotional life. She is a very reliable person, yet never stops complaining and is discontent with everything.

The favorite color of my employee and her handwriting also showed marked similarity with that of my patient. This was reason enough for me to try Equisetum on my patient as well, in the 1M potency. The success was a complete restoration of health on all planes. I now knew that the simillimum for her is Equisetum. This opportunity allowed me to record the emotional and psychological profile of this - as of yet still little known - remedy. Hence I invited the patient to a detailed interview after the cure.

It is important to realize that in this case everything happens in reverse order; we are swimming up the river. The interview shown below did not happen with the goal in mind to find the simillimum, but to sketch the drug picture of Equisetum, a remedy of which we know very little beyond the physical symptoms.

Patient's Story

I am the oldest of eight children. We are four girls an four boys, and I was 25 years old when the youngest was born. I was born in a small town near Lippe-Detmold, Germany, where I also got married later.

I have always enjoyed cooking, and I think that I cook well, since people we invited over always liked to come for a meal. I still like to cook today and it seems as if I had never stopped. And yet, it was for more than five years that I used to be a real failure.

Not only do I enjoy cooking again, I also take care of all the house work. My husband says that I am doing too much for my 66 years, and that I should take it easy. But I have to work, because I have so much to catch up with, and I like doing it. I have to keep busy to feel well. Besides cooking I love to go on trips. I realize that seems contradictory, but that's how it is.

Since my getting well again, about one year ago, we have gone on many trips. We have been to Bad Wildungen, to Königsfeld, Rostock, to Grömlitz on the Baltic Sea, and we went on a cruise by ship for 14 days. The trip to Rostock was our first one, and my husband wanted to see if I was strong enough to go on trips again. I particularly liked it in Grömlitz, and we would have stayed longer if our room had not been already rented. We both love to travel, and I still remember our travels from before my illness. We have been to Monaco, to Grasse, France, the place with the perfume manufacturing plants, to Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, Rijeka, and other places. In 1986, when we are at Lake Garda, my illness started. But now life is good again and I enjoy it.

I particularly enjoy shopping. I take pleasure in picking out my things by myself again. I have cleaned up my wardrobe and thrown away all my old stuff. All in all, there were several big trash bags full.

We live in Bad Oeynhausen, and I met my nephew Heinrich in the neighboring town of Bad Salzlufen, shortly after I had gotten well again. I said to my husband: "Look, that's Heinrich over there, I'll go and talk to him." My husband replied: "Don't be silly, that can't be him", but I didn't listen and went to the man, who turned out to be my nephew Heinrich, just as I had said. He was very pleased to see me well again, and he told my brothers and sisters. By the way, none of my sisters has a drivers license, and I myself would also never consider getting one. I am much too afraid of driving. My husband presses me to get one and even offered to buy me a small car, but I won't give in.

I like to talk to you [the homeopath - Ed.], because I owe you so much. I am going to tell you everything you want to know. I should try to remember what happened prior to my illness? There is not much to tell, because not much ever happened. I loved to dance and went dancing a lot. That's how I met my husband, who shares my love for dancing. Right up to my illness, that's until my 60th birthday, we went dancing frequently . There isn't much to say about my childhood. It was nice at home, but unfortunately my parents died early. My father was 67 and my mother 63. He has been suffering from diabetes for a long time. I still remember that he used to eat a lot of sauerkraut before he went in for a check up. My father ran a construction company and owned several houses; he also built the funeral hall at the cemetery. One of my brothers took over from him, and another brother runs a funeral home, even though he is already 60 years old. My father was a very joyful man and laughed a lot. We used to laugh with him. I am a happy person and like to laugh.

It is so nice that life for me is worth living again. I already mentioned that I go shopping and am pretty active. Over the day we make plans where our next trip is going to take us. We have a lot of plans. In the near future we will definitely visit the Schwarzwald, go to Freudenstadt, and certainly to Tonbach, where they make the best Black Forest Torte. We both hike a lot there and have knickerbockers. France is another plan of ours, particularly St. Maxim, where we have already been four times.

In the evening I like to watch TV, something I was unable to enjoy for a long time. Now I understand everything again and can sit and watch it. Before, I had to lie down and couldn't follow a thing.

I also enjoy my jewelry again. Look how it shines and glitters. I cleaned everything, including my jewelry. I just put it in a glass with a cleaning tablet for my dentures, and now it is like new again.

Further Comments

Of course I was interested to learn still more, and so I kept asking. An obvious question for me was to inquire whether she had had any problems with her urinal tract, for which Equisetum has a well documented affinity. "No", she replied, she never has had any complaints in this area. I was determined to ask her husband too, since I found it hard to believe that such a well known bladder remedy had cured this woman, who has never before had any complaints about her bladder. Maybe her memory was not quite up to par, even though she was able to recall so much else.

Toward animals she doesn't feel any particular affection; she doesn't want to have a pet. It would tie her too much to her house, and she wants to travel as much as possible.

When she was sick, she harbored a terrible fear and aversion against water. Her husband had trouble getting her into the bathtub, and therefore resigned to wash her every morning in bed, because it was always a veritable torture for her to get up. A shower, even only washing her head, was completely out of the question. She would start to scream, hearing the sound of running water so close to her head. Upon my questioning, she replied that this had changed. She now enjoys taking a bath, and since four weeks, showering is no problem anymore.

She likes to listen to music, and there are a number of singers she enjoys listening to, such as Danielle Matthieu, Wenke Myrrhe, Theo Lingen, and Roy Black, who recently died. [All of them are considered "easy listening" and were popular in Germany in the 60's and 70's - Ed.] She doesn't believe in non-intellectual things.

After talking to her, I asked the husband some questions. Of course he was overjoyed that life for her, and therefore for him, has again meaning. He confirmed what his wife had said earlier: there have never been any bladder complaints.

It was so surprising for him to watch what happened after the single dose of the correct remedy. Something he had hoped for so long, but stopped believing in towards the end. She started to improve immediately after the single dose and has continued to improve ever since. In the meanwhile she has reached a state of health which is better than he could remember from before the illness five years ago. "I took her out of the sanatorium on my own responsibility and brought her to you. It has been difficult for me to bring her to you in those five years. She resisted the drive in all possible ways and kept on screaming and threatening to jump out of the car. I had to have my sister with me to restrain her. The only reason I continued with homeopathic treatment was the initial success I saw right after the first remedy, which freed her of her psychosis. I was hoping for another miracle like this (the first prescription was Lyssinum 1M, which, however, did not act anymore after the first dose).

She is again as active as before her illness and throws me out of the kitchen when she is cooking. Whatever I do is wrong; she nags me and my sister. Before, it was just as bad, maybe even worse, because we are both hotheads, and even quarreled sometimes, but nothing serious. In the same manner she complains about the TV program, there never is anything sensible on. When we have an argument, she also cries a lot.

In the morning after breakfast, she already asks me what we are going to do this day. I usually ask her back, where she would like to go, and she tells me. Last week we drove to the Lüneburger Haide, which is a the fair distance of 200 km [125 miles - Ed.]. We managed the drive there and back in one day, though. She missed out on many things in those five years, which she is now trying to catch up on."

Conclusions

What are we to learn from this case?

1. Equisetum, too, which I gave as Equisetum hyemale, is a polychrest, since all our remedies are polychrests when chosen correctly. What we call polychrests are not the most deeply acting remedies, but those which are represented most frequently in our repertories due to their thorough provings.
2. Equisetum, just because it is known as a "bladder remedy" should not be used only in complaints of this organ. We have to free ourselves from old experiences and limiting traditions and continue to evolve. In this respect I have found analysis of handwriting and color preferences very helpful. I have now identified the color choices and graphological features of this remedy, which are among the most important and uniquely individual characteristics of Equisetum to me. If I meet the same characteristic handwriting and color preference in a patient now, I know without a doubt that Equisetum will be the similllimum.
3. A careful interview of a patient whose similllimum we have previously identified will give the best drug picture, much broader than would be possible with a conventional proving. Of course we have to repeat this interview with several patients who needed this remedy to obtain a rounded portrait of the drug.

A comparison with the mind symptoms known up to now for Equisetum demonstrates the advantages of this procedure. In the Synthetic Repertory (1st edition) we find for Equisetum hyemale only two entries: Irritability, and Work, mental, impossible, both times in the first grade. Equisetum arvense occurs only once in the rubric Screaming, also in the first grade.

Allen, in his Handbook of Materia Medica, lists Equ-h on page 472: "Generalities and Mind: Stiffness of muscles of trunk. Uneasiness in different parts, uneasiness in evening. General malaise. Weakness. Irritability and easy fatigue."

The conclusion of this is that no existing repertory would have yielded Equisetum in this case.

Unfortunately the patient was not able to enjoy her recovery for too long. About half a year after this interview her husband called and told me that his wife had died from a sudden stroke. I was, of course, very saddened by this, since the patient had experienced such a remarkable cure from her illness. I have to remark that the patient had been gaining weight continuously after her recovery, a fact about which I warned her repeatedly. She had much to catch up with and has always been a skillful cook and also a gourmet at the same time.

Summary

Equisetum hyemale is a very rational character, a realist. It lacks the calm intellect and tends to sudden outbursts of anger.

• Sudden outbursts of violent anger, hitting others, capable of sudden rash actions, obstinate, nagging, egotistical, tearful.
• Disposed to changeable moods.
• Joyful and easygoing when things go according to her will.
• Desire to travel, shopping, cooking, listening to music (particularly "easy listening" songs), and loves to dance.

When depressed:

• Listless, apathetic.
• Suspicion of senile dementia.
• Autistic behavior.
• Restlessness.
• Continuously makes sounds of eating.
• Anthropophobic, misanthropic, dislikes company.
• Continuous nagging, discontent with everything, wailing.
• Fear of water, particularly the sound of water.
• Fear of being abandoned.
• Fear of robbers and burglars, is convinced that they are already in the house.

Physicals:

• Acne rosacea with pustules, on nose.
• Glaucoma.
• Thrombophlebitis. [inflamed veins - Ed.]