Beginner, basic questions

[Elizabeth Evans]

Firstly, I’ve been practising acupuncture for over a decade but only learning classical in the last two. So, I’m finding myself a complete beginner again (both fun and daunting).

So… when doing a SDS treatment- can you always expect some form of healing crisis? I did an SDS GB treatment on my son (18 years old) for his chronic rhinitis (since he was 4 years old). I started with herbs but then talked him into doing a divergent treatment. It took him 2 weeks of bitter herbs to get over the fear of gallbladder 1. I also told him that if we were to do an SDS treatment, he needs to drink more water and sleep better hours as his pulses were too thin initially. But he complied (a miracle in itself). With lockdown we were able to do 3 days on, 3 days off. His symptoms improved by 90%! A game changer for him as he previously found it impossible to go outside in the spring and summer without daily antihistamines. Otherwise, he’d literally have constant sneezing and constant nasal congestion. That said, he had no type of healing crisis. He still gets some morning sneezing- for about about a minute or two (if he hoovered his room, this just might solve everything- but that’s never going to happen– he’d rather have me needle his eyes than hoover– lol). He’s keen to get that sneezing to stop and so he wanted me to continue treating him. I think he just wants to be confident it’s gone. However, he doesn’t seem to have a divergent pulse anymore. I’m taking the pulse class in Poland in October so I make that statement with significant self doubt. He did have a slightly wiry lung pulse. I treated that successfully and he’s been good. My question is, a wiry lung pulse is about the capacity to let go, injustice and a sense of morality. He is very politically aware and so this completely makes sense as he has been very upset about … well… if I started listing the current issues of injustice and immorality I’d be writing for a long time. Could the wiry pulse be at all linked to his holding of the last bit of rhinitis symptoms??? My thought is that in an SDS you are asking for the pathogen to exit out of the wei level, but if there is a difficulty in the capacity to let go, could some residual be left on the wei level??? Last question, I treated that last bit of rhinitis with a sinews treatment. However, I was kind of guessing because I’ve only learned sinews through musculoskeletal issues. I just figured that if I was feeling his pulse was wirey on the wei level of his pulse, then a sinews treatment made sense. Was that a wrong conclusion???

Thank you in advance for any replies.

I hope you are all well.

[Armin]

Hi Liz,

Firstly, I think you can relax about being a complete beginner; most of us in this forum are:)

Great job on the sds treatment. I myself still don’t have the courage to do one. All my divergent treatments have been dsd so far. As far as I can piece together from my trainings with Ann, the healing crisis will likely happen at some point. It might just be that, you didn’t do the divergent treatments long enough, and had you continued, it could have happened.

Did you do the Gb divergent based on pulse diagnosis? My first go to would have been St/Sp divergent given the trajectory as well as overall indication. Also, given the overall weakness in mediumship and the length of time that he has been suffering from this, perhaps dsd might be a better option all around.

If I am not mistaken, in a divergent treatment approach what might end up happening is that you start with let’s say the 4th confluence and as the person improves and perhaps goes through a healing crisis, then the next step is to treat the 3rd confluence, then 2nd and then the first. I am not too sure about this theory and, of course, I have not experienced it clinically, but do recall something to that effect. The progression may not be orderly and confluence by confluence either.

But in terms of what you ended up doing in terms of a sinew channel towards the end, it makes perfect sense to me. Your sds treatments would have brought the pathogen to the surface and it was just lingering there, so all good in terms of sinew treatment to push it out the rest of the way.

Let us know what you have done since and thanks for sharing.

[Elizabeth Evans]

Thanks so much for your reply, Armin. I’m ever so grateful to you. You are always so thoughtful and I appreciate that so much.

I laugh that you say you haven’t been courageous enough to use SDS because I have been wondering to myself whether I am courageous or stupid! Time will tell. I did use the pulse (again- very new at this so not hugely confident) in deciding second confluence and also wei and mediumship mobilisation signs as per page 171 of the red book. But, in TCM, I always learned that pediatric rhinitis you look at st/sp and in adults you look to liver. This is where I get confused.

I also realised that during the weeks of treating him he stunk like crazy- very smelly sweat. I kept suggesting he take a shower and he’d say, “I did!” At one point, I wasn’t sure I wanted him lying down on my treatment table because he was going to smell up my treatment room. LOL. So now I’m wondering if that smelly sweat was a form of releasing.

He’s off camping with friends so this will be a telltale time to see if his rhinitis is there or not. He did this same trip 2 years ago and was miserable because of his allergies.

I will let you know!

[Armin]

Well Liz, your intention was in the right place and what mattered in the end. And sweating!!!!!? indeed that would be the famous healing crisis, especially in the context of your son feeling much better all around. So, things like smelly sweating, bowels, urine, and other exciting expressions would fall under the healing crisis category.

I’d say your reasoning for doing the 2nd confluence is pretty spot on. If you went by mediumship mobilization signs and symptoms and decided say that he doesn’t have enough blood, you could also rather than working with the 2nd confluence directly, work with the 3rd confluence to boost the 2nd. If I’m not mistaken, that would bring you to the St/Sp Div realm. You might consider this specially for the lingering symptoms perhaps.

Anyway, you are dong great job. Hope he comes back from his camping trip without too much drama.

[Author]

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