Recently, a patient came in for a return visit jubilant because the large wound on her left shin finally healed over and she was getting discharged from the wound care clinic she had been attending twice weekly for over 2 months. She had initially scraped her leg in a fall. When she presented me with it 2 weeks previously it was wrapped but she showed me a picture taken the day before of an area 8 inches long and 3 inches wide that looked bruised and red with a 4 inch x1 inch area of exposed granular tissue that hadn’t fully epithelialized. When she went back to the wound care clinic 40 hours after acupuncture, the open area had fully closed over. The clinic had been preparing to use placenta on her wound because of her slow response but now had no need and instead discharged her. The doctors and the nurses all commented that they had never seen such a big change in a wound in 3 days- but that it couldn’t possibly be from acupuncture. My patient is convinced that they are wrong.
She is 73 year old accountant. Moderately overweight with lots of loose puffiness under her skin. Thin, very dry flaky skin with purpura. Very chatty but caught up in her own to-do list and other people’s problems. Not especially hot or cold. Her chief complaint had been tiredness, not the wound. Soft squishy abdomen. Occasional diarrhea when she eats too many fats. She works 20-25 hours a week, still attends exercise class several times a week and tends to her ill sister. She is a big push over who continues to see clients who annoy and exhaust her even though she says she says she would be fine without the extra money. (needs GB+ big time) She feels better with 9 hours of sleep but only gets 8. Other complaints include “wooziness” in her forehead- an off balance feeling but she denies needing to stabilize herself or sit down. Poor word recall.
I assumed I had supplemented the St on the right based on her morphology and the wound being on the Stomach channel on a background of lots of internal damp.
Just checked my notes: supplemented Lung on the right
It wasn’t a mistake treatment that happened to work out. I remember that even though she has so much internal dampness my sense of her that day was of more of internal emptiness/qi deficiency with clear qi not rising to her head rather than congested damp. More and more I am seeing lots of mixed Lung/Stomach pictures where the patient really needs both supplemented.
It is so interesting that even though her skin is so dry and the subcutaneous tissue is so boggy, that drying her exterior further helped the wound heal so dramatically. Reminds me of Toby saying that there really is no clear line between exterior and interior.
She said her energy was much better after treatment except when her husband talks about Trump. She was also much more present during the follow up treatment and expressed interested in taking care of herself rather than other people.