42 year old Cindy had a shoulder pain on her left back 10 days ago. It happened one day out of the blue when she left her car and twisted her side. The pain started from her left buttock. Then it it radiated to her head and she had headaches for three days. Her shoulder felt tight and painful. Her left breast and her upper back were also painful and tight. Massage therapy relieved some tightness and pressure pain. Her pain was painful to touch.
Cindy was diagnosed with Sjogren 4 years ago. She had pneumonia in two years earlier, thorasic surgery one year ago with inflamed lumphnodes of chest. Her doctor also diagnosed her with Pleurisy, lactose intolerance, and irritable bowl syndromes.
Sjogren's syndrome is an autoimmune disorder in which immune cells attack and destroy the glands that produce tears and saliva. Sjogren's is also associated with rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. The hallmark symptoms of the disorder are dry mouth and dry eyes. In addition, Sjogren's syndrome may cause skin, nose, and vaginal dryness, and may affect other organs of the body including the kidneys, blood vessels, lungs, liver, pancreas, and brain.
Pleurisy, or pleuritis, is an inflammation of the moist, double-layered membrane surrounding the lungs and lining the rib cage. The condition can make breathing extremely painful, and sometimes it is associated with another condition called pleural effusion where excess fluid fills the area between the membrane's layers. Upon palpation, Cindy's chest felt like the surface of a waterbed, bubbly. Cindy was also diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis a few years back. (Note: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease. A defective gene causes the body to produce an abnormally thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections. These thick secretions also obstruct the pancreas, preventing digestive enzymes from reaching the intestines to help break down and absorb food. The mucus also can block the bile duct in the liver, eventually causing permanent liver damage.
Cindy was taking Motrin 4x/d for pleurity and protonix 1x/d for coating stomach lining for Motrin. She had thoracic surgery one year ago. Her mouth and throat were very dry but she wasn't thirsty. Her sleep used to be very good but the last three days before showing up at the clinic was poor due to the shoulder pain. She goes to bathroom for bowls 3 times a day. Her period was regular without problems. Her tongue showed dark red and purple with thin tongue coat and deep central cracks. Her pulse was soft and deep.
After twice weekly acupuncture treatments, her shoulder pain was much better. She was adviced to continue her treatments because her case needed a longer period to treat the underlying issue of water retention and spleen deficiency. She did not want to try Chinese herbal treatments and her budget did not allow her to continue.
Sjogren Case Study II
64 year old Sarah was a RN supervisor at a local Univeristy Hospital. She came to the clinic complaining of a severe dryness and was in need of a Chinese Herbal formula fix. Her mouth was always dry and thirsty. Her nostril's dry and her eyes were dry, although no sore throat or itchy eyes. She did not have problems with her breathing or anything else other than the severe dryness. Just dryness.She was diagnosed with Sjoren more than a year ago. The same time her problems with dryness started. Four months ago, she had a severe throat problem due to dryness made her cough incessantly. Once she installed a humidifier in her apartment, the coughing problem ended. She said that her doctor told her that the lab showed she had some post-nasal drip although she did not feel it. No plum-pit issue and no feeling of phlegm. She did not feel any foggy head and had a good memory. She was even tempered and didn't get agitated or angry. Her energy and motivation were a 8-9 out of a scale of 10. Her menopause was about ten years ago.
She did get up to go to urination due to her drinking lots of water during the day. She has frequent urination because of it but her urine was clear without any problem. She has a very dark skin but has a blue/purple shine on her cheeks and forehead.
Her tongue was brushed right before she showed up at our clinic. (As we explained to her that it's better not to brush her tongue right before coming to a Chinese Medicine clinic. We relied on the tongue texture to evaluate her health condition.) She also took a bright red hard candy because she felt dry. This messed up the reading of tongue. The redness in the center was prominent. Her tongue looked slightly purplish. Not much tongue coat. Slight root grease was visible. Her pulse was wiry but otherwise normal. Kidney pulse wasn't weak.
Although there was yin deficiency signs, it was determined that her dampness issue was more prominent based on the rooting grease on tongue, Sjogren, and dryness due to dampness blocking the channel.
Her herbal powder formula includes Dan Shen, Mu Dan Pi, and Chi Shao to help strengthen her system, and other herbs to strengthen his lung.
We have been treating her every other week. How she is doing will be posted as time progresses.