know signs of life-threatening disease

[Guest guest]

A friend was just diagnosed with advanced metastatic cancer in his spine and

pelvis. He's 36 years old. He was getting months of treatment for back pain

at a CM school. I just want to remind everyone how important it is to know

the signs and symptoms of life-threatening diseases and to refer to WM to

rule them out. Some patients will rebel and think you're a traitor to

recommend an MD. If they do, I just explain that WM has some cool tools and

there's no reason not to use them, at least for diagnosis. You still have

the option to choose whatever treatment suits you. Better to have a choice,

before it's too late.

 

Marian Blum, L.Ac., DNBAO

licensed acupuncturist and herbalist

 

Traditional Chinese Healing

801 Lighthouse Ave. Suite 108

Monterey, CA 93940

(831) 373-6600

chinesemed

[Guest guest]

, " Marian Blum " <chinesemed wrote:

 

> A friend was just diagnosed with advanced metastatic cancer in his spine and

> pelvis. >

 

I am sorry for this situation for your friend.

 

Since we are close to Passover: Why was her back pain different from all other

back pains?

Would most anyone miss this? or were there obvious signs that were missed?

 

I have started a blog for patients with cancer but if anyone wants to contribute

to it please

feel free to contact me. http://www.healthwithcancer.blogspot.com

 

Alex

[Guest guest]

I had a patient when I was just starting out on my own who came to me with

pain in the L inner knee/thigh (Liver channel area). Had injured his knee

the month before the pain started, and just thought it had never healed

properly. He'd had PT to no avail; had been dx'd by health clinic as L3

nerve irritation. Patient was in his 20s, active, somewhat stressed but

generally healthy. I treated him twice a week for a few weeks and the

patient responded well, and each session completely alleviated the pain FOR

AWHILE (up to 24-36 hours). The thing was, there was never any cumulative

effect, and eventually the pain started getting a little worse between

sessions (still helped completely by each session) He went in for an MRI

but moved away about the same time. I didn't see him for about a year; then

I ran into him at a party. He told me that they had (finally) found a kind

of tumor (I don't now remember what it was called) on the back of his L

femur, which was irritating the nerve; this was removed and the pain was

gone.

 

Luckily, this patient had good insurance, and wasn't averse to using Western

medicine; and happily the tumor was a benign, slow-growing sort. But it

really taught me to trust my sense (despite my lack of confidence as a new

practitioner) that if the acupuncture was working but not holding or

accumulating in effect, to refer out. Now I hope I would refer out even

sooner.

 

I say " hope " because the main diagnostic indicator I had was that the

acupuncture was only sort of working, in an odd way. But this happens a

lot, right? We treat someone, they get some relief, then they can't come in

for a week and maybe in the meantime they did something to exacerbate their

condition. It's not always clear. Maybe we try another treatment; in the

meantime it can be weeks, especially at one treatment per week, to see if a

patient is really not going to improve. I agree that we should be alert for

signs of serious illness, but sometimes the signs are subtle; MDs miss

cancer (early signs, anyway) all the time, right? Granted, we usually have

more time with the patient...

 

I am also very sorry for your friend, Marian, and would be interested too in

what was missed and how, if you have that information and are willing to

share it.

 

Nora