Very ill patient of acupuncturist

I was very touched by G. Michael Reynold's account of losing his first patient and I wanted to share it. I know people who are as ill as his patient.

You can read the whole post, O Death, at Deepest Health blog, http://deepesthealth.com/2010/o-death/.

"I lost my first patient recently, on the very doorstep of Autumn. He was literally my first patient, the first person ever to come to me for help. His condition was grave even from the beginning. Chronic renal failure, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy that required a subcutaneous morphine pump in his side in order to bear the constant agony, wheelchair bound, legs swollen and edematous, skin unnaturally black, heart failing. Friendly, personable, courageous. He got into this shape via diabetes, during which his 5'9″ frame was forced to support over 300 lbs of weight, now shrunken to around 150 lbs. As a first patient, this was very much being tossed into the deep end of the pool and finding out if you could swim.

I was confident we could get him off dialysis, which he needed three times per week. I told him as much. I had access to nearly unlimited stores of Fu Zi and I knew how to use it. The fact that his radial arteries were so devastated from constant dialysis that I couldn't get a pulse didn't especially deter me, nor did the fact that he could only take in a few ounces of liquid per day, nor did the fact that he spent pretty much every waking hour hustling from one MD to the next to get this procedure or that test or these medications. In Chinese Medicine did I trust, and I would do my best."

read the rest of this long article at Deepest Health blog
 
What is Deepest Health site all about? Deepest Health is a center for education and connection around one broad topic - Chinese Medicine. Contributors to this website are united in their desire to see that relevant, vital and Classically based information about Chinese medicine be available to students, practitioners and interested members of the public.