CINA
Artemisia cina; Wormseed
Cina was convinced she spied the creature’s minute eye, without doubt she could smell the earth and she was absolutely positive she could hear the crackle of the lettuce, as the worm (NWS worms) slithered around on the Big Mac Burger (hallucinations of smell, taste and sight). A split second later, she screamed, and let the Burger fall from her small hands. It landed, unfortunately, contents strewn, in her lap. Panicked, Cina tried desperately to free her fat body from the brightly coloured child’s high chair. Her father startled by the commotion raised his voice to his daughter, a rarity, and in a stern voice told her to sit down that instant. The reprimand ignored, the high chair wobbled precariously, and crashed to the floor, bringing with it the fretful, scrofulous, rosy-faced child. (Ailments from being scolded and fright, plus convulsions). Cina’s head hit the cold, grey tiled floor first. The crack sounded loud. Cina Immediately went into a convulsion. Her body suddenly stiffened. Peculiar, gurgling sounds that sounded as if water was poured out of a bottle seemed to radiate from her throat to her stomach as she attempted to swallow frightened the young children on the next table as they watched in horror at the spectacle before them. Unbeknown to all the godlike physicians visited by Cina and her parents her convulsions were caused by worms. And none of the money consuming private doctors with their many referrals to endless specialists ever thought to go back to basics and have the child tested for the presence of worms
Cina’s father did not have a clue what to do, despite seeing his daughter convulse on many occasions, but that was before he was estranged from his wife, who always knew what to do. He crouched down by his fitting daughter and attempted to make her as comfortable as possible, moving arms caught under harnesses free. He was frightened to move her while she was convulsing. Crouched down, close to his daughter, he felt helpless, a mere spectator, not unlike the group that had gathered around offering unheard advice. He noticed the pallor around his daughter’s nose and mouth, and the blue rings around her twitching eyes. He carefully removed a piece of warm soggy lettuce from his daughters’ cheek revealing a small red circumscribed patch on her plump cheek. Her face felt chilly. He reached for his tweed jacked from the back of his chair and placed it over his daughter. He remembered that she was sensitive to draughts.
Slowly, Cina regained consciousness; she woke rolling her head from side to side, (she felt better for shaking her head) smearing the blood from her wound into her matted hair. Her father gently stroked her head, but she was aggravated by his touch (skin sensitive to touch), and angrily pushed his hand away. The ugly natured child suddenly noticed the audience, concerned parents, frightened peers and sniggering teenagers looking on. Cina screamed loudly and covered her eyes with her arms; she was sensitive and worse for
being looked at. Her father whispered words of comfort, a recollection of his wife’s behaviour and attempted to pick Cina up. Cina had an aversion to being approached and despite her position and constraints Cina lashed out, kicking and hitting aggressively. She knocked her fathers glasses from his face breaking them in the process. Cina’s demeanour was cross and ugly. The spectators shock and concern turned to disgust as they returned to their cheap, non nutritious happy meals. Extremely irritable and as obstinate as a mule, Cina refused to move from the floor, and once again covered her eyes with her arms to block out the world. Unaware of the wound on her head, Cina began to rub her chubby finger in her nose relentlessly she greatly desired to pick her nose and on many occasions to the point of bleeding, She gathered together the red tinged juicy buggers, rolled them in her fingers and flicked them in all directions. One extra juicy one landed on a fat lady’s bloated arm, another bullseyed on a burger bun and posed as a sesame seed. Her father reached down and offered Cina the successful marketing ploy, a Disney character received with her meal hoping to distract her from her nose. But Cina had an indisposition to play and snatched the toy from her fathers hand, then hurled it with all her might across the fast food restaurant (throws things). Cina desired many things, but rejected everything offered. The brightly painted plastic Mickey Mouse missile, hands and legs outstretched, hit an elderly lady on the leg causing her tissue paper thin skin to tear under the impact. The old lady’s middle aged daughter who had arrived post convulsion, expressed her disgust at the unruly children of today in a loud voice. Cina was amongst other things a sensitive child in both mind and body and was greatly offended by the lady’s comments. (offended by slightest) Unbeknown to the judgmental lady, Cina acted as she did for a reason: she never received any attention from either of her warring parents, her needs came second to theirs and so her defence and offence was her aversion and indifference to being caressed by either of them.
Cina’s fathers’ nerves were frayed, and he had to get out of the plastic Styrofoam eatery. He quickly picked up his pale and weak daughter. For a moment, Cina forgot that she liked being carried but in reality it gave her no relief, she screamed a half-hearted scream, but then cried piteously when she was taken hold of and carried out side. Her cries became causeless weeping as her father bundled her into the child seat of the Space Cruiser, turned the key in ignition and drove out of the car park., Cina’s father glanced at the hairdressers on his right as they drove down the High Street towards home. His decision was quick and final, despite instructions to the contrary, he was bailing out and not taking Cina to have her hair cut, however, the wound on his daughter’s head was the lesser of his reasons for not adhering to his wife’s wishes. He was not aware how fortunate his decision was; Cina abhorred having her hair cut, all hell was let lose in a barbers’ chair and nothing could quieten her
Back in the comfort of his once marital home Cina begged her father for food and drink to quell her ravenous almost canine hunger and insatiable thirst. Cina
had already eaten, but she seemed to get hungry soon after eating any meal and complained of feeling empty in her stomach. Her father searched in the fridge and found the left over food from the meal the night before. The plastic container complete with white stick on label and dated verified he wasn’t about to poison his child. Maybe his estranged wife was not so anal after all he thought as he warmed the meal and served it to his daughter. He washed the dishes, old habits died hard. He looked at his daughter as she pulled a chair over to the cupboard above and next to the sink; she climbed on the chair, opened the cupboard door, ducked beneath its swing and retrieved a glass jar with an easy to remove large cork stopper. The wound on her head didn’t seem to bother her and as Cina searched in the Lolly Jar to satisfy her craving for sweets he quickly parted her matted hair and surveyed the congealed blood that had formed over the cut on the back of her head. He made an executive decision not to take his daughter to the accident and emergency department at the hospital despite her having had a convulsion. Time passed slowly as father and daughter watched TV in the living room and waited for the mistress of the house to return. Cina always became anxious in the evening and before midnight so she snuggled up to her father on the leather couch. Sitting close to his daughter he could not fail to notice the smell of sour eructation’s escaping from his daughter, they were extremely offensive for such a small child. He made a conscious note to mention it to her mother. Cina had affections of her stomach, her GIT was very sensitive. Her mother with time and error had learnt to avoid the offending foods that upset Cina’s gastro intestinal tract, her father had not. The telephone in the hall rang and his selfish plans to escape his parental responsibilities were thwarted when Cina’s mother announced over the phone that she had to go and be with her mother in the accident and emergency room at the hospital as she had fallen and possibly broken her hip. She asked if he would stay the night with their daughter. He noted her anxious tone. He agreed and told her not worry and that everything would be okay. He neglected to inform his wife of their daughter’s accident and ensuing convulsion, he thought it best.
Time had marched on, child suitable TV programmes were watched with Cina doing plenty of yawning then it was time for Cina to go to bed. He decided to put her in her mothers double bed and very soon she was fast asleep, with the full moon beaming through the bedroom window. Cina’s father had forgotten that his daughter was worse on a full moon. A couple of hours latter after watching adult suitable TV programmes Cina’s father prepared to go to bed, but sleep was nowhere to be found as Cina’s sleep was restless she jerked a lot in her sleep causing the king-size water bed to make annoying little waves which made him feel nauseous. Cina slept either on her hands and knees or on her stomach which she was better for but she also had easy access to her bum to scratch the worms that wriggled around in her rectum. Thankfully her father was awake to witness her frantic scratching and again made a conscious note to tell her mother. Sleep was almost upon him when Cina screamed out in the midst of a frightening nightmare he sat bolt upright bobbing up and down on the water
bed in time to witness his daughter jump out of the bed obviously seeing imaginary objects as she pointed at nothing screaming at the top of her voice as she trembled and talked hurridly shocked by the intensity of the scene before him, he quickly got out of bed and pulled his daughter close to him and comforted her as best as he knew how. Then he remembered as a small child she had like to be rocked so he picked her up in his arms and rocked her fast, she stopped screaming and then Cina became fully awake and she started coughing with an unmistakeable whooping sound to it. He rubbed his daughters back as she bent over his arm coughing and whooping uncontrollably (whooping cough), and oddly sneezing almost at the same time. And he noticed as she coughed a peculiar twitching of her right hand.. After the coughing fit ended Cina moaned and was obviously anxious as she gasped for air and it was as if she was afraid to speak or move for fear of bringing on paroxysm of coughing yet again. And she turned pale. He rocked and carried Cina into the bathroom and poured a glass of water from the cold-water tap but she soon refused it and pushed the glass away as her teeth were sensitive to the cold water and it hurt. Her father didn’t know that all of Cina’s symptoms were worse for all things cold – cold water, cold air, even just being in the open air made her symptoms feel worse, that and the fact that it was night time and it was before midnight. He carried his daughter back into the bedroom and lay Cina back down on the bed. He stroked her forehead as she picked at the bedclothes and she began to grind her teeth a sound that put his own nerves on edge. Then Cina wet the bed (enuresis), he put it down to her coughing fit, and the water, he did not care, but did curse himself for not putting her on the toilet while they were in the bathroom. He gently removed her pyjamas and retrieved a fresh pair from her drawer in her bedroom. Whilst putting the clean PJ’s on he noticed her warm hands and cold face, he knew a fever was brewing. He remembered the signs from when he still lived in the marital home and his very young daughter was cutting her teeth. He moved his exhausted daughter away from the wet patch on the bed he was too emotionally drained to start looking for fresh sheets it had been a long night and it wasn’t close to over. And twice-in one day, he felt totally helpless, an emotion quite unfamiliar to him.
CINA MATERIA MEDICA