When I first started studying medicine with my teacher, I was full of helplessness, because whether I was eating, drinking, or going out to see a doctor, I had to follow closely.
At first, I wondered about this practice, and thought to myself: Isn't this a constraint on the practice of medicine? Am I just being called as a nanny? It was not until one time I prescribed the wrong medicine and almost had a serious accident that I finally understood the good intentions of the master.
That was decades ago, when a patient with rhinitis came to the doctor and I prescribed him medicine directly based on the prescription I had previously learned.
Fortunately, the teacher followed, and when he saw it, he directly reprimanded me: "You have studied Chinese medicine for so long, do you only know how to rigidly apply other people's prescriptions? If Chinese medicine continues to 'mix' like you, it will be finished sooner or later!"
I suddenly came to my senses and asked the teacher in a daze, "Aren't these recipes all scriptures from ancient books, why can't they be used?"
He said: "Traditional Chinese medicine has been emphasizing syndrome differentiation and treatment since ancient times, and even if each patient has the same disease, the cause will definitely be different, and even if the cause is the same, the dosage of medicine will also vary from person to person. No matter how good the recipe is, it can't be a panacea. ”
It dawned on me that in fact, curing a disease is like wearing shoes, only I know best whether I am comfortable or not, and only what suits me is the most important. If you just blindly imitate, then what is the difference between you and parroting? No matter how much you learn, you can't be like a teacher. Even if you prescribe a hundred prescriptions to cure a disease, if you can't cure it, it's a waste of effort.
I have remembered my teacher's teachings for more than 40 years, because I know that I was born for Chinese medicine, and I live for Chinese medicine and patients, and I don't want to go home and sell sweet potatoes.
Let me tell you a medical case
Once, I saw a patient with thyroid nodules via video, a young patient in her 20s, who told me that she found out she had multiple thyroid nodules during a physical examination.
At the time, she was terrified and did not expect that she would suffer from this disease at such a young age. The doctor advised her to have surgery immediately, but she hesitated and finally decided to try conservative treatment.
She first tried Western medicine for a few months, but there was no significant improvement. So, at the suggestion of her family, she sought traditional Chinese medicine treatment and saw several famous doctors in several hospitals, including some outstanding students from medical school, but everyone gave a different treatment plan, and the effect was not obvious.
As the nodules grew, the situation became more and more urgent, and surgery was almost on the horizon, when she was introduced to me by a patient.
After a detailed consultation, I learned that this patient belongs to the type of person who has emotional accumulation, which is often referred to as "hepatic depression personality". Her symptoms include palpable nodules in the front of the neck, neck swelling, chest tightness, irritability, and irritability.
In addition, the patient's tongue was pale and white, and the tongue coating was thin and white.
Subsequently, I prescribed the following recipes for her: Bupleurum, Gardenia, Xiangfu, White Peony, Angelica, Licorice, and Yuanzhi.
The result?
After taking it for 2 weeks, the nodules were significantly reduced to the touch, the chest tightness was reduced, and other uncomfortable symptoms were also improved. I continued to adjust the treatment plan for a total of three months, and the subsequent examination results showed that the patient's nodules were basically gone.
My treatment ideas:
Modern data suggest that the incidence of thyroid nodules is very high, especially in those who are prone to emotional stress and bad temper. The main cause of thyroid nodules is liver stagnation and qi deficiency and phlegm stasis, therefore, for liver stagnation and qi stagnation, the main direction of treatment is to relieve liver and regulate qi, relieve depression and reduce swelling, and invigorate qi and dissolve phlegm.
In the treatment, Bupleurum is the leader in soothing the liver, whenever the liver has discomfort, it is always the first to bear the brunt, soothing the liver and relieving depression.
Stir-fried gardenia can purify the heart fire, clear the heart fire, and the fire of three cokes; incense is attached to the effect of rational qi regulation; angelica can nourish blood; white peony can rub the liver and collect yin; yuanzhi has the effect of rationalizing qi and calming the nerves; licorice can not only invigorate qi and replenish the middle, but also reconcile the medicinal properties of various medicines.
Although this recipe only has 7 flavors of medicine, it can not only nourish the blood and thin the liver, but also regulate qi and circulation, plus you can soak your feet with medicinal residue to make the medicine enter the meridians, so that the nodules will dissipate naturally.
I still remember what my teacher said: "It's better to go home and sell sweet potatoes." "If a doctor treats a disease, if he doesn't put his heart into it, he can only be regarded as playing tricks on the patient.
They don't know anything about the disease, but as doctors, although they can't say they can do everything, they know at least more about the etiology than the patient.
Many patients end up in trouble because they blindly seek medical treatment. On the one hand, the level of doctors is worrisome, and on the other hand, there are also those so-called "doctors" who only seek money and ignore medical ethics and conscience.