Peaceful Mountain Acupuncture

A weekly blog about Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico, United States

This blog is going to be, primarily a venue for me to express my thoughts about Life and the complexities of the physical plane. My story is simple, I am an easy going individual and a moderate recluse. I am comfortable walking or sitting, talking or being silent. I am always seeking new friends and acquaintenances. I tend to look deeply and question myself about the lesson behind the experience. If you like what you read, please leave me a note, if you have a blog please leave me a link so I can read your writing as well. Thanks

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

How often does this happen?

So here is the question of the day. When was the last time you heard of, or saw a major movie release that has Chinese Herbal Medicine as an integral part of the story?

Last week I was going to see one movie when I saw a poster for "The Curse of the Yellow Flower" starring Chow Yun Fat. I had never heard of this movie, but that is not surprising as I do not go to the theatre very often. But since I like the director and the leading actor I decided to give it a try.

It is a very good movie set in China around 1000 years ago. The colors, acting and story were all fantastic. I will say this movie shows 'dysfunctional families' at a completely different level.

Without giving the story away I will say that herbs are an integral part of the plot and it was fascinating to watch the scenes involving the herbal dispensary.

If you care to, go check this movie out. It will not stay on the big screen too long, but it is worth seeing.

Now back to work....

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

An Update, and another unsual response

Well, last week I had the pleasure of seeing the lady with the 3rd degree burns again. She is such a nice lady. I thought she was doing better after the last treatment, but I was mistaken. It is not that she is in more pain, but she is not getting any results from the treatments. She thinks she is getting more relief from the massages. So I encouraged her to continue to get the massages and to call me if she needs my services.

When I was inserting the needles in her this week it was painful to her. That is unusual, most of the time a patient rarely feels my insertions, but not this time. I have seen it when one point will hurt for whatever reason, but with her this time every point was hurting. If you have read my blogs for a while you can guess that I did not like causing her any pain. So it was a hard treatment for both of us...

I have been thinking about what happened to cause her to experience pain at the site of the needle insertion. Of course as with all things acupuncture I can not be sure, but here is what I have been thinking.

Her burns happened over 6 decades ago, whatever damage was done has had a long time to 'settle in.' Then here I go interrupting that with electric micro-stimulation, and then top that off with the Ion-pumping cords. I know both of these forms of treatment are very effective, so it would be reasonable to presume that something changed in the area I was working with. Exactly what, or how remains to be seen. There is a part of me that tells myself that in a few weeks or months she will have a significant change. I believe that it will be a change for the better.

I spoke to one of the students at school that has a lot of experience working with different dermatological conditions. She made a creme that I gave to the patient that could help release some of the tension in her skin. Time will tell in this one as well... I will hear how she is doing through the massage therapist and I may have the pleasure of running across her at the clinic. I will update as the situation warrants.

Now for another unusual response... As if you would expect me to write about something normal???

I have been working with a gentleman that has been diagnosed with multiple mental labels including being "bi-polar" or what used to be called manic-depressive. He is an interesting individual, to be sure. I ask him how his energy is and he replies "I can light Chicago." He came to me as a referral, his allopathic doc's want to get him more stable and see if they can wean him off some of the medications he is on. It is quite an extensive list. I am glad they are thinking of trying to get him off some of them because I think of his poor over-worked liver. It is a good thing he does not drink, it would probably completely destroy his liver, instead of this slow-death he is currently causing it to experience.

Normally if a patient is on five or more med's I tend to say "no herbs for you." The potential herb-to-drug interaction is too hard to predict. But as with all things there are exceptions and I have resources. I got his complete med list and e-mailed it to my resource. My resource looked it over and my diagnosis and the herbs I wanted to put him on. He agreed with the diagnosis and herbs except one that contained "St.John's Wort" apparently there can be a interaction with St. John's Wort and some psychoactive med's. So he changed to to safe one.

Now, three months later my guy is still able to light up Chicago, New York or any other town you can think of. HMMMM, what am I not seeing here? He has told me that his body reacts backwards to most drugs he gets. Hmmmmmmm, can that happen with acupuncture?

Normally I try to give him a treatment to calm him down. He is nearly levitating when I come back in the room and is even more wired than before. That's not normal...

A few weeks ago he came in and I tried something counter-intuitive. I gave him a treatment that should have jacked his energy up like he just drank 4 espresso's. When I came back in the room he said "For the first time in all my acupuncture treatments I started to relax." He has been getting acupuncture for 5 years...

So to say that I was surprised would be an understatement. I still have not figured out what is going on with his energy,but I started to get a feel for how I can work with it. It's kind of like having the cold water come out of the hot water valve, or the "on" position of a switch being the "off" action. But it is not that simple. Or as a good friend of mine in the martial arts used to say "It's just like that, only completely different."

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Focusing on the work, and working on my focus

It was great to have a break from teaching. The classes all went very well, everyone pased, even if just barely. Over the break I bought a new book on Chinese herbology; Jiao, Shu-De "Ten Lectures on Medicinal's." He is amazing. These lectures take the understanding of herbology to a completely different level; Jiao, Shu-De has been studying and working with Chinese herbology for over six decades. He brings that level of experience into his lectures in a very readable and understandable manner. Of course kudo's go to the translating team.

Getting this book has been great for me in that it has re-energized my enthusiasm for teaching and understanding the herbs. That is always great.

I have been seeing some interesting patients, and getting good results in the treatments; that is always a good thing...

This quarter is a very full load for teaching, clinic and trying to have a life outside of all of that. But it is workable and so far it feels GREAT. Because I am so busy in all of this I have to be very focused. I enjoy that, it helps in all aspects of my life.

I will write more, next week or so to give an update on my complicated patient I mentioned previously. She seems to be doing good, but I want to see her again, last week she had a cold and would not come out of the house...

Take care
Stay warm and Happy
Michael