Monday, December 13, 2010

"You Can Have My Wife!"

A world-renowned professor came into the waiting room and told me that he was suffering from an upper respiratory problem.  His face was excessively red and it reflected the fire from the internal organs which, from the TCM point of view, can affect your judgment.  His condition was such that it made him off balance mentally. He had no patience for anything, and he could not tolerate anything unpleasant.  His pulse was superficial, his tongue coating was very thick.  This indicated his lungs were affected by wind and the stomach was idle due to dampness.

             
He was talking too much, and I understood what was happening with him: his overheated body was affecting his nervous system and brain, and the talk was not for the sake of making conversation or to gossip, but was the psychological manifestation of his condition.  His wife, who was quite beautiful and looked much younger than her actual age, was suffering from non-specific medical findings and certainly kept making complaints, but in his condition, how could he handle anything?  “You can have my wife!” he said, and this of course was taken as a joke by the other patients who thought he had a great sense of humor.
             
Given his state, I believed him when he said he wanted to commit suicide.  I used acupuncture to calm him down, and gave him an herb to reduce his anger.  In my judgment, this professor had already accumulated too much trouble and suffering. He was working hard and under much stress and pressure. He could not even take care of himself, so how could he take care of his wife?
             
The worst thing was that the upper respiratory condition was affecting his brain.  If left untreated, it could even cause him to act in an extreme way, not unlike what we see in the movies when someone shoots someone in a rage or in desperation throws a baby away.
             
I recalled a patient who I treated long ago.  After the needle was inserted he laughed out loud, and his voice became higher and higher until he was laughing hysterically. (When a needle insertion activates the meridian, a patient who has been suppressing great unhappiness will feel inclined to ‘let go’ of the pent up emotions.)  I could feel the walls beginning to shake, and everyone in the treatment room was scared.  I assured them that I was physically and spiritually strong enough to control the patient.  (By ‘spiritually strong’ I mean I had the courage and the confidence to allow this patient to go through his crisis without feeling the need to intervene before it was over.)
             
When the patient stopped laughing, I asked him, “How do you feel?”  He said, “Much better, and not so angry...I could have killed a policeman if he had stopped me for a red light.”  I said, “If you did that, you would be in jail,” and he answered, “I’m sorry, I was not able to control myself.”  I said, “If you drive against the red light now, will you still feel like killing someone?”  He said, “No.  How come I had so much anger?”  I said, “You have too much heat in your body and it affected your nervous system and your brain.”  “Oh, I don’t believe it!” he responded.
             
As the professor was being treated he began to feel better, and he asked, “I have an infection.  Are you going to kill the germ?”  I said, “That’s not important.” and he said, “Why?”  I said, “Even if I kill the germ for you, the germ will still grow. If there is a pond or swamp formed by excess rain or flash floods, then mosquitoes will gather.  Just by slapping them off your body, you will not really get rid of them.  As long as the stagnant water remains, larvae will grow and hatch more mosquitoes.” He said, “And if you don’t kill the germ?”  I said, “I never said I don’t kill the germ.”  He was getting nervous and uncomfortable and asked, “Come on, tell me what you are going to do next!”
             
I said, “Because the wind invaded the exterior part of your body, the pores in the skin tightened up in order to block the wind from getting deeper.  When the tiny pores are closed your internal body heat cannot evaporate through the skin, so the heat goes up to your head and causes excessive heat.  From the  TCM point of view, the lung is in charge of the skin.  You can say that the lung is like the employer and the skin pores are like the employee.  Now the skin condition is blocking the inner heat from escaping, and it affects your lungs which are unable to function properly, so even if the germ is killed it will grow back, because the lung’s defensive power is not enough.”  I added, “Be patient.” 
             
As he came for more treatments, I liberated the exterior part of the body, and also helped clear up his lungs.  You can say I killed the germ in his system because he got better, but TCM is TCM, and modern ideas cannot be imposed upon it.  He face which had been so red became lighter and lighter, and his lungs’ defensive power positively eliminated the germ from his body.  Also, as he got better he recommended that his beautiful wife receive treatment from me, but this time he did not want to give her to me!

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting story! Very humoristic apporach which pushing readers to follow tightly.

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  2. People nowadays are becoming more and more stressed as a result of demanding too much. Dr. Ng, being an acupuncturist,also acts as a psychologist,it's not an easy job. Thank you, Dr. Ng!

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