I have a client. I saw her since 2002. She is around late 40s. When she has problem with shoulder or arms,she comes to visit me. Maybe a few times per year. Recently I saw her because of her allergy. During the treatment, she told me that she doesn't like to go to see a doctor. the latest one is because she cut her finger,then she went to an emergency. The doctor on duty took her blood pressure as a routine. He took her blood pressure for several times,then said he couldn't write down the numbers. Otherwise she would be in trouble. So I asked her about the number,she said maybe around 220/120 mmhg. The doctor thought maybe because she was in pain,so she had a high blood pressure. Then I thought even she was in such a pain,usually shouldn't have such a high blood pressure. So after acupuncture, I took her blood pressure. It was high.220/130! She has nothing to complaint except allergy symptoms. And she is not sure about her family history. So I asked her to come next day,and meantime I asked her to take her blood pressure by herself to excluding “ white cloth high blood pressure”( when people see a doctor,their blood pressure go up). She did that,and also the second time I took her blood pressure was high,too. I kept pushing her to see her family doctor. When she told her doctor about the number of blood pressure,her doctor got an appointment for her right away. Fortunately after all the examinations, except that she had several very mild heart attack( even she didn't have any symptoms), her liver,kidney function are still normal. Her family doctor gave her high dosage of blood pressure pills to control her blood pressure. A few weeks later,her blood pressure was going down ,but still abnormal. I suggest her to combine with herbs. Her diastolic pressure is very high,which means her vessels are narrowed and fragile. Drugs are only help to control the blood pressure, but it couldn't to help softening the vessels. Combining with herbs,we try to treat hypertension from the root. Definitely , this treatment would take a long way to go.
Her family doctor said thanks to me. I thanks to her because of her care about the patient. I should find her hypertension much more earlier. I'm back afraid that if that day I'm not chatting with her,if she doesn't mention what happened in the emergency,maybe I'll never find she has hypertension. That's why we said when you are a doctor for a long time,you'll be more careful. Anything can happen if you skip a clue.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Follow-up in China
The day after my husband’s arrival in China, he went to a hospital to have an x-ray taken. The results showed pneumonia and the doctor suggested that he have a CT scan done. (Remember, I'm still in Canada.) The CT scan was taken right away and cost about CDN$200 which is a lot money in China. The CT scan results came out clear. The doctor then asked him to stay in hospital even though he didn’t have any symptoms. Fortunately, this time, he firmly declined. The doctor ended up prescribing at least four kinds antibiotics, including two kinds for IV for another week. I couldn’t believe it! To be honest, I think antibiotics are overused. I worked in China as a doctor for many years, so I know exactly what is going on. I would not have let this happen, but because my husband was located in a different city from where I used work, the situation was out of my hands. They definitely abuse antibiotic use nowadays. Some doctors think only about the money and don't even care about what happens with their patients. First of all, my husband didn’t need an immediate CT scan. After another two to four weeks he could have had another x-ray as a comparison. Secondly, only oral antibiotic should be taken at that stage( which is the recovery stage). The best thing to do is to just stop the antibiotics and take some herbs to nourish the body; use the body's own power to completely heal. I wish my husband would listen to me, but because we’re so far away, there’s not much I can do.
The body's healing powers are like soldiers. If the soldiers never fight, they lose their abilities.
The body's healing powers are like soldiers. If the soldiers never fight, they lose their abilities.
Fever
I have two recent and interesting cases I'd like to share.
The first case involves a 54-year-old female client of mine who had symptoms of a bloated stomach. Two days later she experienced chills, but no sweat, headache, no appetite, low energy and constipation. This lasted for about a week. When she finally came to see me, I checked her tongue, pulse and body temperature which was 39.2 Celsius. My assessment was that she had a cold blocked Tai Yang Meridian with interior heat. The Tai Yang Meridian acts like a gate and when it’s blocked with a cold (caused by pathologic factors such as viruses, bacteria, etc.) the internal heat has nowhere to escape resulting in a high fever.
Treatment was to clear the cold in the Tai Yang Meridian and accumulated internal heat. After acupuncture and cupping, my client felt immediate relief. After giving her herbs, she sweated and had a bowel movement. On the second day, her body temperature dropped to 38.3 Celsius. On the third day of treatment, her temperature was 37.0 Celsius, her headache less severe and appetite increased. On the fourth day, she was back to normal, so I gave herbs to help nourish her body. In a week, without any drugs, my client had fully recovered.
The second case involves my husband. He is 36 and has been a cigarette smoker for more than 15 years. I’ve tried to get him to quit smoking, but, unfortunately, he doesn’t listen. Two weeks ago he started having fits of coughing at night. He took some cough syrup and it got better. He then developed a slight fever which I didn't really pay much attention to because I wanted to take this opportunity to scare him into possibly quitting smoking. I wasn’t really thinking about what herbs I should be giving him and ended up giving him whatever was on hand and easy to take. Then his situation took a turn for the worse and he developed a high fever pattern. The pattern was a normal temperature reading in the morning and as the day progressed it would get higher and peak between 3pm and 5pm at 38.8 Celsius. He began taking antibiotics (he doesn't believe in herbs), but this didn’t help him get better.
From my experience, and from a Western medicine perspective, this meant 3 possible diagnoses: infection, tuberculosis or cancer. According to my husband’s research on the internet, his pattern was most reflective of cancer. Needless to say, he cut back drastically on his cigarette smoking.
There wasn’t any time to see our family doctor because it would take too long before we could get an appointment and he had a flight booked for China. I finally forced him to come to my clinic and, ignoring his bargaining (he is chicken with needles), I did acupuncture and cupping. According to his fever pattern, the heat was already deep inside in the Yang Ming Meridian (pathologic factors from surface to interior goes like this: Tai Yang - Shao Yang - Yang Ming; the deeper the problem is, the harder it is to cure) so I used strong herbs for him. They were quite bitter, but they worked; his temperature finally started to lower. With his body temperature getting better, I knew there was a lesser chance of him having tuberculosis and cancer. I advised that he have an x-ray taken just to exclude the possibility of other diseases.
Within three days, his body temperature dropped down to 37.3 C. For his flight to China, I gave him some herbal pills instead of the herbal tea treatment. During his flight I was worried because I knew it was going to be a long ride and I was afraid that without enough rest his fever might return. We spoke when he arrived in Shang Hai and he let me know that he had no fever. Thank God. Now it's my turn to have a rest.
The first case involves a 54-year-old female client of mine who had symptoms of a bloated stomach. Two days later she experienced chills, but no sweat, headache, no appetite, low energy and constipation. This lasted for about a week. When she finally came to see me, I checked her tongue, pulse and body temperature which was 39.2 Celsius. My assessment was that she had a cold blocked Tai Yang Meridian with interior heat. The Tai Yang Meridian acts like a gate and when it’s blocked with a cold (caused by pathologic factors such as viruses, bacteria, etc.) the internal heat has nowhere to escape resulting in a high fever.
Treatment was to clear the cold in the Tai Yang Meridian and accumulated internal heat. After acupuncture and cupping, my client felt immediate relief. After giving her herbs, she sweated and had a bowel movement. On the second day, her body temperature dropped to 38.3 Celsius. On the third day of treatment, her temperature was 37.0 Celsius, her headache less severe and appetite increased. On the fourth day, she was back to normal, so I gave herbs to help nourish her body. In a week, without any drugs, my client had fully recovered.
The second case involves my husband. He is 36 and has been a cigarette smoker for more than 15 years. I’ve tried to get him to quit smoking, but, unfortunately, he doesn’t listen. Two weeks ago he started having fits of coughing at night. He took some cough syrup and it got better. He then developed a slight fever which I didn't really pay much attention to because I wanted to take this opportunity to scare him into possibly quitting smoking. I wasn’t really thinking about what herbs I should be giving him and ended up giving him whatever was on hand and easy to take. Then his situation took a turn for the worse and he developed a high fever pattern. The pattern was a normal temperature reading in the morning and as the day progressed it would get higher and peak between 3pm and 5pm at 38.8 Celsius. He began taking antibiotics (he doesn't believe in herbs), but this didn’t help him get better.
From my experience, and from a Western medicine perspective, this meant 3 possible diagnoses: infection, tuberculosis or cancer. According to my husband’s research on the internet, his pattern was most reflective of cancer. Needless to say, he cut back drastically on his cigarette smoking.
There wasn’t any time to see our family doctor because it would take too long before we could get an appointment and he had a flight booked for China. I finally forced him to come to my clinic and, ignoring his bargaining (he is chicken with needles), I did acupuncture and cupping. According to his fever pattern, the heat was already deep inside in the Yang Ming Meridian (pathologic factors from surface to interior goes like this: Tai Yang - Shao Yang - Yang Ming; the deeper the problem is, the harder it is to cure) so I used strong herbs for him. They were quite bitter, but they worked; his temperature finally started to lower. With his body temperature getting better, I knew there was a lesser chance of him having tuberculosis and cancer. I advised that he have an x-ray taken just to exclude the possibility of other diseases.
Within three days, his body temperature dropped down to 37.3 C. For his flight to China, I gave him some herbal pills instead of the herbal tea treatment. During his flight I was worried because I knew it was going to be a long ride and I was afraid that without enough rest his fever might return. We spoke when he arrived in Shang Hai and he let me know that he had no fever. Thank God. Now it's my turn to have a rest.
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