Water Swelling Follow-up

My patient with the back pain and the water swelling has returned several times to see me, and has improved each time. However, she still seems pretty exhausted when she comes in, and nothing I do can replace some good rest.
Still, I'm happy to say that the swelling in her legs has decreased, and that the angry looking varicose veins that displayed have toned down considerably. Her tongue still has a thin, yellow coat, but the body color is a more normal pale-red than before. It's not quite as puffy, nor are there any scallops.
She has become a huge fan of moxa (as have I), and practically demands its use when she comes in. I always use moxa with her on Du 4. The last time I saw her, I also used a brass moxa burner with a handle on it to move up and down her UB channels on her back. It's the first time I've used one on any patient (although I have used moxa boxes, but that's stationary).
She showed some signs of qi deficiency and complained of neck pain last time I saw her, so, aside from moxa at Du4, I also needled the following points: UB13, 17, 19, 40, 39, 60; Kidney 3, and luozhen. After treatment, she showed considerably more energy. Of course, this could purely be from getting a good rest, as I usually retain needles in her for a good 30 minutes, and let her sleep during that time. However, she continues to show signs of improvement overall.
If I had my druthers, I'd prescribe for her zhen wu tang. However, herbs aren't prescribed at SACHR, so this will have to wait for now.

One Point Wonder

Sometimes, at SACHR, time gets very tight, what with giving full conventional treatments, and helping with NADA protocol in the Sanctuary. Case in point: A young woman asked for full body treatment for back pain. She said she has a scoliosis, and that her low back gets painful. However, she had to be at a women's meeting at 2:00 pm, and she had to fill out the requisite paperwork and consent forms before I could treat her. The time was 1:40, not enough. So, I let her fill out the paperwork, gave her ear-seeds for NADA, and then gave her what I called a "quick and dirty" back treatment.
After she filled out the forms (which I filed for later use), I asked which direction hurt her the most to turn toward. She indicated that rotating her waist to her right was more painful. I therefore used extra point yaotongxue, on the dorsum of her left hand. Yaotongxue is actually two points, just distal to the carpal bones, between the 2nd and 3rd, and the 4th and 5th metacarpal bones. For her, the one between the 4th and 5th metacarpals was the more painful.
I stimulated the needle at that point, by rotating it with draining, while she rotated her waist left and right. After five minutes, she said the pain was gone. I retained the needle for five more minutes, every so often stimulating it, then removed both needles. The pain was completely gone, and she was able to go to her women's meeting pain free.

Acupuncturist, Heal Thyself

In the course of getting our degrees in TCM, we're all told about the dangers of exposing ourselves to exogenous pathogenic factors, particularly wind. So, what do I do? With some hint of wind signs already (itchy nose), I rode my bicycle to work in cool weather, with just short sleeve jersey and shorts. Come the next day, I had a nice wind cold.
Symptoms were fairly typical of wind strike. Weak sweat, achy neck, stuffed up nose, no particular thirst. Now, in hindsight, it seems fairly obvious that the appropriate formula would have been gui zhi tang (Cinnamon Twig Formula). Naturally, I didn't do that. Cognizant of some of my own internal deficiencies (blood deficiency, particularly) I took ren shen bai du san (Ginseng Powder to Overcome Pathogenic Influences). Whenever I took it, I would feel better, but then start to feel ill again a few hours later. So, either the formula was incorrect, or I wasn't taking a big enough dose.
After two days, wanting to get some sleep and not lie in bed blowing my nose, I took Nyquil. Big mistake. I slept okay, but woke up feeling far worse, with the same symptoms, and now with a congested chest. At this point, I stopped taking the ren shen bai du san, as it was now really inappropriate. I found myself wishing for some xiao qing long tang (Minor Blue-Green Dragon Formula). Too bad I couldn't get any. I just waited it out the old fashioned way, drinking plenty of fluids and teas, and sleeping.
As of this writing, I'm pretty much recovered, although still coughing up phlegm. By tomorrow, I'll be pretty much normal. But, from now on, I'll be more discriminating in what I prescribe for myself.