A reply to Thomas' comments on the cancer case

February 12, 2000

Thomas's comments about the formula I chose for my patient sound like a

review of the processing I did to arrive at that formula. I chose zhi shi

(although chen pi, cang zhu and hou po were all on paper at some point)

because of it's downward action. Using it with the more uplifting herbs bai

zhu and huang qi, I really wanted to descend the turbid and ascend the clear

and get her qi mechanism on track again. The patient has been suffering from

a lot of bloating and those irregular sometimes explosive and sometimes not

bowel movements. Zhi shi is on the top of the list when I think of ordering

the qi of the intestines such as it is used in da cheng qi tang (this is a

Min Fan explanation).

As for the qing pi, the patient still has that ribside tenderness and

tightness on palpation. I am using it to explicitly address the Liver

depression.

As for the essiac, I doubt if I will be able to convince her to give it up.

The way that she prepares the essiac takes upward of 24 hours of combined

simmering and steeping such that the rhubarb is more of a blood cooling,

blood moving herb than a downward draining herb. 2 oz. of the the 4 herb

combo makes so many quarts of tea to drink over several days.

Thanks for the input, Thomas. I value your opinion and am so happy to be in

this sort of discussion.

February 12, 2000

Kristin,

Don't be afraid of a large formula, adding some of the suggested herbs; cang

zhu, which is great with bai zhu for this type of condition; etc.

Your probably right about the rhubard in the Essiac but be mindful of any

abverse effects, as I'm sure you would be. Also mu xiang comes to mind as

being valuable in this patient. oh the possibilities, isn't this fun.

Is your patient taking the bai hua she she cao and ban lian zhi seperately

or are you adding it to her formula?

There is a good article at bluepoppy.com on using large formula. Bob talks

about how it is often necessary in complex cases such as yours.

Respectfully,

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