Responses
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Please confirm you want to block this member.
You will no longer be able to:
Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.
Is there a case Study sheet for us to review before the zoom meet? Thanks
Ask and you shall receive! (See my post here)
I apologize for the delay, I was traveling over the last 5 days and didn’t get a chance to get this uploaded until this morning.
Case Study Class 25 Sept 2024
Gender: female
Age: 36
Height: 5’ 8”
Weight: 135 lb
Ethnicity: American/European
Occupation: self-employed/part-time NGO
Chief complaint: tired, stressed
Symptoms: feels exhausted, tired upon waking
Brief history: patient has 3 children (2, 4, 7 yo), is a single mom. Menarche at 14. History of trauma (sexual and psychological abuse).
Diet and Lifestyle: Cooks most meals, eats a well-rounded diet. Non-smoker, rarely drinks alcohol. Gets regular exercise. Lots of stress with children who are young and needy, normal stuff. Has help from parents, which allows her to work.
Sleep: sleeps very well and deep but wakes with the children at night and is tired in the morning.
Energy: very good, except when it’s not. She feels like she has lots of energy some times but mostly is tired/exhausted.
Appetite: good, cooks most meals with good attention to diet.
Stool: 1 X/day, slightly dry with occasional diarrhea if she eats heavier foods like diary
Thirst: doesn’t drink enough water, not thirsty or just “forgets” to drink.
Urine: 6–9 X/day, sometimes darker, mostly unremarkable
Menstruation: regular (28–30 days), scant with occasional heavy flow. Some but few clots, often none. Minor abdominal pain/discomfort, weepy or irritated pre-menstrual time.
Basic observations: Patient is in good physical health, gets regular exercise, often with the kids, walking to wild-harvest herbs and seaweeds. Patient has a classic “single mom” lifestyle and is simply fried from doing it along with the drama that came with the dad of the youngest two kids (won’t take his meds and has psychotic episodes – needed to get a restraining order)
Pulse: n/a
Tongue: slightly red, thin white coat
Dx: kidney vacuity
Explanation: This is a simple pattern of exhausted kidney qi, which really means that there is exhaustion of qi, yin, yang, and potentially essence. Not mentioned in the case above (hopefully someone will ask but should have been included) is that the patient has a “grainy” voice that lacks qi. She has no sex drive and generally is worn out.
Exhaustion/tiredness: this patient has had three children in the span of less than 5 years without much support. Additionally, she has a history of emotional and sexual abuse, which strongly taxes the kidney qi. Her exhaustion is very significant and impeding her ability to function in the world, both at work and with her children. Her apparent good energy is short-lived and fleeting.
Menstruation scant with occasional flooding while her menstruation appears to be well ordered, her flow is scant except when she is particularly exhausted, then there is flooding. This suggests that the qi is unable to control the amount of flow and simply can’t “hold it up.” Remember, kidney governs opening and closing.
Occasional diarrhea is similar to the menstruation issue noted above, when she over-taxes her digestion, it simply cannot handle the load. The reality is that, when asked about specifics, the “over-taxing” is actually a very reasonable amount of food and she never had any issues with dairy until a couple years ago when she started having problems with fatigue. Remember, kidney governs opening and closing.
The slightly red tongue and white coating, are common in this pattern. The reddening suggests that there is some heat developing from kidney yin and qi vacuity.
Formula: Unnamed Formula
baizhu (柴胡) atractylodes, white 30g
huangqi (黃芪) astragalus 30g
baishao (白芍) white peony 30g
shu dihuang (熟地黃) rehmannia, prepared 30g
huangqin (黃芩) skullcap, Chinese 10g
huangbai (黃柏) phellodendron 10g
zhishi (枳實) bitter orange, mature 15g
meiguihua (玫瑰花) rugosa rose 15g
yejiaoteng (夜交藤) polygonatum, stem 10g
suanzaoren (酸棗仁) ziziphus, kernel 10g
gancao (甘草) licorice 5g
Is there a recording available please? Thank you!
yes Emmie, it’s updated in the calendar under same event.
Use ‘join zoom’ and copy paste ‘827 9481 5536’, and passcode ‘386543’ instead of using the link, it doesn’t work
@herbwhisperer Interesting case and great conversation. Was the formula given as a tincture? and what did you recommend as a dosage? Thank you!
Hi Emmie,
The formula was given as a powdered extract at a dosage of 3g TID