Lycopodium Clavatum - Abdomen symptoms - Kent Lectures

ABDOMEN

Appetite

The Lyc patient cannot eat oysters; they make him sick. Oysters seem to poison the Lyc patient, just as onions are a poison to the Thuja ^Thuya patient.

There is a sense of satiety, an entire lack of appetite. He feels so full that he cannot eat. This sense of fullness may not come on until he has swallowed a mouthful of food.

he goes to the table hungry, but the first mouthful fills him up. After eating he is distended with flatus, and gets momentary relief from belching, yet he remains distended. Nausea and vomiting.

Eating

gnawing pains in stomach as in gastritis.

pains immediately after eating.

vomiting of bile, coffee ground vomit, black, inky vomit.

Flatus

"Everything I eat turns into wind."

After a mere mouthful he becomes flatulent and distended, so that he cannot eat any more. He says a mouthful fills him up to the throat. While the abdomen is distended he is so nervous that he cannot endure any noise. The noise of the crackling of paper, ringing of bells or slamming of doors goes through him and causes fainting, like Ant. crud., Borax ^Borax and Nat Mur ^{Natr. mur}.

Lyc., China ^China and Carbo Veg ^{Carbo veg}. are most flatulent remedies and should be compared.

Vomiting

"Sour stomach," sour vomiting, flatus, distension and pain after eating, with a sense of fullness.

Liver

Pain in liver, recurrent bilious attacks with vomiting of bile. He is subject to gall stone colic. After Lyc. the attacks come less frequently, the bilious secretion become normal and the gall stones have a spongy appearance as though being dissolved.

Kidneys

Kidneys The kidneys furnish any symptoms and may be the key to Lycopodium in many instances.

Stomach

Awful goneness," or weakness, in stomach, not relieved by eating (Digitalis Purpurea ^Digit).

The stomach is worse by cold drinks, and often relieved by warm drinks. In the stomach and intestines there is a great commotion, noisy rumbling, rolling of flatus as though fermentation were going on.

The stomach symptoms are worse or brought on from cold drinks, beer, coffee or fruit, and a diarrhoea follows. Old chronic dyspeptics, emaciated, wrinkled, tired and angular patients, everything eaten turns to wind. Lycopodium is useful in old tired patients with feeble reaction and feebleness of all the functions, with a tendency to run down and not convalesce.

The Lycopodium patient is flatulent, distended like a drum, so that he can hardly breathe. The diaphragm is pushed upwards, infringing upon the lung and heart space, so that he has palpitation, faintness and dyspnoea. It is not uncommon to hear a Lycopodium patient say, "Everything I eat turns into wind."

The stomach and abdominal symptoms are intermingled. There is a sense of satiety, art entire lack of appetite. He feels so full that he cannot eat. This sense of fulness may not come on until he has swallowed a mouthful of food; he goes to the table hungry, but the first mouthful fills him up. After eating he is distended with flatus, and gets momentary relief from belching, yet he remains distended. Nausea and vomiting; gnawing pains in stomach as in gastritis; catarrh; burning in ulcers and cancer; pains immediately after eating; vomiting of bile, coffee ground vomit, black, inky vomit. Under Lyc. apparently malignant cases have their life prolonged. The case is so modified that, instead of culminating in a few months, the patient may last for years. Right hypochondrium swollen as in liver troubles. Pain in liver, recurrent bilious attacks with vomiting of bile. He is subject to gall stone colic. After Lyc. the attacks come less frequently, the bilious secretion becomes normal and the gall stones have a spongy appearance as though being dissolved. Lyc. patients are always belching; they have eructations that are sour and acrid like strong acid burning the pharynx. "Sour stomach," sour vomiting, flatus, distension and pain after eating, with a sense of fulness. Awful "goneness," or weakness, in stomach, not relieved by eating (Digitalis Purpurea ^DIGITALIS). The stomach is worse BY COLDDRINKS, AND OFTEN relieved by warm drinks. In the stomach and intestines there is a great commotion, noisy rumbling, rolling of flatus as though fermentation were going on. Lyc., Cina ^CHINA and Carbo Veg ^{CARBO VEG.} are most flatulent remedies and should be compared. The stomach symptoms are worse or brought on from cold drinks, beer, coffee or fruit, and a diarrhoea follows. Old chronic dyspeptics, emaciated, wrinkled, tired and angular patients, everything eaten turns to wind. Lycopodium is useful in old tired patients with feeble reaction and feebleness of all the functions, with a tendency to run down and not convalesce.

This patient has most troublesome constipation. He goes for days without any desire, and although the rectum is full there is no urging. Inactivity of intestinal canal. Ineffectual urging to stool. Stool hard, difficult, small and incomplete. The first part of the stool is hard and difficult to start, but the last part is soft or thin and gushing followed by faintness and weakness. Lycopodium patients have diarrhoea and all kinds of stool. So you will see from reading the text that the characteristic of Lycopodium is not in the stool. Any kind of diarrhoea, if the other Lyc. symptoms are present, will be cured by Lyc. It has troublesome haemorrhoids, but they are nondescript. Any kind of haemorrhoids may be cured by Lycopodium. if the flatulence, the stomach symptoms, the mental symptoms, and the general symptoms of Lyc. are present, because the haemorrhoidal symptoms are numerous.

The kidneys furnish many symptoms and may be the key to Lycopodium in many instances. There seems to be the same inactivity in the bladder as in the rectum. Though he strain ever so much, he must wait a long time for the urine to pass. It is slow to flow, and flows in a feeble stream. The urine is often muddy with brick dust, or red sand deposits, or on stirring it up it looks like the sediment of fermenting cider. We find this state in febrile conditions. In acute stages of disease, where the red sand appears copiously, Lyc. is often the remedy. This is a very prominent symptom. In chronic symptoms when the patient feels best the red sand is found in the urine Lycopodium has retention of urine and suppression of urine. It has "wetting of the bed" in little ones, involuntarily micturition in sleep, involuntary micturition in typhoids and low fevers. A marked feature of Lycopodium, and one of the most prominent of all remedies, is polyuria during the night. He must arise many times at night and pass large quantities of urine, although in the daytime the urine is normal. Enormous quantities of urine, very clear and of light specific gravity.