Chelidonium Majus

Fixed pain (dull or sharp) under the lower inner angle of the right shoulder blade.

Yellow eyes, face, skin, hands, stool clay colored or yellow as gold; urine yellow. Tongue thickly coated yellow, with red edges.

Right-sided remedy; supra-orbital; hypochondriac; lungs; hip; foot cold as ice, etc.

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The center of action of this remarkable remedy is in the liver, and its most characteristic symptom is a fixed pain (dull or sharp) under the lower inner angle of the right shoulder blade. This very characteristic symptom may be found in connection with general jaundice, cough, diarrhoea, pneumonia, menses, loss of milk, exhaustion, etc., in fact, no matter what the name of the disease this symptom present should always bring to mind Chelidonium and close scouting will generally reveal hepatic troubles or complications as would be naturally expected with such a remedy. Chelidonium is like Lycopodium, by preference, a right-sided remedy, right supra-orbital neuralgia, right hypochondrium and scorbiculum cordis tense and painful to pressure; right-sided pneumonia and shoulder painful; shooting pain in right hip extending into abdomen; drawing pain in hips, thighs, legs, or feet, more right-sided; right foot cold as ice, left natural. Further study will show that Chelidonium not only is a right-sided remedy, but in many other points stands close to Lycopodium, and in my experience one is often found indicated after the other. Although this characteristic infra-scapular pain is as reliable as any in the Materia Medica, there may be cases in which it does not appear at all, which can only be cured by Chelidonium, especially liver and lung trouble. If we should find pressive pain in the region of the liver, whether it be enlarged and sensitive to pressure or not, bitter taste in the mouth, tongue coated thickly yellow, with red margins showing imprint of the teeth, yellowness of whites of eyes, face, hands and skin; stools gray, clay colored, or yellow as gold, urine also yellow as gold, lemon colored or dark brown, leaving a yellow color on vessel when emptied out, loss of appetite, disgust and nausea, or vomiting of bilious matter, and especially if patient could retain nothing but hot drinks on the stomach, we would have a clear case for Chelidonium even though the infra-scapular pain were absent. All these symptoms might be found in either a chronic or acute case. If in a chronic case, some anti-psoric like Lycopodium might have to be called in, according to indications, of course, to help complete a cure, but Chelidonium would be the chief reliance.

These liver troubles range from simple congestion and inflammation of the organ, to the more severe and deep-seated affections like fatty liver, gall stones, etc. Chelidonium is one of the leading remedies in pneumonia, which is complicated with liver symptoms. Sometimes in coughs which are persistent with much pain through right side of chest and into shoulder, Chelidonium helps us out and saves the patient from what might easily terminate in consumption.