Case history

Mrs. C., age 31, gave birth to her only child three years ago, after six years of sterility. She had been treated for her sterility with hormones, and did not feel well during the course of the treatment.

A year after she gave birth, she had suddenly experienced palpitations, pain in her left chest, left arm and left leg, lassitude and anxiety.

Since that time, for the last two years, her condition had not improved, despite different tranquilizers that she had been prescribed, and sessions of conversations with her psychiatrist.

Lately, she started having headaches in her temples, and her vertex.

Mrs. C. had a very fast pulse (around 110), of choppy and wiry quality.

The Cun position was soft and thin and weak, on both wrists.

Liver position was choppy and wiry.

Kidney position was choppy and wiry and weak.

The tongue was purplish red, but underneath was pale. It was very flabby and the Lung area showed small cracks. The tip of the tongue was red, and had red pimples. However, it was moist, not dry.

Mrs. C. had a pale complexion with red cheeks, and, in general, she was thin and fragile looking. Her voice low and weak, almost whispering.

On her first examination I measured her blood-pressure which was 110/75 Hg.

It was very obvious that Mrs. C. had a depletion of Yin and Blood, and deficiency of Qi in general. This conclusion was reached owing to her weak appearance, pale complexion, and thin, choppy pulse. As a result, she obviously had a Heart Yin/Blood Xu condition, with blazing Heart-Fire. This was evidenced by the fast pulse, palpitations, anxiety and red cheeks. The long period of Yin deficiency, led eventually to an arrogance of Liver-Yang too, which gave rise to the recent headaches.

Furthermore, I suspected that Blood-stagnation was developing, relying on her choppy pulse and red pimples on her tongue tip.

The treatment was planned in order to place an emphasis first on resolving the stagnation in the Heart, reduce its Fire, and supplement the Yin and Blood. To do so, I used the above points-combination, with two additions:

1. Ximen (P-4), only on the left side, in order to invigorate the Heart circulation, break the stagnation there, and alleviate the pain.

2. Xingjian (LIV-2), on both sides, to reduce Liver-Yang, disperse the Liver, and treat the headache.

Sanyinjiao was the only point that was reinforced to tonify the Yin.

Mrs. C.'s condition improved gradually, with some regressions, overa period of one month of treatments.

When her headaches subsided, together with the chest pain, the points prescription was changed as follows: Shenmen (H-7) and Neiguan (P-6) were left in order to continue the treatment of calming the Shen, and further facilitate Heart-Qi.

To Sanyinjiao I added Guanyuan (CV-4) and Qihai (CV-6) in order to strengthen her consistution and general health.

The last three points also form a points-combination, which was discussed in case Number 1 in this work.

After one more month, Mrs. C. felt much improvement, in all respects, and the treatment was therefore terminated.

Addendum

Six months later Mrs. C. became pregnant, and in her second month she had recurrence of headaches, chest pain, together with morning-sickness.

She received five more treatments, in the course of two weeks, after which all her symptoms had disappeared again.

She gave birth to her second child in due course, without any complications.