A different way of Teaching

Two things come to mind this morning that I want to share. First of all I have registered a web domain and am in the process of creating my web page. If you know of any really cool alternative medicine web pages please send me the address so I can check it out...

http://www.pcflmntn.com

The other area I have been thinking about is my teaching method; and how, like most everything else I do, it is somewhat different. In particular I am thinking of how I am approaching the OB/GYN class. I have shifted the format into something new.

Most of the OB/GYN texts and classes focus on the symptoms ~ painful periods, early, late, prolonged, whatever. That is not how I am teaching this class.

What else would you expect??

I am focusing on more of the root cause: Blood Deficency, Heat, Cold, Stagnation, etc, etc. It is challenging because we end up bouncing all over the text book; page 154, page 247, page 603. But when we focus on one particular root cause and then follow it out to the branch (symptoms) it is much easier to track.

Also the students are getting to the point that they can pick out the underlying issues and that will make them more effective practitioners, which is what this is all about in the first place.

The first few classes the students had a perplexed look on their faces, and I kept questioning my approach. But now after the mid-term I am seeing that it is working.

I had the idea, before I started this class of breaking the information apart in a different way. Excess/Deficiency, Heat/Cold, Stagnation/Damp/ Phlegm and combinations of these. I was told that might be too confusing, but I trusted my intuition and I am glad I did.

I guess to be fair we should ask the students if they are... ;-)

Till the next blog.

Bond's of Motherhood

Today I heard an interesting story on NPR. It seems that modern science is finding something new and unexpected in every mother's blood. Fetal cells from her babies.

The placenta is an amazing sac that encases the fetus as it matures before delivery. It has been accepted that the placenta keeps the baby's cells inside and away from the mom's cells, otherwise her immune system would turn against these cells as they are "not-self."

Now scientists are finding fetal cells in the mothers blood cells. They have all kinds of research going on to investigate this and the immunological implications it creates. One theory is that the fetal cells help protect the mother for decades after delivery, and that might explain why men have a higher degree of certain auto-immune diseases. Now of course this does not mean that all mothers can fight all diseases, otherwise Mom's would live to be 100 and never have cancer or any other disease. I am not saying it is a cure-all, but it is something new for the scientist to investigate.

Of course I want to think about a different connection.

I think this can explain the subtle connection a Mom has to her children. Now before I get too far off on this I want to say that I know dad's can have a pretty strong connection to his kids as well. But from my limited perspective it does not seem as powerful as THE MOMS super connection.

How can a mother know when something happens to her child that is 1,000 miles away, before the phone rings? How can a mother know when something is wrong,sometimes even before her child realizes it?

If her blood is still carrying the cells of her child maybe there is some way of these cells knowing something has happened to their other cells (her child).

I think that this can also explain how when a little baby is screaming and is picked up by her mom he or she will usually calm down quicker than if held be anyone else. Possible the two sets of cells can re-harmonize and that creates a calmer expression of the baby's beingness.

Who know's. Maybe I just drank too much coffee and none of this is connected.....

This does not fit

It is always interesting to me when I run into a case that does not fit the model. Let me give you an example.

I am treating a lady for "dermatitis" which usually manifests as a variety of "Wind Heat erupting through the skin;" although often there are more signs of heat than of wind. It is called Wind because it suddenly appears or disappears; heat because it shows as red skin.

My patient has virtually NO signs of heat or or Yin deficiency. That is one thing and I can accept that not all things fit into all cases. Then there is her tongue.

Her tongue is a very-pale purple. Imagine sky-blue, but only purple. The thing about a purple tongue is it indicates Blood-Stasis. Blood-Stasis usually manifests with some pain, somewhere. Or even painful periods and or clots. Not with this lady. H,mmm another piece of the puzzle that does not fit....

Abdominal palpation is a good way of assesing the state of the Organs. The Japanese use this as almost an art form. Her abdomen shows no sign of stasis.


So today, I am sitting here wondering what I am missing or overlooking. I am re-reading my notes and cross checking my references. So far all I am finding is that this does not fit....