philipsuger: August 13, 2020, 2:51am
I have a patient who had a stroke 4 years ago. The L side of his body was affected. He is able to walk by shuffling
and has some mobility but it is difficult for him to move around. His main concern is that he is not able to move his
left forearm much. His fingers have become contorted from lack of use. Note he has full sensation in the arm, just
unable to move it i.e. no numbness. He had previously attempted suicide. When he first walked into my clinic with
his caretaker his eyes were downcast and was dealing with major depression. I did some channel-based acu and
prescribed Chai Hu Jia Long Gu Mu Li Tang + Gui Zhi Fu Ling Wan hoping to knock out both the depression and
stroke in one fell swoop. 3 treatments later the patient was doing much better emotionally and his constipation was
resolved but there was no improvement in his hand.
I decided to try some Sa am, given the stroke and his tendency towards dry skin I went with supplementing SI
remember that SI has a profound effect on moving the blood. He seemed relaxed when I put in the needles but
there was no big sign that it was working. When I came back after 25 minutes he was more relaxed than he had
ever been before, he could have laid there for another hour. I asked him to move his left hand around and he was
able to move it a bit. He had said this is normal mobility for him, but I didn t really believe him it looked like he
had a lot more control.
As I write this I wonder if I had immediately supplemented SI in the 1st treatment without addressing his suicidal
tendencies would it have caused more harm than good? Maybe I would have had to alternate between SI and KI?
Anyways in the Sa am tradition what channels do you often think about in regard to stroke besides SI?
KristinWisgirda: August 13, 2020, 12:58pm
Hi Phil,
philipsuger:
Anyways in the Sa am tradition what channels do you often think about in regard to stroke besides SI?
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I don t have personal experience using Saam for post stroke but I can share
what I have from my notes.
Lack of movement says hypofunction which suggests an element of UB excess. Given that double fire H+ is the
treatment you might need to be sure that patient can tolerate the treatment depending on the whole presentation.
For instance, you can use SI+ (mix of water and fire) or, if the patient runs hotter overall and or SJ excess, add
some cooling densification through Liver+ to help prepare the ground.
You also have to consider all the channels and counterbalancers affecting the arm (and the leg), which means
considering all of the channels. In the last class, Toby said that he considers all of the channels in post stroke cases.
The grossest aspect of the patient s presentation will guide you to where to begin.23/01/2024, 11:47Stroke Patients and SI – Sa’am Clinical Questions – Qiological Community
https://forum.qiological.com/t/stroke-patients-and-si/1216/print2/2
philipsuger:
As I write this I wonder if I had immediately supplemented SI in the 1st treatment without addressing his
suicidal tendencies would it have caused more harm than good? Maybe I would have had to alternate between
SI and KI?
The response on the table means that the patient needed the SI+. Given the history of suicide attempt, I would use
it cautiously and carefully evaluate the SI/K on that day. Besides being a sign of falling apart, another perspective
on suicidal thoughts is that they are ice cold. Life is warm so nothing is colder than wanting to snuff it out. Even
though H+ is used to help one connect to love for others, there is a place for it when one has lost a warm
connection to one s own life.
Let us know what happens.
Daniel: August 15, 2020, 5:58pm
Proceed Carefully!!! . . . . Two Stark Reminders – Sa’Am with Care!