Cimex cimx.
Characteristic
Affects the right side most. Violent headache during the chill, which almost deprives him of the power of thinking; worse when he drinks.
Pain in liver as if strained; painful when touched and coughing.
Constipation: stool dry, like small nuts, and only able to pass a small piece with each effort (Chel., Op., Plb., Thuja).
Cough: with gagging, belching or vomiting (Bry., Dros., Kali); with purulent sputa; in daily attacks with fever paroxysms.
Irresistible drowsiness and sleepiness (Ant. t., Nux m.).
Aggravation
Drinking: every movement, especially extending a limb, produces pain in extensor tendons; suffers the thirst rather than move.
Amelioration
By abstaining from drinking.
Type
Tertian or quartan.
Time
All periods, day or night.
Prodrome
Thirst; can drink before the paroxysm begins. Heaviness in lower limbs five or six hours before chilly stage begins (thirst with pains in bones of limbs one to three hours before chill begins, Eup.).
Chill
Without thirst. Chill commencing in the feet, which first become cold; clenching of hands; violent raging; cold shuddering, as if cold water were poured over her (Cinch., Rhus); stretching, yawning; great drowsiness during chilly stage, he is unable to resist sleep (Op.); hands and feet feel dead (fingers feel as if they were dead, Sep.—all the body feels numb, Ced.). During chill, pain in all the joints (pain in ankles and wrists, Pod.), as if tendons were too short, contracted, so that the legs cannot be stretched, particularly the knee joints, which he is unable to extend. Oppression of the chest; must take a long breath frequently (oppression of chest; he must be raised up in order to breathe, Apis). Chill terminates with a feeling in the legs as if tired by walking, obliging constant change of position of limbs. After the chill (instead of fever), thirst; but when he drinks, violent headache, which almost deprives him of the power of thinking; with tickling in the larynx, causing dry, uninterrupted cough; oppressed breathing; heaviness in the middle of chest and anxiety. Tormented with thirst, yet he abstains from drinking, because it makes headache and all the above symptoms unbearable (see Ars., Caps., Eup.).
Heat
Without thirst, but desire to drink nearly all day, on account of dryness of throat (Nux m.). When the dry heat sets in the uneasiness disappears, in place of which she feels a pres- sure and gagging in the œsophagus, affecting whole chest and im- peding respiration; when she drinks for the purpose of putting a stop to the gagging the water can only be swallowed at intervals, as if the œsophagus were constricted (Cic.). The gagging does not cease until hot stage terminates, after which ravenous hunger (hunger before chill, Cinch.—hunger during entire paroxysms,
Cina). If he drinks during heat is obliged to urinate soon after; urine hot and brown, depositing much sediment; continues hot even 24 hours after fever.
Sweat
Without thirst; > all the other symptoms (Nat.,
Psor.). Musty-smelling, sour sweat (Stan.); the odor is very offensive to him (Carbo a.). Light sweat, mostly on head and chest, with continued hunger (Eup.).
Tongue
Coated white; saliva collects on middle of tongue and tastes of iron; tongue, gums and palate feel burnt and scalded.
Throat dry, causing drinking.
Apyrexia
A good deal of thirst in this stage, in which, as in the prodrome, he can satisfy his thirst without headache, gagging or œsophageal constriction.
Analysis
Thirst; can drink only during prodrome. Con- traction of joints as if tendons were too short. Gagging, belch- ing or vomiting. Drinking causes violent headache.