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Hi Lois,
I’m just north of Seattle in Vancouver and have referred couple of people to Brandt Stickley in the past. He has studied with Leon Hammer extensively. I don’t know of anyone who has studied with Ann in Seattle.
https://www.brandtstickley.com/bio
Hope this helps.
Armin
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks so much for keeping us up to date on this case. Super helpful.
My understanding of hand flexion is also that it’s a Tai Yin movement, although in this case you could also pay attention to the location of Shao Yin (pinky).
To me, given that I haven’t seen the patient, it seems to me the source of the stagnation you are referring to on the tongue might actually be extreme deficiency of the Yang qi, which is just not moving much in the body, hence the purple tongue. I think the focus should still be on the tonification of deficiencies, though addressing some movement with light cupping or what have should be good idea.
The shift in the pulse to me seems positive. Perhaps it actually has enough energy now to show the sinew aspect of the pathology.
As for her biggest challenge of weight bearing, how about Yang Ming sinew!!!? Just an idea!
Armin
Hi Lois,
I don’t know if you have Ann’s pulse book, but it has lots of primary channel recommendations for each pulse presentation of each pulse position. It’s throughout the book. There are also cases studies with pulse and point applications.
Armin
Burton, the case you reported actually raises one question for me:
I’m assuming you did the Spleen SC for the pain when sitting to standing. In which case, isn’t the Sp sinew for pain when a limb or the body is going into retraction, flexion or coming to centre?
I myself treat the SP SC with the same situation but only because I heard Ann talk about it, but now I’m having one of those moments of “wait a second”!!! It would make sense for it to be an extension movement involving Tai Yang!
The sitting alone is Bl SC, the location is on BL SC, so it’s pretty amazing that it’s responding so well to SP SC and I can’t wrap my head around it at the moment.
Armin
Thank you Ann!
I guess your reply leads to a follow up question: In the context of the sinew channel treatments, wouldn’t tonifying the Kidney yang and stomach fluids prior to the treatment also address the blood/yin deficiency? Or, are you suggesting something more directly for that given that the pain is at night?
Armin
Hi Burton,
Thanks so much for sharing your insights and the link. Very helpful indeed.
I, too, have found that an early acupuncture intervention reduces the need for much topical application.
Cheers.
Thanks for sharing this Daniel. Eastern Currents is my hometown distributor here in Vancouver. Tewa is their own brand so to speak, though have just launched a very eco-friendly line called AcuFast where they have cut down on packaging and other waste by quite a lot. Needless to say it has speedpacks but unfortunately un-coated is not happening yet, though it will be in the works down the road. Tewa is supposed to be a German engineered needle but really it’s made in China like most other needles. AcuFast is Korean production similar to Dong Bang.
I don’t know if you have tried Carbo, also carried by Eastern Currents. They have uncoated speedpacks (5 per pack) and I find the .22 works well for the sinew style needling. Anything less than that has not worked for me. Carbo has a more economy line called Optimed and that line didn’t work for me for sinew needling.
Armin
Hi Amy,
Now I understand what you mean. Initially I thought you were talking about active resistance test on certain movements. As far as asking her to do movements in front of me, I did do that after she said no other movements where bugging her, but nothing was conclusive. Everything seemed a little bit uncomfortable equally other than weight on it at night.
I went with Jue Yin and Yang Ming as far as movement related channels. Added arm Tai yang and Tai yin for where she actually feels the pain. So basically covered most of it 🙂 She felt better all around, but still some pain at night, albeit better than before. This is someone with years and years of cervical vertebral, neck and shoulder issues. It will take a few sessions. But the Chiro and physio couldn’t do much in over 20 sessions what acupuncture did in just one session. So that’s pretty good to me!
Armin
Hi Antoine,
Given the digestive issues, I would probably consider both liver and spleen sinew channel. The smelly stool and gas would likely indicate some damp-heat in the lower burner, or some kind of a blockage in the lower burner/Dai Mai. Since this has been going on for a long time and since his second Jing cycle, you could also consider the 8extras: Dai, Ren, Yin Wei (transition to puberty that didn’t go so smoothly).
Armin
Thanks Sean for the insights. Ya I, too, started with the non-insertion method with pretty decent results. I have watched Ann with one child once and that was quite an experience; pretty much what you described.
Armin
Elizabeth, yes it’s when she’s sleeping on that side that she feels the pain. I see what you mean about the weight bearing and that’s sort of what I was thinking but I thought it would only be when the arm is actually carrying something. I suppose in this case, the shoulder joint is carrying the weight of the body. And she is feeling it pretty much on the Yangming channel.
Amy, I didn’t test any movements. I just inquired about when she feels the pain and what movement is the worst. But no active resistance test on my part.
Hi Elizabeth,
I, too, am relatively new to all of this but I’ll do my best for now. I agree with Antoine that you would want to use the Liver Sinew as well. Regardless of the pulses, given that it’s a paralysis situation, Jueyin would be indicated. For the treatment to be successful, you would need to address the main deficiencies, and if she’s very cold, then moxa would need to be used (on Kid 3, and possibly Du 4 and 14 to build up the yang further, especially if the Kd yang pulse is very weak)
Given that this is a paralysis and a numbness condition, I would make sure to focus on tonifying the channels, that is going from the jingwell upwards on the channel, making sure your jing well point is pointing upwards for tonification. Also, as you pointed out, there aren’t too many hard, ahshi type points along the channels, indicating weakness and flaccidity that would ideally be tonified using moxa on each deficient/flaccid point. In the absence of moxa, you would tonify by turning the needle towards the midline and cover the point soon as you withdraw the needle with your thumb.
As for the pulses, if by pericardium sinew, you are referring to the right Chi position having a sinew pulse, then I would try to make sure that it’s the Jueyin and not Yangming sinew, the latter would be more superficial (1-3 beans) while the former would be slightly deeper at 3-6 beans. You would need to cover the Jueyin anyway, so chances are that the yangming would be indicated in this case which is full of qi and blood and would help with paralysis (or is this too TCM and not indicated….not sure, just throwing it out there:) ) Could make sense given that she can not even support her own weight at the moment; that would be yangming!
Anyway, just brainstorming here.
Hope it goes better next time.
