Macular degeneration

[Lydie Vachon]

Hi,

I am following a age-related macular degeneration diseased woman -mid sixties and i dont see much improvement. I would like to know a little more what could be done on this case.

I unfortunately don’t have the file with me at this time, so i will add some details as needed.

The lady is anxious, had nightmares for a while (they stopped), and is spending all her free time reading books and novels, either on paper on on screen. She knows it is related to her eye degeneration, but she doesnt want to change her lifestyle. Reading is everything for her. She is very stubborn and closed to change. She is afraid of darkness and spending time with the mind not occupied. She says she does daily meditation, but what she does is actually repeting positive affirmation into her head, so she never has silence within it. She hates winter and cold. Her constitution seems to be phlegm accumulation (excess weight) and yang deficiency. She is also near sighted.

Pulse is slippery (and i don’t recall the other findings of the pulse. I don’t really know how to take a advance acupuncture pulse).

Tongue was coated white i think.

But of course she has a lot of heat because pretty anxious, picky, rigid and the nightmares. She is irritable as well.

Also, she has herniated disc on the lower back that has made her suffer very much. She doesn’t want me to treat it because she sees an osteopath for this, but she liked when i did some cupping.

I’ve treated : possession, aggressive energy, then i drained dampness and phlegm while nourishing liver blood. I gave her variated herb formulas mainly with Go Qi Zi, Si Chuang Pu, Ju Hua, Gan Jiang, Bo He, Dang Gui, Wu Wei Zi among others. There were as well steam bath for the eyes with similar formulas. She likes them, and they make her feel good, but she doesnt feel any improvement.

Then i started working on the 8 extras. Everytime i would treat the Qiaos (mostly Yin Qiao, but sometimes i would add the yang as well), she said she would feel “light” in her eyes, like more brightness and relaxation and feeling of them being more open. But the effect would always last less than 24hrs.

That’s the only result i really got so far. She also had another exam since the beginning of treatments and the macular degeneration has worsen.

She also does many recommandations i gave her from Andy Rosenfab’s book : palming, hot cushion on the eyes, eyes stretching… (she absolutely doesn’t want to do the eye moxa glasses).

So because she is so rigid, i recently thought of adding yang wei to the qiao treatment. But it doesnt seem to help much either.

So i feel like i’m about to tell the patient I cannot help her anymore. Can you help with new ideas for the treatment?

(I also tried to change her diet but it wasn’t so easy… )

[Johannah Ashley]

What comes up for me when I’m reading this case, is that this ladies fear and stuckness/rigiidity are her biggest problems. Getting better will involve change and if she is resistant to change you cannot help her. I would consider doing some luo work with her to try and ease the fear that is freezing her in place. Have a look at her legs and arms and just have a look and see if their are any spider veins anywhere and treat what you see.
Have you been using moxa on kid6,2 and 8 with Yin Qiao? That might be the difference in terms of warming yang and moving some of that dampness that is obstructing. Due to stuckness, you just may have to persist and keep treating yin qiao for the full 3 months.
Dai Mai consolidation may also be useful to help her feel supported within, whilst enabling her to let go of behaviours or baggage that’s no longer helpful for her.
Her spirit wants to get better as she is in your office asking for help, it just her mind needs a little help letting go.
She literally needs to find a new way to see her life/ herself hey? 🌸

[Lydie Vachon]

Hi Johannah, Thank you for your answer!

I did moxa kid 6, 2 and 8 almost every time.

I can try to work with Dai, and see how it goes.

It feels awkward for me to treat someone who doesn’t want to change, since every time we have this discussion she keeps blocking it and saying she feels perfect how she is, and she just wants treatment. Yet in that case i cannot give results, and i’m sure it has to do with the fact that she doesnt’ want to change, but i cannot put the fault on her. What can i do better? A part of me always wants to push away those stubborn patients, but it’s not good for my business and it’s also not fair for them, who want to believe in something. Yet that something to me feels like a false hope if they don’t look at the real problem…

[Johannah Ashley]

I hear you Lydie! It’s one of the hardest aspects of our job. But as Ann often says, it’s a partnership. We don’t ‘fix’ conditions we work in relationship with the patient to help guide them to heal themselves.
You may have to have a tough chat with her around that. If she is not willing to take some responsibility for her own health and well being, you can only help her so much etc .
I would say that it is good for your business to be lovingly straight with patients. You want to tell the universe what sort of patients you want to attract, and you are coming from a s poace of wanting to help her, but that’s just my take on it.
You can definitely still work with her, holding in mind that part of her wants to change or she wouldn’t be in your treatment room. If you keep holding space for her that it is safe and easy to change, that will impact her over time.
There’s no right or wrong, just what holds true and feels right for you. This lady is teaching you much, you are learning together.

[Armin]

Hi Lydie,

Thanks for sharing this case. I can’t really add anything more than what Johannah has already mentioned, but I have a feeling that I will repeat somethings here.

This person is in her mid 60’s so it’s a lifetime of seeing things a certain way or not seeing things for what they are. Long time to be stuck and would take a lot of courage, support and reassurance to shift. We all have our ways that we are stuck; it is not easy to change. To that end, I would simply suggest that rather than being result oriented in this case (how long the sight/vision improvement lasts) or focused on the macular degeneration as a disease, simply be there to support the individual in front of you. By aiming to simply balancing and supporting her, in due time things may or may not shift, depending on if she is ready for it or not, but in the process you have been a pillar of support for her.

In the mean time, you just carry on supporting her while explaining to her that this might be a long term approach and that she, too, should not be too focused on instant and lasting result as far as the eyes go. More likely than not you are already helping her condition from degenerating even further, so that’s definitely positive.

One other I would add is about “treating” dampness and phlegm. My understanding is that we don’t really want to treat dampness head on. It’s there as a protective measure; a form of yin that the body produces to cushion things for the person and provide some weight, stability, grounding and protection. So, it’s there for a reason and we should not address it as a primary focus, and let the body deal with while we focus on the big picture.

Having said that, Dai Mai definitely is a good choice here, but I would use with a consolidating approach as opposed to a draining one, to add a bit more support and will probably help with her low back issues as well.

I can so relate to your situation. I have to deal with it on a daily basis myself and have to keep reminding myself about everything that Johannah already brought up.

Best,

[Lydie Vachon]

Thanks Armin!

[MG McCullough]

Hi Lydie,
Thanks for sharing this case. I am just now reading this and wondered if you have an update for us. I love the luos, and my mind went straight to them.

Does the patient have luo vessels, or maybe they have emptied? In any case, did you try using luo treatments? And if so, what happened? I’m not clear on what her reason for coming to you is; is the reason macular degeneration?

Ann told an incredible story in class once of a 23 year old who started having gray spots in her vision at her father’s funeral. (It was a sudden and unexpected death). Ann treated her with the HT luo, and it resolved on the table. Knowing this story & noticing HT luo vessels, I used the HT luo for a patient with a vision problem with great success, too, though it did not 100% resolve. There had been a line through her vision for over a year with no improvement or diagnosis from ophthalmologists, and at this time, she was growing restless in her job, questioning what she was doing, and wanting to start a creative business. Good luck, and let us hear what happens.

MG

[Ann Cecil-Sterman]

I’m eager to hear an update, too, Lydia. A

[Lydie Vachon]

Hi MG and Ann,

I didn’t see the post on the Luos, that’s really interesting! My patient clearly seem to be having some luo going on in the story (might not be the cause, but I’d have to check the file again to see) because of how much traumatized she feels by the idea of not seeing anymore. Spending all her free time reading, that’s a huge shock for her and she doesnt want to change.

I haven’t see her since 3 months due to the Covid situation, but I’ll defintely explore the luos (although that’s really my blind spot. I’ve developped the 8X, the DC and the sinews, but I didnt really develop a practice with the luos except for a few experiences here and there.

I’ll let you know when possible 🙂

Lydie

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